Nobody voted for Musk, but they did vote for Trump. They voted for a GOP controlled senate and a GOP controlled house. They voted for this administration despite the Project 2025 roadmap making it clear what Trump and the GOP were going to do if they were put in charge. And now, they’re doing it.
In the past they haven’t protested as more and more power has been given to presidents, both D and R. So now Trump is using all that power and delegating it to someone of his choosing. This isn’t a coup. A coup is an unlawful seizure of power. The power was handed to Trump and the GOP lawfully, and Trump is just delegating.
This is a real Leopards Eating People’s Faces moment for the USA. This is the result of decades of the American people expressing their will, or at least not objecting strenuously. This is the country that voted Carter out of office and enthusiastically voted in Reagan. It’s a country where most of the democrats celebrate Bill Clinton, despite his policies of deregulation and deindustrialization. Compare that to Germany where the mere fact that the slightly right-wing government was willing to work with two far-right AfD members has been enough to get hundreds of thousands of people out on the street, protesting.
yeah but also people voted for the guy after Elon said he’s officially buying him and jumped around like a reanimated troglodyte to celebrate his purchase.
anyone with a second brain cell could tell that he would be in charge even if he weren’t doing it so publicly.
Remember: it’s not just trump and musk to blame, the entire Republican party is responsible for supporting all this.
Never let Mitch McConnell off the hook, despite how he now says he doesn’t like what Trump his doing. Since this all started, he has done nothing but enable him and has done as much as anyone to put the guy in power. Same to be said of Graham. When this all goes terribly wrong(er), none of us should, for a second, allow them a pass on any future backtracking or apologizing that they might do.
The American people too, don’t forget about them
For the second time
If you want to do a bit of Both-Sides-ism, big chunks of the Dem Establishment have also been very friendly with Elon. FFS, he didn’t have any trouble landing contracts under the Biden Admin. And he led Gavin Newsom around by the nose with his Hyperloop promises for nearly a decade.
But I’d say the more pervasive concern is how heavily leveraged Elon’s businesses are with respect to his Saudi creditors. And that’s the real snarl at the end of this problem. The US has made the Saudi Royal Family such an enormous nexus of dollar inputs and outputs that Aramco might as well be a second Federal Reserve.
Our addiction to fossil fuels is driving significant chunks of our bad policy, both domestic and foreign. And while you can wax poetic about Americans “not voting for this”, there’s a deep socio-economic bond between American industry and cheap oil. Americans “vote” for the Saudis with their labor hours and their consumer spending on a daily basis.
We don’t have a lot amount of choice in our employment and consumer spending because of regulatory capture and economies of scale. Without any new coordination mechanism, getting off oil will have to be a top-down change.
Big oil has convinced us to cut down our own “carbon footprint” to encourage purity testing and exhaustion instead of collective action. They know it’s an externalities problem… do we?
We don’t have a lot amount of choice in our employment and consumer spending because of regulatory capture and economies of scale.
That’s true to a degree. But all too often, I see employment and consumer choices influenced by propaganda rather than raw economic forces. Whether or not you attend college is often not an economic choice but one of peer pressure and social expectation. Whether you move into the city or stay remote in the suburbs/exurbs is as much an expression of your social anxieties (amplified by “if it bleeds, it leads” local media coverage) as your economic position. While driving isn’t typically a choice, the size and shape of your vehicle absolutely is. People opting for increasingly large and ostentacious large-cab trucks and luxury SUVs are not acting under economic constraints. Often, Americans will pay a premium to live remote, drive a gas-guzzler, and subsist on disposables as an expression of their wealth.
This isn’t a problem other countries have. Germany, Japan, South Africa, India, Brazil, Mexico, even fucking Russia have figured out how to build densely and leverage mass transit to bring down waste. The Americans are uniquely incapable of developing efficiently. A big part of that is purely cultural, with white Americans having fled to the suburbs to avoid their black neighbors in the 70s/80s and putting a premium on one story ranch homes even in areas like San Fransisco or Chicago or Atlanta, where land is at a premium.
Also if the dem inside trader are happy with their stock going to the moon they dont care what happen to the rest.
The whole establishment is based on corruption and foreign influence.
Yeah, most of us didn’t vote for Trump either. We need to reform the elections to establish an actual democracy
It’s amazing that destruction of his reputation is going to go down in history as surpassing his destruction of the Twitter brand.
