Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke to Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath on the People by WTF podcast and revealed that he had tried to convince US President Donald Trump not to impose tariffs but was unsuccessful. Musk said tariffs create problems in markets and don’t make sense even at a basic level.
Elon Musk tried to stop Trump’s tariffs
Trump’s hiked tariffs on imports from most major trading partners disrupted international trade throughout the year. Speaking of which, Musk told Kamath, “I mean, the President has made it clear he loves tariffs. You know, I’ve tried to dissuade him from this point of view, but unsuccessfully.”
He added that free trade is generally better and more efficient. “Tariffs tend to create distortions in markets,” Musk said. “Would you want tariffs between you and everyone else at an individual level? That would make life very difficult. Would you want tariffs between each city? No—that would be very annoying. Would you want tariffs between each state within the United States? That would be disastrous for the economy. So then why do you want tariffs between countries?”
Musk also expressed support for high-skilled immigration but criticised parts of the H-1B visa system. He said some outsourcing companies have misused the program and “gamed the system.” However, the Tesla CEO clarified that he does not support shutting down the H-1B program, as some on the political right propose. He said doing so would harm the US economy.
Trump’s tariffs and impact on India
The US, India’s largest export market, imposed tariffs starting at 10% in April. These rose to 25% by early August and then to 50% by the end of the month. The decision immediately caused ripple effects across the market. In just five months, India’s exports to the US fell from USD 8.8 billion to USD 5.5 billion.
As of now, India is still waiting for a formal reply from Washington on the bilateral trade package. The first phase of the deal was supposed to wrap up by fall, but the talks are still going on. The US continues to impose 50% tariffs on most Indian exports from August 27, with half of that duty acting as a penalty for India’s purchase of Russian energy. Based on 2024 export values, India believes these tariffs could hit about $48.2 billion worth of goods.
The World Trade Organisation’s latest forecast, made on October 7, expects world trade growth this year to be 2.4%, slower than the 2.8% recorded in 2024.
Elon Musk predicts the future of jobs
Along with discussing tariffs, Elon Musk also spoke about how he believes AI and robotics will completely change the way people work in the coming years. “My prediction is, in the future, working will be optional. They don’t have to, I mean, look, obviously, people can play this back in 20 years and say, ‘Look, Elon made this ridiculous prediction and it’s not true.’ But I think it will turn out to be true that, in less than 20 years, but maybe even as little as, I don’t know, ten or 15 years, the advancements in AI and robotics will bring us to the point where working is optional,” Musk said.
He compared future work to gardening, something people do because they enjoy it, not because they must. Musk believes that as technology gets better, the world will move toward almost unlimited abundance.
