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

  • Pollo_Jack@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    26 minutes ago

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

  • reksas@sopuli.xyz
    4·
    1 hour ago

    if you think trump is bad, just wait to be ruled directly by those fuckers instead of via proxy.

    • ansiz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      24 minutes ago

      Who’s to say we’re not already. Just look at how much golfing Trump has already been up to! I bet he ends up spending more time in Florida than in DC.

  • thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world
    271·
    5 hours 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.

  • Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    14·
    5 hours ago

    Hey, hey. Elon Musk purchased the US fair and square, we’ve known that for like 3 months now, no need to go acting all surprised!

  • labbbb2@thelemmy.club
    9·
    6 hours ago

    They want to turn the US into kleptocratic empire ruled by organised crime, like Russia or Angolan former dictator Jose dos Santos with his Russian family

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      8·
      5 hours ago

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

    • kava@lemmy.world
      13·
      7 hours 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

  • militaryintelligence@lemmy.world
    571·
    11 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
      23·
      9 hours 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.

      • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 hour 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.

      • ininewcrow@lemmy.world
        2·
        4 hours 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.

      • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        54·
        9 hours 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
              1·
              5 hours 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
                1·
                4 hours 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.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
    1891·
    18 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.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
      68·
      17 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.

    • Sabata@ani.social
      38·
      16 hours ago

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

      A little late.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
    1012·
    17 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
    250·
    19 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
      382·
      17 hours ago

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

      • Laurel Raven@lemmy.zipEnglish
        4·
        8 hours ago

        Except the current “president” isn’t constitutionally eligible to hold the office after inciting insurrection, so no, it really isn’t legitimate even now

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
        551·
        15 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
          8·
          10 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
          221·
          14 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
        12·
        14 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.

        • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          4·
          6 hours ago

          Honestly, if this gets bad enough, I won’t be surprised if the military indirectly allows him to be removed by force.

          It’s incredibly rare for a tyrant to actually be removed by force by a mob of disorganized revolutionaries. When you see instances of this happening, what’s usually actually happening is that the military has lost all confidence in the dictator, and they simply stand aside and let the mob storm the palace.

          Think about just what a precarious situation Trump and Musk are going to find themselves in after they fire half the federal government. The DC metro area is going to be at a level of unemployment that dwarfs that of the Great Depression. The whole population of DC will be wanting to see heads on pikes.

          The military wouldn’t even have to intervene directly themselves. All they would have to do is stand aside and let the mob storm the gates. That exact scenario has brought down countless tyrants over the generations.

          Dictators don’t tend to meet good ends.

          • leadore@lemmy.world
            4·
            6 hours ago

            One thing I feel sure of is that at some point Trump will order the military to fire on civilians. I thought it would take some time to build up to that point, but I hadn’t factored the magnitude of the Musk variable into the equation. I’d love it if there really was a deep state that would step in and come to our rescue via some kind of “special operation”.