They don't seem to be yet. Two people with cult followers willing to contort themselves to the dear leader's position at any moment.
2,621 karma · joined February 25, 2016
Musk and Trump are not concerned about debt or spending. If they were, Trump and Republicans wouldn't be rushing a billionaire tax cut bill that will add tens of trillions of dollars to the national debt.
If Trump cared about debt he wouldn't have run up $8 trillion in debt his last term with PPP helicopter money and more billionaire tax cuts.
And look at the bottom of the page. YC is advertising an "AI Startup School" with Musk and Altman. Peter Thiel was a member at some point. I'm not implying the mods are putting their thumb on the scale but this site does attract people who are pro-oligarchy if they think they too can make a buck.
In fact Tesla was the only foreign automaker to commit sign a letter affirming the CCP's "core socialist values" in 2023.
> Elon Musk’s Tesla has joined Chinese automakers in pledging to enhance “core socialist values” and compete fairly in the country’s car market after Beijing directed the industry to rein in a months-long price war.
> Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher with Human Rights Watch, said the pledge on Thursday undermined Tesla’s standing. “Failing to comply with ‘core socialist values’ has been frequently used by authorities to punish speeches that are critical of the Chinese government,” she said.
> His trip returned the spotlight to restrictions on free speech that have intensified under Xi. Twitter is banned in China, and Musk refrained from using the platform during his visit, drawing criticism from human rights groups over allegations of compliance with Chinese censorship.
> The layoffs concerned a number of Republican lawmakers, who privately warned the Trump administration that such cuts could hamper the government’s bird flu response and asked them to reconsider, according to two Republican sources with direct knowledge of the situation.
This is so infuriating - "privately". You know a good chunk of Republicans in Congress are educated people aware these many of these cuts are a mix of illegal, unconstitutional or dangerous to national security. But for the sake of their reelection campaign two years from now they're rolling over and ceding any oversight authority they have.
Show a spine, if you're going to give all your Branch's power to a dictator you might as well let DOGE dissolve congress and save us the salaries.
And after that, the destroyed government will bid out replacements of the destroyed agencies to contractors owned by the oligarchs and we'll pay through the nose for that too.
It's never really been about the debt or deficit. It's exactly what they told us in Project 2025.
Do we have to add that Musk is now calling for CBS's 60 Minutes journalists to be imprisoned because he didn't like what they reported?
How is this not anything but fascist? And if you agree it is, how are you okay with this?
Their actions show they want nothing but party line state media.
What are the odds there's chaos in the parks this summer with short staffing, and the admin decides to blame the National Parks Service as a reason to privatize management of the parks?
The DOJ and SSA regularly prosecute social security fraud.
Take a look at the website of the Social Security Administration's Inspector General site and look through the news releases.
However it's likely not as common as Musk wants you to think.
Musk, Trump and the admin have already been pushing so many outright lies via their propaganda channels. Despite being deunked the lies are repeated nonstop.
The lie that USAID spent $50 million on condoms in Gaza (the money was for running hospitals) for example.
Or the lie about funding an opera about a transgender woman (the money was for a university in Columbia, unrelated to a performance put on at the school).
They are spewing lies left and right. Lies go twice around the block before the truth has put its pants on.
Why should we believe him on this?
If the claim is true and it's really a case of fraud, isn't that a case for the courts and DOJ to handle?
Or he is really trying to undermine trust in the government, like his false Gaza condom claim?
https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/trumps-meme-coin-...
Any other administration this would have been a huge scandal but when we're in an avalanche of corruption I guess it can be missed.
AG Pam Bondi and Emil Bobe are openly admitting they are using this to pressure Eric Adams for political loyalty. It's straight up weaponization of the DOJ, don't be daft.
Read the letter from the acting prosecutor Danielle Sassoon who was pressed by the top of the DOJ to drop the charges. This is conservative, Federalist society, attorney who clerked for Scalia, by the way. Trump is using the charges for a quid pro quo. Tell me with a straight face this is not corrupt.
https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/24535586...
And I didn't say the DOJ kicked the AP out, I said other departments. But it shows you the admin wants to punish orgs for freedom of the press. There's no defending kicking out one of the most reputable news orgs for using the words Gulf of Mexico. Petty tyrants.
