This is the answer. trump and his colleagues have learned that there are no consequences for any misdeed, be that violating the law, ignoring the constitution, contradicting cultural norms, fleecing cash from their own supporters, or even directly and actively hurting their own political constituency. In that environment, they are free to act to enrich and empower themselves in the long run even if the short term consequences are dire for everyone around them. Billionaires will not feel the economic impact of his policies, even if their portfolios drop on paper for a while. While Elon has lost a huge percentage of his “wealth” in terms of the drop in his stock portfolio, he still has hundreds of billions of dollars on paper. While that’s happening he and his class can start buying the dip, seizing ever more assets from the struggling masses just trying to stay afloat. Then, when the macroeconomy stabilizes, they will be sitting on that much more of the pile. Rinse and repeat.