Elon Musk and the new fascists

 

Elon Musk and the new fascists

February 26, 2025

MIDDLEBOROREVIEWANDSOON

 

The Circus Begins 1.20.25 Ally Sammarco Jan 21 Credit: AP Hello and happy Monday, friends. Welcome back to Today’s American News, your source for news and analysis on the circus that is American politics and entertainment. Today was Trump’s inauguration day. Ugh. Self-described “Dictator on Day One” Trump signs really bad orders… If you were avoiding watching the news today, this story is probably what you wanted to avoid seeing. CNN reports “Trump signed actions that remove the US from the Paris climate agreement, freeze hiring in the federal government and require federal workers to return to the office.” The executive orders were signed immediately following Trump’s inauguration parade. Trump immediately pardons January 6 criminals… We can’t say he didn’t warn us. After taking office today, Trump made good on his promise to pardon the insurrectionists who followed his direction in trying to overturn the election and prevent the transfer of power on January 6, 2021. The pardons extended to 1,500 MAGA criminals, including Proud Boys and Oath Keepers convicted of seditious conspiracy. Credit: Getty Images Vivek Ramaswamy cut from fake job focused on making cuts… It’s almost like clockwork that drama and karma knocks down members of Trump’s inner circle. Elon Musk and Ramaswamy appeared to be besties, but behind the scenes Musk was trying to get his fellow tech bro off of a Trump commission designed to fire government workers. Ramaswamy plans to run for Ohio governor, a real job, and he likely expects to have Trump's support in that campaign. Politico covered the behind-the-scenes circus. Credit: AP Trump crypto coin scheme seizes on MAGA supporters’ cult mentality… Since he jumped into political waters with his racist attacks on President Obama, he cashed in on his platform with impunity. Money-grabbing trading cards, gold sneakers, fake Bibles, and his latest scheme, Trump-themed crypto coins. The crypto industry has flocked to Trump, who opposed crypto until he figured that he could make money from it. The “meme coin” named $TRUMP, launched Friday, has risen from $6.50 in value to a high of $73 yesterday. Today’s Buzz Trump suggests ambassadorships for right-wing Hollywood figures… Hollywood isn’t known for throngs of entertainment industry names with right-wing politics, but Trump has found at least three he likes: Sylvester Stallone, Jon Voight, and Mel Gibson. Trump indicated at an inauguration event last evening that he will appoint the three household Hollywood figures as ambassadors. Thanks for reading Today’s American News. We’re in for quite a circus these next four years. Check back in tomorrow as we bring you more news and analysis.

Why I remain hopeful about America Even as darkness falls Robert Reich Jan 20 Friends, So many people I know — including, I suspect, many of you — are despairing over Trump’s second regime, which starts today. I share your fears about what’s to come. Yet I remain hopeful about the future of America. Here’s why. Trump hoodwinked average working Americans into believing he’s on their side and convinced enough voters that Kamala Harris and Democrats were on the side of cultural elites (the “deep state,” “woke”ism, “coastal elites,” and so on). But Trump’s hoax will not work for long, given the oligarchy’s conspicuous takeover of America under Trump II. Even before Trump’s regime begins, it’s already exposing a reality that has been hidden from most Americans for decades: the oligarchy’s obscene wealth and its use of that wealth to gain power over America. Seated prominently where Trump is giving his inaugural address today will be the three richest people in America — Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg — each of whom owns powerful media that have either boosted Trump’s lies or refrained from telling the truth about him. Musk sank a quarter of a billion dollars into getting Trump elected, in return for which Trump has authorized him, along with billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, to target for elimination programs Americans depend on — thereby making way for another giant tax cut for the wealthy. The oligarchy’s conflicts of interest will be just as conspicuous. Musk’s SpaceX is a major federal contractor through its rocket launches and its internet service, Starlink. Bezos’s Amazon is a major federal contractor through its cloud computing business. Zuckerberg is pouring billions into artificial intelligence, as is Musk, in hopes of huge federal contracts. Ramaswamy, whose biotech company is valued at nearly $600 million, wants the Food and Drug Administration to speed up drug approvals. His investment firm has an oil and gas fund. His new Bitcoin business would benefit if the federal government kept its hands off crypto. Trump himself has already begun to cash in on his second presidency even more blatantly than he did the first time. He just began selling a cryptocurrency token featuring an image of himself — even though cryptocurrency is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, to which Trump has already said he’ll name a crypto advocate as chair. Not to mention the billionaires Trump is putting in charge of key departments to decide on taxes and expenditures, tariffs and trade, even what young Americans learn — all of whom have brazen conflicts of interest. They’ll all be on display today with Trump. Then, many will take their private jets to Davos, Switzerland, for the annual confab of the world’s most powerful CEOs and billionaires. Not since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century has such vast wealth turned itself into such conspicuous displays of political power. Unapologetically, unashamedly, defiantly. This flagrancy makes me hopeful. Why? Because Americans don’t abide aristocracy. We were founded in revolt against unaccountable power and wealth. We will not tolerate this barefaced takeover. The backlash will be stunning. I cannot tell you precisely how or when it will occur, but it will start in our communities when we protect the most vulnerable from the cruelties of the Trump regime, ensure that hardworking families aren’t torn apart, protect transgender and LGBTQ+ people, and help guard the safety of Trump’s political enemies. We will see the backlash in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election, when Americans elect true leaders who care about working people and the common good. And just as we did at the end of the first Gilded Age of the late 19th century when the oligarchy revealed its hubris and grandiosity, Americans will demand fundamental reforms: getting big money out of politics, taxing huge wealth, busting up or regulating giant corporations, making huge social media platforms accountable to the public rather than to a handful of multibillionaires. Friends, we could not remain on the path we were on. The sludge had been thickening even under Democratic administrations. Systematic flaws have remained unaddressed. Inequalities have continued to widen. Corruption and bribery have worsened. It’s tragic that America had to come to this point. A few years of another Trump regime, even worse than the first, will be hard on many people. But as the oligarchy is conspicuously exposed, Americans will see as clearly as we did at the end of the first Gilded Age that we have no option but to take back power. Only then can we continue the essential work of America: the pursuit of equality and prosperity for the many, not the few. The preservation and strengthening of a government of, by, and for the people.

