Summary
Elon Musk, a Republican megadonor and close Trump ally, is reportedly set to have office space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the West Wing.
Musk is expected to head the “Department of Government Efficiency,” aiming to reduce federal spending under Trump.
Critics question Musk’s influence, noting his frequent presence at key Trump meetings and events.
This move, if confirmed, would grant Musk continued access to Trump post-inauguration, sparking debate about the billionaire’s role in the administration despite holding no official government position.
We’re all watching this story closely as it unfolds. I encourage you to listen to the macro side of these decisions. A good podcast episode is: https://pca.st/episode/750eb48b-abda-4b5b-9e55-78137234c1c0 Essentially, the choices they make and when they make them, will affect the standing of the dollar, and will affect the efficacy of Trump’s presidency.
“Efficacy of Trump’s presidency”? You’re using words to legitimize the non-legitimizable. There’s no reason to pay attention to any of this. It’s going to be an unrelenting shit show that destroys the country. That’s the macro and the micro. Why spend even a second looking into it?
The article and the NYT one which it cites fail to mention if there’s any historical precedent for this kind of arrangement. Is there?
No idea for the US but a few years ago South Korea dealt with a similar situation. It was revealed that the president had a friend who was acting as an unpaid, unelected advisor making decisions for the president, seeing classified information, and helping set national policy. They had million person protests in the middle of Seoul that culminated in the impeachment of their president and her removal from office. The advisor was also arrested and sentenced to 20 years or something.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_South_Korean_political_scandal
This twerp must have some absolutely devastating dirt on Trumpy boy. I’m coming to the conclusion that there’s no other explanation. It can’t possibly just be money; Trump has tons of other rich donors. What I’m struggling to predict, though, is just what he could possibly have to hold over Trump’s head that’s worse than selling classified documents, misusing campaign funds, trying to incite an insurrection, or failing to pay his hookers.
It’s not like this. This is conspiratorial thinking.
These people are just … weirdos. This is how weirdos are friends: transactionally, with little common ground. Trump feels like he has something to offer a friend that friend, even though he’s richer, can’t.
It’s all fucking base and stupid and nowhere near the ideals we are supposed to aspire to as a nation.
They are both beholden to Putin, very likely afraid for their lives and rightfully so. Putin is a billionaire but he also has a state apparatus with global reach behind him that he is intimately familiar with. He has demonstrated repeatedly over the years that he is willing and able to use that apparatus to… make people fall out of windows, etc. And all of this doesn’t even consider the possibility of kompromat - these are all deeply bad people.
I believe Putin is the real mastermind behind everything that is going on and also that he has realized that Trump is of limited value to him in the White House. Trump’s cult gets him in, but he had four years already and really didn’t make a lot of inroads (not to mention his visibly declining health).
So in my opinion, this is Putin shuttling in someone who can be more useful to him. The canary in the coal mine for whether or not this is true will be to see if the infighting everyone is breathlessly predicting ever materializes. I predict it will not. Elon Musk will not end up like Anthony Scaramucci.
I would hope so. He’s the president.
Oligarchy.
We’re no better than Russia.
By design.
We lost the cold war folks.
The cold war was against the Soviets. We’re losing to fascists.
Which is much worse (imo)
We’re no better than Russia.
Gulag for you, comrade.
Maybe the US needs more political prisoners so we can be up to par from the minority parties. The hatred is almost there amongst the loyalists to the billionaire elite. Just check out a fox news comments section, they’d love to shoot some democrats up. They don’t even consider them human anymore.
I can’t believe how mass media is turning people into monsters who cheer for the death of hard working working class families while the billionaires get bigger and bigger handouts from tax dollars.
