It’s becoming clear that while Trump squats in the White House with the title of President the real U.S. President is Elon Musk. He isn’t appointed to any official role mind you, nor is there any form DOGE established by Trump. Nope, it’s just Elon and his gang of thugs who’ve been given carte blanche by Trump to do whatever. As long as Trump gets his cut of the action (and Musk will ensure he winds up with billions) Trump’s down with whatever Musk does. All Trump wants to do is wreck things and Musk has the energy and minions under his direct control to go around wherever they want and do exactly that. The fact it’s creating infighting among his own subordinates and Republicans on Capitol Hill delights Trump. That’s how he made sure things were back when all he did was sit at the top of the Trump Org – keep em fighting among themselves so they couldn’t take on HIM.
However we are in a world of trouble. Musk and his minions demanded and got access to the U.S. Treasury system that distributes six TRILLION dollars in federal funding according to this article from The Telegraph. What he got access to includes systems that make social security payments, Medicare and tax refunds not to mention other things. High level people that stood up to him are now gone. Fired. Supposedly Musk and his team were only allowed to ‘take a look’ but don’t believe that for one second. If they haven’t already Musk’s team has downloaded the person information of every person in the system that has gotten money from the federal government. I remind you neither he or his team are federal employees, or even attached to a formally established federal advisory group!
That’s not the only example of Musk running around and forcing his way into agencies to look at, and no doubt DOWNLOAD information. Now he’s demanded and gotten access for him and his thugs to CLASSIFIED information too with the latest raid having taken place as the U.S. Agency For International Development. It might seem odd to you that USAID has classified information but they work in a lot of rough countries. They face governments with military/goon squads that work like hell to steal aid USAID gives so coordination with other agencies to curtail that involves dealing with classified stuff.
According to Raw Story some who objected when Team Elon showed up at the door and initially barred entry threatened to call federal Marshalls. A couple of senior folks there have already been fired. I’m not going to say this is going to be the ‘new normal’ because there’s nothing normal about it. It’s a wildfire that’s spreading out of control:
“This is a five alarm fire. The people elected Donald Trump to be President – not Elon Musk,” Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday. “Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding US classified information is a grave threat to national security. This should not be a partisan issue.”
Conservative anti-Trump voice Rick Wilson, who helped found the Lincoln Project group, said, “This isn’t trolling.”
“This is a grave national security threat,” he added on X.
As Ursula pointed out in an earlier article the news about this is awfully muted. What’s going on SHOULD be almost all journalists are talking about. I say that knowing people want to know about the DC air crash but it takes time and lot’s more than people want to sort out something like that. For the most part all the chattering class and Congress Critters can do is speculate. Few, very few have any expertise and at the moment they’ve told us all we can expect – what investigators will be looking at in the months ahead. However, Musk’s INVASION at Treasury, USAID and who knows where else already is huge news. Hell, I saw something where the NTSB is only going to be allowed to release information on Musk’s social media platform! Screw the law. Elon wants control of that information too. How long before he demands, and Trump agrees that ALL official government communications will be available ONLY on Musk’s X, or Xshitter as I like to call it?
It really is a fair question to put to Trump – point out what Musk has done and says he’s going to do and ask “Is Elon actually President or are you?” Musk is certainly acting like he’s got full Presidential powers and sure as hell like the kind of power SCOTUS gave Trump in it’s ‘immunity’ decision. Something they’d NEVER have done for anyone but Trump I should add.
It’s clear Musk and people HE designated can go anywhere they want, have access to any computer system they want and as I said forget about claims they are ‘just looking.’ They are installing software to monitor and even control functions. And DOWNLOAD every scrap of information. Musk wants it all. Every scrap of information on everyone and everything and if not stopped before long he will have it. That’s the kind of thing that can give him the power to deal with other countries in a way even a President can’t. He can literally be his own one person major power and if we try to contain him he’ll have the ability to cripple our military! Think about that. And why this isn’t THE dominant story in the news. As for you and me and everyone else he can shatter our lives on a whim with access to ALL our personal information.
By giving all this power to Musk Trump HAS committed “High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Not that the GOP will do anything. And Trump’s DOJ certainly won’t. It’s strange that Steve Bannon, who so wants anarchy is warring with Musk. Given what Musk is up to one would think Bannon would love Musk! Let’s hope the mutual loathing continues. I hate to think of how much worse things could be (and no matter how bad things are they can always get worse) if the two join forces.
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Given the gravity of these reports, does not Congress have the power to have emergency session? Pass a quick “get your finger out of the pie” Law? Can we trust that going to the SC will get the right response? How much of it was done out of hours, evenings and weekends?
Wake up. Congress handed its power to Trump along with its spine long ago. Ditto the supreme court. We the people are on our own here.
Can’t disagree. My hope (albeit faint) is that reality may bite soon enough to edge, if only a few, GOPers across from the dark side to swing the numbers