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Trump is in Charge. Musk is in Control [1]

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Date: 2025-02-02

Donald Trump thought he would run the country at his whim by installing toadies and loyalists in positions of authority in the government. But Elon Musk got control by putting his loyalists in control of the mechanics that make government work: the personnel offices, the maintenance crews, the money distributors. These are not the offices that discuss policy or make policy; they are the workers who carry out decisions other officials make. What Trump missed is that it doesn’t matter what decisions he makes or his toadies make if the mechanisms to execute those decisions are in the hands of those who will decide for themselves whether or not to pay attention to him.

Elon Musk started his move at the start of the weekend, when most of the government offices are closed and while everyone was distracted by Trump’s rants that the airplane crash at National airport was the fault of DEI. A quick refresher:

To sum up:

Musk Moves With Lightning Speed to Exert Control Over the Government

And if that weren’t bad enough, his toadies may be as inexperienced and incompetent as Trump’s are:

The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover

Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.

Now it’s Sunday night and Political Wire reports that Musk has already made moves that show he is now in control: Musk Is Halting Treasury Payments to Contractors.

Elon Musk said his “DOGE team” of government efficiency enforcers is shutting down payments to federal contractors, suggesting that the world’s richest man may have access to sensitive systems used at the US Treasury Department, Bloomberg reports.

And:

Said Musk: “The corruption and waste is being rooted out in real-time.”

Musk determined that on his own, of course. No consultations, no investigation, no hearings, no trial, no due process (how quaint!) and most definitely no appeal. The classic example of a total autocrat.

The Constitution says that Congress shall decide how our money is spent. It gives the president some leeway in the details, but both the Constitution and the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 say he can’t do it on a whim or for long or without explaining his actions to Congress. Musk just threw all that away.

This is a private individual, not elected, not appointed, not vetted, not holding a security clearance (he was denied one), not accountable to anyone — not even Trump, by the looks of things — who has just seized control of our money, our secrets, our paychecks, our services, and probably our police and military (if not, wait a day or so). He already got the FAA administrator sacked for having the temerity to fine his SpaceX company for safety violations — leaving the FAA without anyone in charge when one was most needed. And speaking of that accident at National: The NTSB chooses Elon Musk’s X to update the press on plane crashes, so we will only learn about it what Musk wants us to learn.

Most likely, Musk has convinced Trump he’s doing all this for Trump’s benefit; when Trump finds out that’s not true, it will be too late. (It may already be.) So Trump tells Musk to stop; is he going to listen? Trump can order the government agencies to stop Musk, but Musk is taking over the actual divisions that carry out those orders. (Example: those orders go through government computers and networks, which are maintained by the GSA. Musk just took over the GSA.) The courts tell Musk to stop; is he going to care?

Ultimately, I do believe, somehow, that Musk will crash and burn. His mishandling of Twitter to X and of Tesla, SpaceX, and other ventures do not paint an image of someone who can sustain a coup of this magnitude for very long. We also have to factor in other extra-governmental actors, such as other billionaires, the business community in general, and the religious fanatics, along with other foreign players who may enjoy watching Musk burn down the US only until the flames start to reach their redoubts. Even so, the damage he has already done — especially because so far he has been allowed to get away with things that no private citizen should, such as his “goons” threatening to call in the US Marshals if he is blocked from getting access to sensitive data — that damage is quite likely already fatal to our country.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/2/2300955/-Trump-is-in-Charge-Musk-is-in-Control?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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