The National Guard Drops UNEXPECTED BOMBSHELL On Trump

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The United States National Guard just ruined Donald Trump‘s Sunday with an unexpected bombshell. Sorry, Donald!

 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, co-chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), carries his son on his shoulders at the U.S. Capitol after a media availability with fellow co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on December 5, 2024 in Washington, D.C.

 (Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Hey Elon and Vivek! Here's What a Real 'Department of Government Efficiency' Would Do

A new report identifies what a DOGE "based on evidence, not ideology, would include—from slashing drug prices to ending privatized Medicare to reducing the wasteful Pentagon budget."

While the U.S. Senate on Wednesday held confirmation hearings for several of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees, the watchdog Public Citizen sounded the alarm about a new commission and its billionaire leaders, who don't require congressional oversight but could significantly impact federal agencies, regulations, and spending.

Despite being called the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE is not a government department. It is a presidential advisory commission that Trump announced after his November win. He has asked billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead it.

Public Citizen co-presidents Lisa Gilbert and Robert Weissman on Monday wrote to Trump's transition team, asking to join DOGE. While their group has concerns about the commission's "structure and mission," including potential conflicts of interest regarding Musk and Ramaswamy's financials, the watchdog leaders made the case that they could serve "as voices for the interests of consumers and the public who are the beneficiaries of federal regulatory and spending programs."

"There is nothing 'efficient' about hitting a pre-determined target for spending cuts, least of all one that is infeasible."

The pair highlighted that their appointment "would be an important step towards compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act," and outlined some ideas they have "to slash drug prices, end privatized Medicare, reduce the wasteful Pentagon budget."

Weissman expanded on the group's recommendations in a Wednesday report titled DOGE Delusions: A Real-World Plan to Reject Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's Misguided Agenda, Crack Down on Corporate Handouts, Tax the Rich, and Invest for the Future.

"Every sign from DOGE suggests that it aims to use 'efficiency' as a cover to shrink government, benefit corporations by cutting regulations, and advance a predetermined ideological agenda," Weissman said in a Wednesday statement. "This report identifies what an efficiency agenda based on evidence, not ideology, would include—from slashing drug prices to ending privatized Medicare to reducing the wasteful Pentagon budget."

The report's introduction notes that Trump and Musk's suggestions that DOGE would cut $2 trillion in yearly spending, even though "many commentators have pointed out the effective impossibility of cutting $2 trillion annually from the federal budget, given that all federal discretionary spending—including the Pentagon budget and veterans' benefits—totals less than $2 trillion."

Musk even admitted last week that $2 trillion is unlikely, after which experts said his lower target of $1 trillion is still "too large."

