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The Wrath of Musk and Trump [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-02-23

Musk is loved by Speaker Mike Johnson because, like an ice sculptor with a chainsaw, Musk is cutting the federal government down to Johnson’s size. And Musk loves the metaphor, waving a huge chainsaw during his appearance at CPAC. But embracing it is stupid since the appropriate tool is a scalpel with the skill and temperament to go with it. Musk has neither, as he goes all-Twitter on the U.S. federal government, consequences be damned. After all of his chopping at Twitter, it is still losing money, unable to attract advertisers because it has been reduced to a vile MAGA echo chamber. The once-valuable brand is now worth almost nothing. America will be no different. It will still be losing money because tax hikes are out of the question, and it will no longer be able to attract investors to buy U.S. bonds because America will no longer be considered a good or safe investment. Its once-vaunted brand, America the Beautiful, will become a joke worldwide, as it becomes Russified.

The chainsaw is an apt metaphor because Musk is ripping lives apart—people who were pursuing their careers are now jobless and may soon be homeless and worse. These are not just numbers in a spreadsheet; they are families, communities, and livelihoods being tossed aside for the sake of a grotesque display of fiscal brutality. And they are not just in Washington, D.C. Only 15% of federal workers live in the Washington, D.C. Metro area, including parts of Maryland and Virginia.

Musk’s DOGE antics have nothing to do with the federal deficit or the federal debt since Trump intends to cut taxes for the wealthy again, either for ten years or permanently if he can get away with it, adding $4.5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. Unfortunately, the cuts, though profoundly damaging, achieve little. Musk initially aimed to cut $2 trillion but has since lowered that to $1 trillion. Yet, he isn’t truly addressing the deficit. Even if Musk cut all federal employees, he would only save about $384 billion. All of his machinations are designed to give the impression of action, but in reality, they are vicious theatrics—causing significant damage while solving nothing.

The idea of the federal worker who adds no value is a myth; many are actually overworked and undervalued. If you want to look at a federal employee who is a freeloader, it is Trump. In the first month of the worst presidency on record, Trump has spent more time attending to the Trump Organization than America. He spent the better part of 16 days at four of his properties and played golf on 10 days—a good job if you can get it. Trump is a ghost employee or, perhaps better, a “golfbricker” instead of a goldbricker.

Trump’s rhetoric about the federal force—bloated, lazy, and corrupt—and Musk’s barbarism are designed to distract from Trump’s two goals: 1) rewarding the oligarchs and 2) executing a coup that will keep him in power after 2028. The first step is to sideline Congress. Mission accomplished. The courts are next. America is about to get a hard lesson as it learns how the federal government did work when it no longer works, and we all suffer the consequences. The Republicans are not taming the Beast; they are killing America using the terrorist manifesto, Project 2025, to guide them. Trump and Musk—their ambition only exceeded by their hatred of America,

Some congressional Republicans have just held some town halls under the impression that they were conquering heroes returning to their districts, finally delivering on the promise of smaller government, only to discover that they are a pariah. Many voters in those ruby-red districts are quite unhappy, but those U.S. legislators haven’t seen anything yet. They still have to reap the consequences of what Musk has done, as well as the coming tsunami of unintended consequences. All they see now are the cuts, but not the rivers of blood flowing toward them. Given this, many are beginning to hide as their voters turn against them.

The poster child for the backlash was Representative Rich McCormick (GA7) during a town hall in Roswell, Georgia, on February 20, 2025. McCormick, who was not initially a Trumpist, having originally supported Desantis, only won his district on November 5, 2024, by 29.8%. In a response that mirrored what Trump and Musk have been doing, McCormick ran into a chainsaw. Now, before tears are shed on his behalf, McCormick has suggested that children should work at places like fast-food restaurants, as he did in high school, to earn money to buy lunch rather than get a free lunch. As the town hall unfolded, the criticism got hot. McCormick said, “If you all are just going to yell at me, that’s not going to be an effective comment.” To which one woman yelled back, “That’s because we’re pissed.” The attendees were particularly upset because of cuts at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. In an idiom of the South, “He got a whuppin.”

As some commentators have said, town halls like this have the feeling of the Tea Party in 2009. What is clear is that the Red States will not be spared from the “Wrath of Kahn,” i.e., Trump and Musk, with no Captain Kirk to save them. The consequences of these reckless cuts will not remain in Washington; they will ripple across every corner of America, disrupting essential services, eroding public trust, and unraveling the very fabric of society. The Republican Party, drunk on its obsession with dismantling the federal government, is on a collision course with reality. When the dust settles, the people they claim to represent will be the ones left picking up the pieces. And by then, it may be too late to undo the damage.

Time left to January 20, 2029: 1,426 days

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