His reputation was and is being a scammer who got lucky.
I think the bigger historical footnote will be that he was allowed anywhere near a government in the first place
The government was designed for guys like him.
He’s buying the means to determine how history books are written.
History books are written at a state level actually, you can thank the lost-causers for that one.
You have to have a good reputation in order for it to go down. He was always perceived as capitalist scum
He was always perceived as capitalist scum
He was regularly lauded as “One Of The Good Ones” as recently as Trump’s first term. The Electric Car Guy. The Hyperloop Will Be The Best Form of Rail Transit Guy. The We’re Going to Mars Guy.
He’s a carnival barker, but its absurd to say he only gulled the conservatives. Liberals have been falling for this man’s schtick for decades. Right up there with Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and George Soros as an obscenely wealthy gremlin we were all supposed to trust.
All he needed to do was stay quiet and get rich via multiple companies, maybe keep pushing electrification and renewables, and most of society would have kept considering him the real life Tony Stark pushing humanity forward.
The US especially has no trouble idolizing flawed people as long as they have lots of money and/or high-visibility accomplishments.
If Musk does have one exceptional skill on top of his good fortune in life, it seems to be finding promising companies and taking credit for their shit. And it totally would have worked for him. But no, being a mustache-twirling nazi-saluting villain gets you more attention.
Nah, we hated him for that. Under what corporate media rock do you live in?
Please note I said “most of society would have kept considering him the real life Tony Stark” and most of society absolutely does live under a corporate media rock.
No, I remember the time when people went all “he’s like the next Steve Jobs!” and meant that in a good way
I’ll be the first to admit I liked Elon when I first heard about him. I was uninformed and now that I’ve been informed I can’t tolerate him or his egregious actions done on my/our country. FUCK ELON AND FUCK TRUMP 🖕🖕🖕🖕
Only fringe capitalist assholes (most likely his sockpuppets or people he paid) said that
If Elon Musk had suddenly died days before he accused that diver who saved those children from that cave of being a pedophile, he would’ve been remembered as the real life Tony Stark that never got the chance to bring us to a new golden age. But now he’s viewed as a shitty James Bond villain.
Tony Stark is an asshole lol. He is the villan
hmmm this was clear as day before the election… so a more accurate headline would be “the majority of people who voted, voted for Elon… the majority of the rest couldn’t be bothered”
Putting that aside, I am holding predictions until the Feb 05 marches and I am willing to give the dormant populous of the USA a couple more weeks to go on a general strike and stop this madness… but it increasingly seems the people in the USA are now too numb, too busy, too stressed out, too ignorant to realize they are sheep being taken to the slaughter house
That’s just it. Most people are too numb, busy, stressed or ignorant. I reckon it’s by design
To be fair Elon was announced at the RNC aka the Break The Grindr party. Everyone was bummed that JD Vance had an Indian wife and he was barely a 6 (tho the talking heads kept shameless commenting how hott he was). All the pussy dried up and then Trumps crew started showing Musk off. He’s been a lovely item ever since. Guy is swept up in what little glamour there is for those swamp monsters. Now his tanks are tanking. The
kardassianstrump curse strikes again.Damn straight! They voted for the other self-interested, erratic megalomaniac.
But they knew the close relationship, the money spent, the egos of all involved. How did they NOT see this coming? I hate to say it but it was inevitable that something bad was going to happpen, maybe not as fast as it has, but it was clear a vote for Trump was a vote for Musk.
I think less people actually knew than we think. Sure they saw Musk on stage with their mango mussolini, but they couldn’t put two and two together.
Yeah, it’s a bummer but I think many comments are giving the American public too much credit.
The combined effects of “decent white Christians simply vote Republican” and “super rich white man good, two super rich white men better” probably count for a majority of trump’s votes.
I’m not in the US, but the news coming out almost daily since Trump took office has been pretty worrying to me. I encourage everyone to watch and spread this video: How Tech Billionaires Plan to Destroy America. I feel like a tinfoil hatter but, what’s laid out in the video is very convincing after just a couple weeks into Trump’s presidency.
Yeah as a non-American, it certainly does look from the outside as if a ketamine-fuelled Nazi is going around just taking over government offices largely unopposed.
Yeah, watching this unfold makes me wonder just how useless things like a constitution and laws and due process really are in every other country. Because apparently none of those things actually matter and some rich asshole that wasn’t elected can seize power tomorrow if they want. While no one does anything about it. Makes it all seem like a big joke.