"Few would argue with the purported goal of 'government efficiency,' but there is nothing 'efficient' about hitting a pre-determined target for spending cuts, least of all one that is infeasible," Weissman wrote. "Nor is there anything 'efficient' about ideologically driven notions of shrinking government or corporate profit-driven plans to roll back regulatory protections."

"Additionally, 'efficiency' is not a primary value," he continued. "Whatever the government does, it should strive to do efficiently (mindful of other considerations), but the real question is what the government should be doing in the first place."

The 35-page report features sections on ending Big Pharma's price gouging, shutting down privatized Medicare, cutting Pentagon waste and curbing contractor greed, taxing the rich and corporations, taxing high earners and the wealthy, eliminating oil and gas subsidies, regulating efficiency, the costs of not regulating, investing in the care economy, and investing to avert a climate catastrophe.

Many of the proposals overtly conflict with the priorities of the incoming Trump administration and the new Republican-controlled Congress, which are expected to swiftly and aggressively pursue tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, expansion of Medicare Advantage, and the Big Oil-backed president-elect's campaign pledge to "drill, baby, drill" for climate-heating fossil fuels.

The GOP has promoted additional fossil fuel extraction despite the costly and devastating impacts of the climate emergency, as seen with 27 U.S. disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion in 2024—the hottest year on record—and in Los Angeles, California, which is currently enduring what could be "the costliest wildfire disaster in American history."

The Public Citizen report points out that the monetary costs of climate inaction "will severely reduce the size of the global economy. Depending on how quickly we move and how severe we let climate chaos become, the insurance giant Swiss Re suggests the annual dollar costs could be 11% to 14% of total global economic output by 2050—amounting to around $23 trillion annually—and around 7% of North American economic output. These costs will compound and grow even worse over time."

The watchdog estimates that one of its related proposals—ending handouts to fossil fuel companies—would save about $20 billion annually. Ending privatized Medicare would save $100 billion each year, and modest cuts to the Pentagon budget would save $100 billion yearly. More serious defense cuts could save $200 billion, the same figure for measures to reduce prescription drug prices. The biggest savings from the group's recommendations would come from fair tax reforms, at $500 billion annually.

"If DOGE is interested in saving taxpayers and consumers money and making sound investments that will generate a positive return to the government and society," the report concludes, "there is a clear set of evidence-based measures for it to pursue."

