Cuban on Musk, Trump approach: 'Ready fire aim is no way to govern'

Businessman and television personality Mark Cuban said in an interview with The Hill that the approach to governing taken by tech mogul Elon Musk and President Trump in his second term is “ready fire aim,” which, in Cuban's view, is not an effective way to govern and could eventually impact the entire economy. 

Cuban told The Hill he sees the administration’s push, overseen by Musk, to overhaul the federal government, root out waste and bolster efficiency, which has led to firings of thousands of government employees and cuts to departments and agencies, as a “ready fire aim” approach that is not sufficient. 

“Ready fire aim is no way to govern, particularly when the you know what, you know, rolls downhill onto the small-to-medium-sized communities and cities where all of a sudden, who knows how many people are losing jobs, who knows how many companies have to close, because their grants have been cut, and who knows the impact on that community in terms of services they're going to be able to offer, raising taxes,” Cuban said in an interview for The Hill’s "Health Next Summit." 

“And so I don't think that they've fully done the analytics on all this to understand the impact. And if that is too big a problem in too many locations, then you could see an impact on the overall economy. That's my biggest fear,” Cuban said. 

Cuban was critical of Trump last year and traveled the country as one of former Vice President Kamala Harris’s most prominent surrogates during her unsuccessful 2024 White House bid. After the November election, he congratulated Trump for winning “fair and square.”  

Republicans in Congress have faced blowback from voters in their home states over the cuts made by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. 

Cuban also weighed in on the recent wave of vandalism incidents targeting Tesla vehicles and dealerships around the country, telling The Hill that the violent acts against Tesla’s charging stations and cars are “wrong” and have “accomplished nothing.” 

“Now on the flip side, if they were to say, OK, we have a plan, because right now my attitude on this whole thing with what Elon is doing, and don't get me wrong, and by the way, I think blowing up Tesla dealerships and blowing up cars, that's just wrong,” Cuban said. “That needs to stop immediately. That accomplished nothing.” 

The full interview with Cuban will be aired on Wednesday at The Hill’s Health Next Summit. The Alliance for Aging Research and the National Pharmaceutical Council are the event’s sponsors.