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

    • kava@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 hour 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
    40·
    5 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
      8·
      3 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.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
    1731·
    12 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
      33·
      10 hours ago

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

      A little late.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
      64·
      11 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
    932·
    11 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
    224·
    13 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
      342·
      11 hours ago

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

      • Laurel RavenEnglish
        1·
        2 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
        471·
        9 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
          6·
          4 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
          171·
          8 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
        7·
        8 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
          2·
          29 minutes 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
            1·
            3 minutes 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”.

  • naeap@sopuli.xyz
    28·
    13 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?

    • kn0wmad1c@programming.devEnglish
      54·
      12 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
        3·
        7 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.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
        171·
        12 hours ago

        government is just sitting back

        They fired a bunch of FBI and DoJ, so if they’re sitting back it’s because they’re unemployed.

      • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        6·
        10 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·
        11 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
        11·
        12 hours ago

        So, how can he even do all that shit and the organisations don’t just tell him to go choke on a dick?

        • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
          22·
          12 hours ago

          If they push back, that person gets fired and replaced by a toady who won’t.

          • naeap@sopuli.xyz
            4·
            11 hours ago

            Yeah, talk about a hard place and a rock…

            Fucking sucks, that there is seemingly no leverage against those idiots

        • thefartographer@lemm.ee
          131·
          12 hours ago

          Mostly because it’s so brazen and fucking insane that people don’t even know what to do about it. If someone walked into your office building while waving a knife around and shouted, “get the fuck out or I’m gonna start stabbing people!” what do you think you’d do?

          My guess is that everyone is going to run out because we’ve been engrained to recognize the mechanisms in place to prevent and protect from these types of things. Anyone thinking anything other than getting the fuck out would probably be thinking “it’s not worth it, let the police handle it.”

          Let’s say you start shouting, “that’s illegal, go choke on a dick! C’mon y’all, there’s only one of him and many of us; we can’t wait for the police, ACAB!!!” I’d probably commend you when I read the article or your obituary, but everyone else in the office is going to be concerned with saving themselves and letting whatever contingencies kick in.

          Everyone with the power to stop this is sitting on their hands while waiting for someone else to step up. And we, the people? We’ve been trampled and subjugated for so long that now that we’re being told to rise up, we don’t know how. “Rise up against the system you helped manufacture? How? Y’all arrest and kill us in droves just for threatening money, much less people in power.”

        • datendefekt@feddit.org
          11·
          12 hours ago

          Not an American, but my guess is that they would have to sue and then discover that the judges are all toeing the party line.

          • naeap@sopuli.xyz
            3·
            11 hours ago

            Yeah, the last years seemingly were a build up to let Trump live his dictator dream

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
        7·
        12 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·
            8 hours ago

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

            Get your sentiment though…

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
          42·
          12 hours ago

          Some Americans forget there are other countries. It’s unavoidable until education improves.