It’s the result of over 50 years of chipping away at all the anti corruption laws. Trump wouldn’t have been able to do this with the laws put in after Nixon, but there’s been a concerted effort to overturn all of it through the Supreme Court.
You should listen to the Masterplan podcast that lays it all out, if you haven’t yet.
I disagree there, they are still breaking laws, like what Musk is doing at Treasury, but there is no one enforcing the law. No one (Founding Fathers) accounted for Congress and the Supreme Court being so captured that they would do nothing to threats like this.
That is a huge difference from Nixon. His own party turned against him quickly when the evidence showed the illegal actions were connected to him directly. The modem Republicans never will do that to Trump or things he commands.
Yeah it’s crazy to me, over 300 million citizens in the US alone, but just a handful of billionaires is all it takes to destroy democracy and the government. It honestly feels like violence will be the only option to get at these billionaires as it seems there is no longer any way to cripple them financially. They are completely fearless in their meddling.
Americans irl are a bit different than americans in the movies…
He didn’t seize control. He was given it by the President. I figured the article would cover the nuance the headline missed, but it didn’t.
And then I see others here making the same point and getting downvoted.
The problem is Trump and the very best people he is once again bringing in.
He purchased it from the president.
Well, purchased it from the person he made president.
Wait, how does Putin fit in this scenario?
Nobody voted for Fauci either. What’s your point?
That’s literally his job worked and had worked for decades.
You know what didn’t exist for decades and just began with Trump? Elon’s DOGE, which is how he’s running the entire country.
Fauci can’t drain your bank account. Elon has all the data he needs to do it.
They have a point, tho. Doge was announced before the election, Trump told everyone he would appoint Musk. Presidents appoint thousands of unelected people to various positions at the start of an administration. When you’re voting for a President, part of it is trusting their judgement as to who they’ll pick. I don’t think it should be a surprise to anyone that Trump would appoint a bunch of batshit crazy people to various positions, it’s what happened last time.
Maybe Fauci isn’t the best example of that tho, as he’s been an apolitical career official for decades, as you said.
Fauci is not in any way a good example. Especially when he was appointed by George W. Bush.
He had qualifications. What are fElon’s qualifications?
Fauci isn’t a Nazi kleptocrat who is trying to dismantle the administrative state.
Reactionaries sure love to play dumb, huh?
Hey, what do we call Nazi apologists?
But he did have a lot power, and that was my point. I could probably name a bunch of other men, but he’s one of the most well known of Bidens admin.
What power did he really have?
You’re just repeating reactionary talking points, not really a surprise.
He was also one of the most well known of “Trump’s men.” Here’s a hint: each STATE decided whether they would shut things down or not.
Hey, what do we call Nazi apologists?
Hillary Clinton
Took you all morning to think of that gem, huh?
Being a Nazi apologist must consume all of your brainpower.
Hey, what do we call Nazi apologists?
You’re asking someone who manages to get downvoted on conservative communities to answer that. I’m not sure what answer you would get other than “the good guys.”
Oh, I appreciate the heads-up, but I’m well aquatinted with this particular reactionary.
I just think it’s important to point out that he’s a Nazi apologist; I don’t really expect a coherent answer.
What power would that be? Be specific
Mooooooo?
Alright Bessie, time for your milking.
Takes out the milk pump, made to perfectly fit your hucow udders
Please, continue
Undoes your cowprint bikini strap and removes it
Easy there girl, we’ll get you sorted out.
Gently bends you over the milking frame, and gently gives your butt a reassuring pat
What a fucking creep
Wtf did you expect when I started? And you even said to continue.
I expected you to embarrass yourself
LOL
Yet he’s there, and someone gave him that power, yet you’re mad at musk. So easily fooled. Focus on the reason he’s there, not what he dies
Don’t focus on what he does? The fuck?
Go ahead and do just that. You can’t touch him and if you try you will be marked. He will have a pardon if needed. Even if you physically removed him from the earth trump will put another in his place.
But go ahead and spend your time and energy on him. I predict it will be futile
Yeah, his actual actions are totally unimportant. What can a guy who is in charge of the entire U.S. in everything but name possibly do that people should focus on?
Its about removing the root cause, not extinguishing the fire. It will just break out again
I’m guessing you are not one of the people who will lose their jobs or their livelihoods or get put in a concentration camp any time soon. Which makes saying ignore what they actually do a lot easier.
