Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and unelected adviser to President Donald Trump, is asserting control over much of the federal bureaucracy and sensitive government computer systems despite lacking clear authority. The highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department was pushed out after refusing to hand Musk’s team the keys to the government’s entire payment system and the $6 trillion in payments the system processes annually, including Social Security checks, tax refunds and Medicare benefits. Musk and his team have also seized control at the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, key institutions that function as the central nervous system of the U.S. government. “In any other situation, this would be called state capture, and people around the world would be condemning it,” says Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid, who writes in a new blog post that Elon Musk is staging a coup. We also speak with Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, who warns that Musk could be laying the groundwork for major tax cuts Republicans have promised that will disproportionately benefit corporations and wealthy people like him. “Elon Musk is going to pay for his tax cut with your Social Security,” says Owens.

There is a coup occurring now

  • mhague@lemmy.world
    602·
    1 day ago

    Musk is who we deserve. The country that treats money as speech and corporations as people and bribery as political action has the worlds richest man controlling it. Finally, the world is making some fucking sense.

    • WarlockLawyer@lemmy.world
      171·
      2 days ago

      Yes. Since he wasn’t elected and the actions he is taking require actual laws to pass to occur legally

      • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        57·
        2 days ago

        I don’t think that’s a coup though?

        Like a coup is a specific thing. What’s happening might be fucked up, and unlawful, but not necessarily a coup.

            • oo1@lemmings.worldEnglish
              3·
              2 days ago

              Is it a dictatorship?

              I didn’t think the president’s role was designed to have absolute power over all branches of government - but maybe I don’t really understand the us govt system.

              • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
                12·
                2 days ago

                I think “dictatorship” describes a style of government which may not really apply.

                The POTUS is obviously intended to have absolute control hence the existence of executive orders. However, like most of the US constitution it relies on the assumption that the people wouldn’t knowingly elect an autocrat.

                That is to say executive orders are intended to be used sparingly, with great caution, not for things like declaring a new official measurement for Obamas penis.

                So while the US govt probably wouldn’t be considered a dictatorship generally, Trumps behaviour is certainly autocratic.

    • Zink@programming.dev
      2·
      1 day ago

      Does it have to be violent to be a coup?

      If propaganda, conspiracy, and manipulation are also valid tools of a coup, this probably qualifies.

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
      291·
      2 days ago

      Yup, there is no legal due process and his team is forcibly taking control of federal organizations. This is an incredibly historical moment we are witnessing. Feast your eyes. While it often gets compared to Rome, United States for all its might will only have been a blip in the historical time frame. Supremacy not even lasting a century. It will barely be a footnote a thousand years from now. Or… Elon and Trumps gambit pays off and successfully annexes Mexico and Canada while turning the US into a true empire that prospers for another century, but not sure if I see that happening. You can only fail upwards so far.

      • ininewcrow@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 days ago

        Might have been true during the Roman era or even during the 1930s but in the age of mass communication, a generally informed or disinformed population (depending on how you want to see it), multi national corporations who really don’t care about nations and all mixed in with nuclear weapons … things will be much different. Whether or not that difference will be better or worse is anyone’s guess. But it will be something completely different.

      • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 day ago

        But Trump is calling him a “special government employee”. So I guess he’s also getting paid to fuck over America. Yeah, he’s not elected, but Trump is overstepping his boundaries of power to do all this, but Republicans aren’t doing anything to stop him. So Trump is just going to keep pushing those boundaries and if Congress doesn’t do anything, he’ll just claim more and more power.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    1 day ago

    If you were still under the impression that conservatives were patriots that gave a flying fuck about the Constitution, now you have your definitive answer.

  • takeiteasypolicy@lemmy.world
    10·
    7 hours ago

    It’s time that people who believe in principles of democracy should come together and create their own counter project 2025 plan. A long term strategic document, with action plans to not only restore but strengthen democracy in US

    • kava@lemmy.world
      21·
      2 days ago

      they won the election. now they are dismantling the levers of government. the goal is to weaken all other national institutions until eventually they can just ignore Congress or Supreme Court

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      211·
      2 days ago

      Exactly. He has every American’s personal details and total control of the nation’s finances. He really doesn’t need anything else.

  • militaryintelligence@lemmy.world
    771·
    2 days ago

    Nah, everybody relax. Go to work, come home to your 2.3 kids. Everything is normal. President Musk is doing everything he can to take care of the immigrant and LGBTQ problem, the only problems the USA has. Men could be playing womens sports, guys. I mean it. Massive fucking problem.

  • Pollo_Jack@lemmy.worldEnglish
    70·
    1 day ago

    2A thumpers defend school shootings as required to defend against tyrants. Tyrants literally in our buildings and giving nazi salutes? Nothing.

    • endeavor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      44·
      1 day ago

      Americans currently rereading the 2nd amendment: “Damn, if we could only use them outside of schools, things would be fixed quickly”

      • Wogi@lemmy.world
        25·
        1 day ago

        It’s weird that Jefferson literally demanded helpless children be shot in schools like that but hey that’s what the Constitution says so I guess we gotta let em do it.

        WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEONE TOOK A KNEE AT THE NATIONAL ANTHEM??!!???

  • thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world
    842·
    2 days ago

    it’s only a coup if it comes from the Coup d’Etat region of France, otherwise it’s just a sparkling government takeover.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
      7·
      1 day ago

      Which is why the US has never actually staged a coup in a foreign country. Not many people know that