COMMON DREAMS

POLITICO Nightly: Trump’s unexpected antitrust approach

By Marcia Brown President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 9, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. | Evan Vucci/AP SAME BUT DIFFERENT — Some of America’s best-known business leaders spent their holidays sucking up to President-elect Donald Trump. Netflix’s Ted Sarandos had dinner at Mar-a-Lago. An Amazon documentary is set to chronicle Melania Trump’s move into the White House. Mark Zuckerberg named Trump supporter Dana White to Meta’s board. Their willingness to kiss the ring isn’t just about currying personal favor with the incoming president. After President Joe Biden ushered in a new era for aggressive anti-monopoly enforcement and pressed to curb the power of big business, CEOs are hoping the Trump administration might be a lot more friendly to consolidation, allowing powerful companies to merge without much oversight. But Trump’s actions thus far have suggested he’s at least somewhat pro-aggressive antitrust enforcement. In a December flurry of Truth Social posts, he nominated Andrew Ferguson, a current commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission to replace Lina Khan as chair, antitrust attorney Mark Meador to be the third Republican FTC commissioner and Gail Slater to lead the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. The three are all conservatives but they represent a wing of the Trump Republican party that bucks conventional GOP thinking: They’ve criticized Big Tech not just for censoring conservative speech but also for being too big and too powerful — not so different from the left’s critique. Still, it’s an open question whether they’ll act on those concerns, especially when several major tech leaders are teed up for administration positions. “This is a very powerful statement that Trump wants to take on Big Tech,” wrote Matt Stoller of Trump’s pick of Slater in a post on X . Stoller, who runs an anti-monopoly podcast and is a fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, added in his newsletter, “while it won’t be like Joe Biden’s, it seems [Trump] is going to continue some significant parts of the anti-monopoly revival.“ The three are not expected to be nearly as aggressive as Biden’s antitrust cops, Khan and Jonathan Kanter, the U.S. assistant attorney general for the antitrust division of the Department of Justice. But Biden’s anti-monopoly soldiers are hopeful Trump’s election won’t be the end of an antitrust revolution. One former Biden administration official described Meador, a former deputy chief counsel for antitrust & competition policy for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), as “a friend of the movement and really smart and aggressively enforcement minded.” Slater, a tech skeptic and policy adviser for incoming Vice President JD Vance, is not expected to drop the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuits against Ticketmaster or Apple, disappointing a business community hopeful for the halcyon days of Ronald Reagan. As for Ferguson, he has voted against much of Khan’s agenda at the FTC, but there are signs that he may advance Trump’s battle against Big Tech. Just last month, when Khan revived an obscure and long-dormant law prohibiting price discrimination in a lawsuit against Southern Glazer, the nation’s largest alcohol distributor, Ferguson voted against it. But his dissent argued not against Khan’s decision to reinvigorate enforcement but against her choice of target — a position several observers viewed as part of his campaign to earn Trump’s nomination for FTC chair. And today, the FTC brought a high-profile case against John Deere, a top tractor maker, alleging the company illegally restricted repair. Ferguson again voted against the lawsuit, but his dissent focused only on procedural issues. “I am glad the Commission is taking up the cause of the farmer, and that the Antitrust Division has recently devoted substantial resources to promoting competition in agriculture markets,” he wrote in his dissent. Of course, the left still has reservations about the scope of Trump’s anti-monopoly agenda — and his convictions. On a lot of competition issues, “Mark Meador, who is great, is not Lina Khan. Gail Slater, who is great, is not Jonathan Kanter,” said Joe Van Wye, a lobbyist for the progressive shop P Street and who previously worked on the House Judiciary Committee with Khan. Some in the Biden administration also believe that Trump could abandon Biden’s all-of-government approach which identified new or previously abandoned authorities the FTC and DOJ could use, wielded the government’s procurement contracts as a cudgel and used the bully pulpit to slow a merger wave. Instead, they think that the Trump administration will focus its enforcement efforts on one industry, Tech. “I am skeptical that an FTC and a DOJ under Trump will be as focused on merger enforcement outside of a very select handful of markets,” said an outgoing Biden administration official. “While they may mean bad news for the tech companies … I think you could see a lot of mergers in markets like energy and health care.” Given how integral blocking mergers is to an effective anti-monopoly strategy, that could mean that the Trump administration still oversees significant consolidation across the economy — and all of the negative downstream effects that might have, the official noted. Ultimately, the picks are just one more iteration of the team of rivals Trump is harnessing to run his administration. On antitrust, the divide is perhaps best characterized as an Elon Musk v. JD Vance competition. Musk despises Khan and her ilk. Vance, in contrast, has spoken alongside Khan and liberals like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at RemedyFest 2024, a pro-enforcement antitrust conference. Vance’s influence is a big part of what led to Slater, Ferguson and Meador, Biden’s allies say. “When you have a leader of your party who is saying these things out loud, I think folks could easily fall in line behind this kind of new thinking,” said Chris Jones, a lobbyist for grocery stores who also runs the Main Street Competition Coalition, a pro-enforcement group. “There’s a clear through line in terms of what we’ve seen come out of the Biden administration, translating over to Trump. There’s a populism that both parties are taking advantage of.” Still, Trump’s tunnel focus on the tech industry demonstrates a “hollowness of the populism” on the right, said the outgoing Biden administration official, pointing to Khan’s lawsuit blocking a $25 billion grocery merger as evidence of the Biden administration’s economy-wide approach. “They’re talking a big game on Big Tech. I actually think a lot of them mean it. But what about like, a hospital merger in Indiana that’s gonna fire a bunch of nurses and raise prices and lower the costs and convenience of service? Consolidation is everywhere. It is not just in tech. And I suspect that you’re going to see who the real populists are, especially on merger enforcement.