Mark Cuban has warned Elon Musk’s shark-like approach to the federal workforce will tank the economy.

The billionaire said making hundreds of thousands of people suddenly unemployed had a compounding effect that was ‘how recessions start’.

Donald Trump initially empowered his ‘First Buddy’ to slash his way through the public service with his Department of Government Efficiency. 

Thousands of employees have been laid off, whole departments have been severely reduced, and many more have been given the option of taking a buyout. However, a significant number of those affected are taking legal action to be reinstated in their positions.

Shark Tank host Cuban warned Americans not just to look at the number of cuts, but the knock-on effects of a massive surge in unemployment.

‘This is a bigger issue than people realize. Not just jobs lost. But their families losing benefits,’ he wrote on social media this week.

‘Landlords losing tenants. Cities and towns losing revenue. This is how recessions start.

‘”Ready, Fire, Aim” is no way to govern,’ he added, in an allusion to a firing squad that can’t shoot straight.

Mark Cuban has warned Elon Musk’s shark-like approach to the federal workforce will tank the economy

Cuban warned Musk making hundreds of thousands of people suddenly unemployed had a compounding effect that was ‘how recessions start’

Private businesses may be starting to worry about the effect on the overall economy, and pulling back on the number of staff they hire, and many had to lay off workers after their government contracts were scrapped.

This both adds to an already tight jobs market in some industries, and leaves laid-off public servants fewer places to go. 

Latest private-sector employment figures showed 77,000 jobs were added last month, well below expectations of 148,000 and January’s gain of 186,000.

Education and health services, which stood to be hit by DOGE-slashed contracts, lost 28,000 jobs, and trade, transportation, and utility category lost 33,000 as companies prepared for the impact of Trump’s tariffs.

‘Policy uncertainty and a slowdown in consumer spending might have led to layoffs or a slowdown in hiring last month,’ ADP Research chief economist Nela Richardson wrote in the report.

‘Our data, combined with other recent indicators, suggests a hiring hesitancy among employers as they assess the economic climate ahead.’

Another report, by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, showed 172,017 layoffs were announced last month, the most since the July 2020 pandemic freefall.

About a third of those layoffs were related to DOGE cuts, the report estimated.

‘With the impact of the DOGE actions, as well as canceled government contracts, fear of trade wars, and bankruptcies, job cuts soared in February,’ the report read.

Tens of thousands of public servants have already been let go, entire agencies gutted (USAID pictured), and many times that offered buyouts

 About a third of layoffs last month were related to DOGE cuts, a report estimated

One of Cuban’s social media followers shared how this was already happening across the contractor industry.

‘A friend furloughed 75% of staff (furlough w/paying for health insurance for three months), 50% exec pay cut, 25% rest of staff to keep as many people w/salary,’ he wrote.

Cuban’s warning was a reply to a comment on an earlier post he made about the 18F team at the General Services Administration being entirely laid off.

The team, ironically, developed software to make government agencies more efficient.

‘If you worked for 18F and got fired, group together to start a consulting company,’ he wrote.

‘It’s just a matter of time before DOGE needs you to fix the mess they inevitably create. They will have to hire your company as a contractor to fix it. But on your terms.’

Cuban channeled his Shark Tank persona by adding he was ‘happy to invest and/or help’.

Donald Trump empowered Musk to slash his way through the public service with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency

Little did he know that the laid-off workers already took the first step by grouping together and making a website and social media pages.

‘I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F. 18F was an elite federal software shop. We made gov’t websites work better, more efficiently for the American people,’ John Skiles Skinner‬ ‪wrote.

‘We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors. And were fired for it.’

Skinner linked to a website titled ‘we’re not done yet’, saying they created it to ‘tell our story’.

Consumer spending is already falling due to the expected impact of Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China.

Consumer confidence also plummeted in February, sinking seven points to 98.3 from January’s 105.3 – the steepest decline in more than four years.