People imprisoned in Gitmo for the horrendous crime of not having the proper documentation on their person when arrested will not have the luxury of caring about removing the root cause.
No - i was lucky and wasn’t born in the land of the free. You guys keep on attacking the scape goat. Good for you, het him out and prepare for the next one. Its like gamification - bread and circus.
Ah yes. “Why don’t you Jews rise up against Hitler,” he asked from safety in Ecuador.
Great comparison
That is exactly what you are expecting people about to be put in concentration camps to do at no risk to yourself.
One can hope.
Yes they did. Musk and Trump literally campaigned together, Musk was on-stage next to Trump at multiple rallies where he spoke too. It was clearly reported during the election that Musk was spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get Trump elected.
Here’s an article from September (before the election) with Trump saying he’d create DOGE and have Musk lead it. https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-elon-musk-government-efficiency-commission-e831ed5dc2f6a56999e1a70bb0a4eaeb
Anyone who voted from trump and didn’t expect this is either lying, or intentionally being ignorant.
Hard agree. My mom is not the most politically literate person, and never cared much about tech, EVs, or space flight, but this summer out of nowhere she started talking about how great this Musk guy was and all his business accomplishments.
The Trump voters have been have been fully prepped on how to feel about Elmo for quite some time now.
They’re fucking morons.
It’s odd though. The it guy at the company I work for is a trump fan, and he’s not stupid. I don’t understand this world anymore.
I retreat into my own world now.
My best friend’s husband is also. Along with my dad. Both said they just wanted lowered taxes. I cannot begin to describe how intelligently fucking stupid these people are.
Selfishness is the cause there. “I just want lower taxes” as they ignore all the horrendous stuff Trump says/does just so they can have more money for themselves.
Big “I got mine, fuck you.” energy there.
Well with the Republicans new tax plan they’ll get increased taxes and all the horrible shit that comes with this administration. Hope they’re happy.
Correct. Really enraging behavior to see on display but Americans are mostly deeply selfish.
resisting propaganda isn’t about intelligence. it’s about raising empathetic children
The Smithsonian Institution needs more funding so it can build museums outside of DC and its surrounding areas. It’s a way to combat ignorance.
not just because of that. the smithsonian represents a massive collection of our culture that the government has gathered so that we don’t have access to it. much of it the prizes of the 2-3 genocides our government has inflicted
The MAGAs and Trumpists just need a reality check from the administration itself that they can’t hide or pretend. Something like WaterGate
We had J6, FFS. The most filmed crime in history. The biggest investigation in history.
Did not fucking matter. Idiots like Watters brush that off by saying the terrorists there on that day were “overcharged” and, therefore, their pardon is justified.
lol that’s not going to happen. The train has left the station and everyone with the capacity to choose to get off has already done so. Stop hoping for a moment that will never come.
You and I are paying attention at a level of detail that almost no Americans do. It would merely take an ordinary level of ignorance to be unaware of this.
American ordinary level of ignorance is too damn low…
American Ignorance is willful
Hey now - give them some credit. They’re 100% aware of what Fox News and other media outlets that seem them too “liberal” as Fox News are telling them!
You probably mean high. Their ignorance is too high. Their awareness is too low.
And letting a thin-skinned, Ketamine-fueled, video-game cheating, Nazi apologist billionaire take over the machinery of the United States is not something that anyone voted for.
mother jones throwin hands.
I hate how ketamine is always catching strays over this idiot’s behavior…
The best part is every one of those adjectives is also a hyperlink.
I assure you that some people did in fact vote for that.
absolutely. I know some of the more virulent ones. “rocket man good”
jfc
Wonder what they’ll think the minute they get ruined by something he does.
Nothing that shows any self-reflection
It will be “I didn’t vote for THIS!?”
Then, if we even still have elections, they’ll vote for Republicans again.
bingo.
Not enough IMO, he’s no apologist after that Nazi Salute he did
the line between nazi apologist and nazi is there isn’t one.
Ketamine-fueled
That’s the important part. We have an adderall addict and a ketamine addict running our government.
This really isn’t the important part though… I would say their beliefs and their actions are far more important.
So, literally Hitler
Hitler (speed addict) was actually in charge. In this case, the speed addict has given the reins over to the guy taking shit that makes you hallucinate.
Maybe we just need to convert the white house into a wellness farm so they can be reparented.
