Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, has called out Elon Musk for his government firing spree and sounded the alarm about the economy in his latest newsletter.
Hughes warned that a recession might be imminent, pointing to “lumpy” job growth that is highly concentrated in healthcare, social assistance, and state and local government.
“Yes, overall government hiring is up, despite Musk’s best attempts,” he then added sarcastically, taking a swipe at Musk’s slash-and-burn attempts at reducing the size of the federal government.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has fired thousands of federal workers, although he is reportedly telling Republican lawmakers that he is not to blame for the firings.
Hughes launched his Substack last month and has not tried to hide his dislike of Musk, railing against his and President Donald Trump’s attempts to “weaken the administrative state.”
“That’s a tricky line to walk, and it will handicap government in the short term and hollow out its ability to deliver for Americans in the longer term,” he wrote in his first newsletter last month.
Hughes, who amassed a net worth of at least $430 million after cashing out on his Facebook—now Meta—shares, has a history of taking digs at his billionaire colleagues.
In 2019, he slammed his college roommate Mark Zuckerberg for growing Facebook into a “monopoly,” writing, “Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American. It is time to break up Facebook.”
While Hughes has devoted himself to progressive causes after leaving Facebook in 2007, including buying the progressive magazine The New Republic before selling it again in 2016, Zuckerberg is increasingly aligning himself with Trump and the MAGA world, with Meta contributing $1 million to the president’s inaugural fund.
Hughes ended his newsletter by concluding that it was premature to expect a recession, although it seems “increasingly likely.”