Same with Trump's incessant lawsuits against news orgs that report on him. Including a pollster who didn't provide him favorable numbers.
Same with their orders of to strip publicly funded research of wrongthink by removing references to race, orientation or gender.
This admin is actively suppressing speech including in private organizations at a scale we haven't seen before. And this is only in the first month
The loss of institutional knowledge for managing an arsenal of nuclear weapons has serious consequences for security.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/14/climate/nuclear-nnsa-firings-...
> Some of the fired employees included NNSA staff who are on the ground at facilities where nuclear weapons are built. These staff oversee the contractors who build nuclear weapons, and they inspect these weapons.
> It also included employees at NNSA headquarters who write requirements and guidelines for contractors who build nuclear weapons. A source told CNN they believe these individuals were fired because “no one has taken anytime to understand what we do and the importance of our work to he nation’s national security.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5298190/nuclear-agency-...
> Just days before, officials in leadership had scrambled to write descriptions for the roughly 300 probationary employees at the agency who had joined the federal workforce less than two years ago.
> Managers were given just 200 characters to explain why the jobs these workers did mattered.
See the AP News incident this week where the White House banned AP from the WH press pool for publishing the words Gulf of Mexico. Seriously.
Or the weaponization of corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
Private companies will not be exempt from the fascist retaliation. If Apple or Microsoft is hosting something they perceive as a threat, they will exert pressure to take it down - constitution or laws be damned.
I've noticed on a local US subreddit any political action or protest is immediately swarmed by people criticizing it or calling it useless. The comments might end up down voted but the level of engagement far exceeds a typical thread.
Then looking through their comment history they're doing it across many other city subreddit. No trend of them being an active participant in any one location.
Try letting go of partisan emotions and viewing it in a non partisan light.
But this is bonkers level of corruption. This is what actual weaponization of government looks like.
The plan is for the Trump administration and department of Justice to hold the charges over Adams' head to extort him for political ends.
I urge you to read the former acting AGs resignation letter.
https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/24535586...
> In children who acquired H.I.V. at birth, the infection can progress very quickly to illness, with death occurring as early as eight to 12 weeks after birth — shorter than the 90-day pause on foreign aid.
So much pain and death will be caused by Trump, Musk, Rubio and their enablers in Congress and at large.
This is unconscionable and evil. Don't ever believe them when they claim to be "pro-life".
If the debt and spending are so important, why is the first priority of the GOP Congress to renew and expand the Trump tax cuts, which the government is estimating to cost at least $4.5 trillion dollars and will mostly accumulate to the top 0.1%? It's also estimated that it will explode the federal debt.
The same party and admiistration who racked up $8 trillion in national debt during Trump's last term through irresponsible 2017 tax cuts and inflation pumping PPP helicopter money, are now telling you the debt is such an issue the country can't pay for anything else.
But taking on trillions more in debt for billionaires is of such urgency it must be passed through reconciliation.
This is congressionally appropriated money for FEMA to administer a program, by DHS.
Congress and the Supreme Court have ruled impoundment is illegal. You are supporting a sprint into fascism where an unchecked executive has no push back on anything they do, violating the courts, law or constitution.
If you can't see why this is a problem, understand that it can and will be used to harm you too.
The top GOP priority in Congress right now, outside of ceding their constitutional responsibility, is searching for anyway to pass $4 trillion in tax cuts that will largely accumulate to the top 0.1%.
Most of MAGA is too distracted by culture wars tland identity politics to see the real robbery.
The GOP controls both houses and could easily do this if they were so convinced. Instead they're laser focused on cutting taxes on billionaires to the tune of $4 trillion dollars
You really haven't seen reporting defending PEPFAR, for example, as a program of USAID? The same org that also track and help prevent Ebola outbreaks? That funded hospitals for innocent civilians in Gaza?
Why is the first priority of the GOP Congress to renew and expand the Trump tax cuts, which the government is estimating to cost at least $4 trillion dollars and will mostly accumulate to the top 0.1%? It's also estimated that it will explode the federal debt.
This is a government by and for oligarchs like Musk. He's attempting distraction while the plan is to grossly enrich themselves.