Trump and Musk will redefine economic 'growth' to cement their power: Ex-Labor Secretary

Former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich sounded off an urgent warning in a lengthy post to Facebook for the New Year: President-elect Donald Trump and his ally, tech billionaire Elon Musk, will propagandize the meaning of "economic growth" into meaning whatever benefits them personally, even if American workers suffer as a result.

All of this comes as Musk, along with fellow right-wing billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, heads up Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" task force, which seeks to cut an all-but-impossible amount of government spending on a broad variety of programs and services that benefit millions of Americans.

Reich, who has become outspoken on issues of wealth inequality and imbalances in the economy, has previously urged Americans to stay vigilant as Trump seeks to undermine American democracy.

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"As we begin a new year, it’s important to establish a baseline for seeing how much worse Trump will make the American system starting January 20," wrote Reich.

He laid out 20 pieces of advice on how to view the economy — but in particular, his third point served as a warning about what it means for this economy to "grow."

"Forget the standard economic goals of higher growth and greater efficiency," wrote Reich. "The issues are who benefits from more growth and efficiency, and how we define growth and efficiency. Starting January 20, the major beneficiaries will be Trump, Musk, and other oligarchs. Growth will be defined to exclude climate change and wars over ever-decreasing arable land and fresh water. Efficiency will be defined as eliminating anything Musk and Ramaswamy define as wasteful, potentially including social spending that many Americans depend on."

Ultimately, he concluded, "The first step toward changing the system is to understand it. We need to see where the system is today in order to have a baseline for measuring how much worse it will become under Trump and his lackeys in Congress and the Supreme Court."

And that means, he said, "Seeing the system for what it is and what it will be under a second term of Trump will empower you to join with others to resist Trump, and eventually change the system for the better."