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at marciabrown@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @Marcia_Brown9 . What'd I Miss? — Former Bernie Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir enters DNC Chair race: Faiz Shakir, who led Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, is jumping into the race for chair of the Democratic National Committee — injecting a new candidate into the low-key contest. Shakir’s late entrance into the race could shake up a contest that has largely focused on party mechanics rather than its ideology. In a letter to DNC members, Shakir said he’s become “frustrated” by the “lack of vision and conviction for what to do to restore a deeply damaged Democratic brand,” prompting his decision to join the race. — Ramaswamy and DeWine met to discuss Ohio Senate appointment: Two months after taking himself out of the running for an Ohio Senate seat, Vivek Ramaswamy is under consideration for the post , according to two people familiar with the matter granted anonymity to discuss ongoing conversations. Ramaswamy and Gov. Mike DeWine, who is tasked with appointing someone to the job recently vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance, met at the governor’s mansion over the weekend to discuss the post, according to one of the people. WATCH THIS ONE! — Freedom Caucus floats corporate tax boost in exchange for easing state, local deduction cap: Members of the House Freedom Caucus have an idea for lawmakers from California, New Jersey and New York seeking to expand a key tax deduction in negotiations over a sweeping GOP policy bill: We’ll trade you lower taxes on your constituents for higher taxes on your companies. Under the proposal, blue-state Republicans would have to agree to restrict the state and local tax deduction — commonly known as SALT — for corporations in exchange for easing a cap on the deduction for individuals and families. THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION PUTTING UP GUARDRAILS — Just months after Donald Trump promised to let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild” on health care as a member of his Cabinet, some of the president-elect’s advisers are quietly trying to box him in . Transition officials plan to install several longtime GOP allies in senior roles across the health department, filling out key parts of Kennedy’s leadership team well before he could be confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary. The push aims to surround Kennedy with conservative policymakers who can compensate for his lack of government experience and MAGA credentials — while also ensuring the White House can keep close tabs on an HHS nominee who many Trump aides still don’t fully trust, said a half-dozen Republicans familiar with the transition’s activities, who were granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. AMERICA FIRST — Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of State, today vowed that the “top priority” of U.S. foreign policy “will be the United States” as he outlined his life story and his goals if confirmed to be America’s top diplomat. In his remarks before his colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio outlined that under Trump and him, the State Department will put forward policies that make America “more prosperous” and avoid past mistakes where “America far too often continued to prioritize the “global order” above our core national interests.” LEADING THE PACK — The Trump transition team is honing in on Sean Plankey as its choice to be the next director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency , according to three people familiar with the matter. Any decision about who will head the roughly $3 billion Department of Homeland Security agency is not official until President-elect Donald Trump announces his pick for the Senate-confirmed role, the three people cautioned. But Plankey, a senior cyber policy official from Trump’s first administration and a veteran of the Pennsylvania National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard, is firmly the leading contender at this point in the process. SIDESTEPPING — Pam Bondi, Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, repeatedly declined to say today that Joe Biden won the 2020 election , saying he was “duly sworn in” but sidestepping a question about whether he was the legal winner of the contest. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee — which questioned Bondi today — said Bondi’s refusal to answer the “yes or no” question was concerning and he encouraged her to listen to Trump’s hourlong call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump asked Georgia officials to “find” enough votes to reverse the outcome. Bondi said she’d only heard a clip. AROUND THE WORLD Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, today. | Abdel Kareem Hana/AP CEASEFIRE NOW — Hamas and Israel have reached a deal to bring a cease-fire to the Gaza Strip and release dozens of hostages, including some Americans, U.S. and Qatari officials announced today. The agreement — which they said includes a six-week pause in fighting starting Sunday — raises hopes that it could prove a permanent end to the 15-month long war that has killed tens of thousands of people, traumatized the Middle East, and rattled America and Israel’s standing in the world. It also follows many months of often fitful negotiations and is a boost to President Joe Biden as he prepares to exit office. President-elect Donald Trump’s team was involved in the final days as well, with Trump using tough rhetoric to insist that Hamas agree before his inauguration. Speaking from the White House, Biden said he was pleased to announce the agreement “at long last,” noting he first suggested a template for this deal in May. Biden added that he looked forward to welcoming home the Americans held hostage for more than a year. “The road to this deal has not been easy,” Biden said. “I’ve worked in foreign policy for decades. This is one of the toughest negotiations I’ve ever experienced. We’ve reached this point because — because of the pressure that Israel built on Hamas backed by the United States.” Biden stopped short of sharing precise figures on the numbers of hostages and prisoners that will be released, saying that information would be “forthcoming.” Nightly Number $7.7 million The amount of money that former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who is mulling a run for New York City mayor — has in his state-level campaign finance account , according to a disclosure report he submitted this morning. RADAR SWEEP CYBERCRIME CLOSE TO HOME — In a small town in Michigan, two middle schoolers who were dating began to get cyberbullied. In a series of intense, disturbing messages that lasted for years, a young girl in particular was consistently attacked . The drama consumed the town, drawing in other classmates as suspects and concerning local parents. But the truth of who was actually sending the text messages turned the story into a national scandal, with a Netflix movie on the way. In New York Magazine, Lauren Smiley gets to the bottom of the sordid affair. Parting Image On this date in 1994: President Bill Clinton, traveling with First Lady Hillary Clinton, salutes towards the crowd at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport. The First Family departed after a three day summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin. | Greg Gibson/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   Follow us

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