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

  • militaryintelligence@lemmy.world
    28·
    3 hours 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.

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
      3·
      43 minutes 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.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
    163·
    10 hours ago

    Fully understand what is happening here in America. The far right has destroyed the rule of law and are just acting to destroy our government. Don’t let this happen to your country. Don’t let Elon Musk any where near your elections or near your country.

    • Sabata@ani.social
      32·
      8 hours ago

      Don’t let Elon Musk any where near your elections or near your country.

      A little late.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
      56·
      9 hours ago

      Further, look and see what courting the rich and meritocracy has bought. This is the natural and probable consequences of decades and decades of austerity, privatization, and supply side economics. They’re telling you the same lies they told us, and telling you it will be different for you. It won’t be.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
    871·
    9 hours ago

    Step 1: Remove all the inspector generals

    Step 2: Gain access to the U.S. treasury payment system

    Step 3: Lock out all the rest of the treasury staff

    Step 4: Impose a 25% Tarriff on your largest trading partners

    Step 5: Profit!

    Step 6: Realize Trump backed down on the Mexican Tarriffs because the president of Mexico called and stroked Trump’s ego.

  • Hegar@fedia.io
    210·
    11 hours ago

    It’s a fascist coup.

    They took control of the judiciary some time ago, they recently seized the executive and now they’re destroying any remaining institutional power that can oppose them.

    The current regime is not legitimate.

    • kamenLady.@lemmy.world
      322·
      9 hours ago

      The current technically still is, but the regime they are transforming into won’t be anymore legitimate.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
        451·
        7 hours ago

        With all the voters suppression tactics, gerrymandering in the house, and all the ballots they had discarded, it’s not legitimate.

        • Xanthobilly@lemmy.world
          4·
          2 hours ago

          No one has convincingly explained away the abnormally high number of bullet ballots and odd ballot switching at 500 votes in swing states like AZ, IMO.

        • Hegar@fedia.io
          161·
          6 hours ago

          Elon’s cash for votes scheme, the amount of russian money and planning on one side, plus there’s a decent chance that the fascists just committed direct electoral fraud as well.

      • leadore@lemmy.world
        6·
        6 hours ago

        It’s not legitimate because most of the stuff they are doing is plain out-and-out illegal. But like they (Don Jr., etc) said before the election, they were going to go ahead and do it anyway and dare anyone including SCOTUS to try and stop them. It’s going to come down to our military to choose a side.

  • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
    1703·
    12 hours ago

    It’s not a coup if it’s not against the Leadership of a sovereign nation

    What it is, is a Constitutional Crisis led by the Executive Branch (Trump, and his minion Musk with Trumps permission and direction) disregarding Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution is known as the “taxing and spending clause.” Clause 2 is known as the “borrowing clause.”, against the Legislative Branch (Congress), which will ultimately be decided by the Judicial Branch (The Supreme Court)

    The very bad news is all 3 Branches of US Government are squarely in control of Republicans, since the last election in November, who are blindly supporting Trump

    • matlag@sh.itjust.works
      54·
      12 hours ago

      It still could be a coup inside the coup, where Musk takes control of so much of the administration that he can set the stage for a final coup to take down Trump and impose himself.

      • NJSpradlin@lemmy.world
        241·
        11 hours ago

        More than likely he’d just end up a puppet president. Musk wouldn’t need to sit in the seat if Trump did his bidding.

        • coyootje@lemmy.world
          6·
          9 hours ago

          Man can you imagine Elon as a president? Jeb Bush was cringe but Elon would hit cringe and awkward levels off the charts…

          • Cenzorrll@lemmy.world
            41·
            9 hours ago

            Man can you imagine Elon as a president? Jeb Bush was cringe but Elon would hit cringe and awkward levels off the charts…

            Sorry, which timeline are you posting from that Jeb Bush was president?

    • modifier@lemmy.ca
      7·
      8 hours ago

      I agree with you but am also mentally leaving room to swap who is whose minion, because that is not entirely clear to me at this point.

    • Grimy@lemmy.world
      262·
      11 hours ago

      It’s not a coup if it’s not against the Leadership of a sovereign nation

      I don’t think that’s a prerequisite. We talk of military coups all the time and most of them are thoroughly domestic affaires.

      That doesn’t detract from the rest of what you said however.

      • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
        148·
        11 hours ago

        you’re confusing the words sovereign and domestic in a way I don’t understand. again, a coup is the illegal taking and transferring of power from the leader of a sovereign nation to someone or a group of someone’s not duly empowered to assume that role. that’s not what’s transpiring currently. but we sure as shit are in the middle of a constitutional crisis between the executive branch and the legislative branch.

        • TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.comEnglish
          174·
          11 hours ago

          This is not a courtroom, and your prescriptive weasel words are tiresome.

          This is a coup that started January 6, 2021, and is continuing now.

      • Kichae@lemmy.caEnglish
        57·
        10 hours ago

        Trump cannot commit a coup, because he is already the head of state. Military coups occur when military generals step in to illegally claim the abilities of the head of state (or government) from someone else who had them legally.

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
          2·
          3 hours ago

          There are many types of coup, it’s not limited to military coup. If Trump stays, it’s called a self coup.

        • leadore@lemmy.world
          3·
          6 hours ago

          Per the Constitution, the US government is comprised of 3 co-equal branches. The Executive Branch is only one branch, not the government itself, so technically its taking over of the entire government could be looked at as a coup. So far the other two branches are either cooperating (legislative) or sitting idly by (judicial), so we don’t know yet whether this is a coup by the executive or just the entire government saying fuck the Constitution, we’re done with that.

          You could also say, since this is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, that it is a coup against the people–but the problem there is that, assuming the election wasn’t interfered with, “the people” elected this government.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
      25·
      12 hours ago

      It’s also a breach of the oath taken to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. But an oath is only as good as the intent of the maker.

  • naeap@sopuli.xyz
    27·
    11 hours ago

    Are there no drug tests for political advisors or something?
    I’d have expected this for a position with much power - just like in the military.

    Or am I that far off here from reality?

    • kn0wmad1cEnglish
      52·
      10 hours ago

      Musk has no clearance, wasn’t voted in, is uncredentialed, and unqualified.

      The fact that the government is just sitting back and allowing this is disgusting.

      All of it to line their pockets with what will be akin to monopoly money once they destroy the country.

      • teft@lemmy.world
        1·
        5 hours ago

        All of it to line their pockets with what will be akin to monopoly money once they destroy the country.

        People that rich have reserves in other currencies and precious metals. They don’t really give a shit if the US dollar crashes.

      • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        6·
        8 hours ago

        They’re why they’re so gung ho about crypto. They want to make everyone’s money worthless while they hoard all the gold themselves.

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
        6·
        9 hours ago

        That’s exactly what I don’t understand
        There are safe guards for exactly that shit in law (at least I think/hope so), but seemingly no one has the guts to step up

        But I have to admit, that I don’t know the American laws at all, and with that don’t know what their actual options are

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
        6·
        10 hours ago

        Because I asked about a detail of how a foreign country runs their government?
        Sadly I do get all the shit news. I mostly wonder how this is even possible to happen in a normal state with functioning jurisdiction

          • naeap@sopuli.xyz
            2·
            6 hours ago

            Ah, gotcha.
            Thought you’re accusing me of not knowing anything, because I asked a question.

            Get your sentiment though…