Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, has issued a significant warning:
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, has issued a warning about the rapidly growing U.S. national debt, which has now reached $35 trillion. His concerns coincide with a surge in the prices of bitcoin and dogecoin, the latter of which has risen significantly, partly due to Musk's promotion of a proposed government initiative humorously called the "Department of Government Efficiency" or Doge. Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter), calling the current pace of the U.S. debt growth "unsustainable" in response to Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who has criticized the ongoing $2 trillion annual budget deficits.
Paul, a long-time supporter of bitcoin, has argued that cryptocurrencies could replace the U.S. dollar, as trust in traditional currency wanes due to increasing government oversight. The U.S. national debt has grown substantially in recent years, surpassing $34 trillion at the start of 2024, driven in part by pandemic relief efforts and stimulus spending, which led to soaring inflation and prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.
Earlier this year, Donald Trump also suggested using bitcoin to manage national debt, proposing a "crypto check" solution and announcing plans to create a "strategic national bitcoin reserve." He predicted that bitcoin's market value could one day exceed that of gold, valued at $16 trillion, during the Bitcoin 2024 conference.
Musk has also backed the idea of the Doge Department of Government Efficiency, claiming it could help reduce national spending by $2 trillion. The initiative ties into the dogecoin cryptocurrency, which Musk has frequently supported and is accepted as payment by Tesla. The connection between Musk’s advocacy and the rising value of dogecoin has been evident, with the cryptocurrency doubling in price over the last month. This led entrepreneur Mark Cuban to jokingly suggest that Musk could even involve dogecoin in the U.S. financial policy through the Treasury.
