22h ago

Is Elon Musk Staging a Coup? Billionaire Seizes Control at Treasury Dept.

www.democracynow.org Is Elon Musk Staging a Coup? Billionaire Seizes Control at Treasury Dept.

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 re...

There is a coup occurring now

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22h ago

Is Elon Musk Staging a Coup? Billionaire Seizes Control at Treasury Dept.

www.democracynow.org /2025/2/3/elon_musk_gov

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194 comments

Musk is who we deserve. The country that treats money as speech and corporations as people and bribery as political action has the worlds richest man controlling it. Finally, the world is making some fucking sense.

2A thumpers defend school shootings as required to defend against tyrants. Tyrants literally in our buildings and giving nazi salutes? Nothing.
- Americans currently rereading the 2nd amendment: "Damn, if we could only use them outside of schools, things would be fixed quickly"
  
  It's weird that Jefferson literally demanded helpless children be shot in schools like that but hey that's what the Constitution says so I guess we gotta let em do it.
  WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEONE TOOK A KNEE AT THE NATIONAL ANTHEM??!!???

if you think trump is bad, just wait to be ruled directly by those fuckers instead of via proxy.
- 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.
  
  yeah, but that still has the limitation of having to at least pretend. I dread to think what will happen when they stop caring about that and just directly take control.

it's only a coup if it comes from the Coup d'Etat region of France, otherwise it's just a sparkling government takeover.
- Which is why the US has never actually staged a coup in a foreign country. Not many people know that

Related: https://waleedshahid.substack.com/

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!
- The Incorporated States of America?

Unelected weirdo walks into government facilities and does what he wants.

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

Staging? It already happened
- Exactly. He has every American's personal details and total control of the nation's finances. He really doesn't need anything else.
- 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

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.
- If I ever come home to 2.3 kids I'm gonna be so mad. Where is the 0.7 kids I'm missing?!
- █████ ██ █ ████ Everything ███ █████ is ████ ██ ████ fine ████ ███ █ █████ love. █████ █████ ███ your ████ ████ government
- What does first lady trump say about this?
  
  He’s just making weird grunting noises, kinda sounds like an orangutan

One is fascist narcissistic billionaire and other is criminal
- This reboot of The Odd Couple is really weird.

Is it a coup if Trump and Republicans have given him permission and letting him do what he wants?
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
- Yes. Since he wasn't elected and the actions he is taking require actual laws to pass to occur legally
  
  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.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
- Although no one was prosecuted
  Why the FUCK do we keep letting people get away with this shit??
  
  I believe the theory is that Roosevelt sat down with the Business Plot crew in secret and gave them the option of a) they convince their business pals not to oppose the New Deal too much or b) they hang. Obviously they picked option a.
- This is the kinda shit that needs to be taught to everyone in US history class.
- Just business as usual :P

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.
- Too late. He tweeted "Cześć" (or Hello). How scared should I be?
- Russians and fossil fuel corporations are cheering
- 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.
- Don’t let Elon Musk any where near your elections or near your country.
  A little late.

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.
- inspector generals
  I don't want to be that guy, but the plural is "inspectors general".
  
  Now I'll say it like that guy in Futurama. Inspectorses generals
  
  I say always be that guy. You have the heart to speak up and help others to learn and grow - for example I was questioning which it was, but you confirmed for me that it is indeed inspectors general.
- I don't think she stroked his ego, I think she played hardball and showed him how he was gonna get hurt a lot more than they were, then he backed off (saving face by saying she would send troops to the border). That and the fact that women intimidate the hell out of Trump. He knows how to bully men but women get him all discombobulated.
  
  women get him all discombobulated.
  Until he grabs em by the pussy
- Step 6 is how the cabinet members got their jobs and why all the TechBros gave him a million each.
- Canada now as well. Trump is such a joke.
- Wait what happened with the Mexican tariffs ?
  
  Canada and Mexico both cracked today
  
  The Mexican president gave the first lady a blow job and now the tariffs have all been rolled back for the moment.

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.
- The current technically still is, but the regime they are transforming into won't be anymore legitimate.
  
  Except the current "president" isn't constitutionally eligible to hold the office after inciting insurrection, so no, it really isn't legitimate even now
  
  With all the voters suppression tactics, gerrymandering in the house, and all the ballots they had discarded, it's not legitimate.
  
  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.
- https://youtu.be/5RpPTRcz1no

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
- It's a self-coup, so people are correct in calling it a coup. It's still in progress, so it's not clear how much power the white house will end up usurping, but with what they've done so far, it's imo already enough to call it a coup.
  From Wikipedia: A self-coup or coup from the top, is a form of coup d'état in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power through illegal means through the actions of themselves and/or their supporters. The leader may dissolve or render powerless the national legislature and unlawfully assume extraordinary powers. Other measures may include annulling the nation's constitution, suspending civil courts, and having the head of government assume dictatorial powers.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-coup
  The wiki article also contains a long list of other historical self coups. Germany in 1933 is the most famous example.
- 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.
  
  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.
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
- 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.
  
  Trump didn’t put his hand on the bible so the oath doesn’t count!
- 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.
  
  I saw this video linked earlier and thought it was an interesting tale. As of recent events it coincides with many things. (Not saying the conclusions are correct, just an entertaining take.
  https://youtu.be/5RpPTRcz1no

Musk is saying that they aren't going to pay US contractors for up to a month.
There is no question.
- That... Includes actual mercenaries, no?
  
  There will be exceptions. The exceptions will be anything Musk views as a threat to himself.
  
  Yes, thousands of often highly specialized, experienced mercenaries.

The coup has already happened.

Is this how the Russians felt when Rasputin was to influencing the Tsar?
- I think we should test if Musk is as durable as Rasputin.
  
  Or as durable as the UHC CEO
  
  The song about it won't be as catchy though.

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?
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  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
- Musk doesn't hold any official position.
  
  So, how can he even do all that shit and the organisations don't just tell him to go choke on a dick?
- Must be nice to have no idea what's been going on.
  
  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

Yes.
Our last hope it seems:
- Oh the irony
  
  The hammer lady was absent.
  
  The only irony I see is the people seeing it as the Apple message and not the message in the Apple ad.
  The ad seems to have worked even on the unsuspecting.
- Is Apple™️? I really hope not.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(advertisement)

The chancellor is taking power lol

More Cybertrucks sold than all other EV trucks combined. Not a Tesla fan. Also not a fan of FUD. https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/18/24247985/tesla-cybertruck-july-2024-sales-deliveries-match-all-ev-trucks
- Thanks, I now believe what president musk and first lady trump are doing is right!
- Who the fuck asked
- I think your comment has appeared in the wrong the wrong musk thread. This one is about takeover of us treasury.
  I think cyberducks is here: https://lemmy.world/post/25080532
- This would have made sense, I suppose, had you posted it on the article about cybertruck sales slowing, but it just seems nonsequitur here.
- Yeah, and taylor swift is one of the best selling artists of all time. Almost selling as much the beatles or queen.
  What's your point?
- Well that definitely proves that ~~President~~ Musk hasn't taken over the U.S. government for his own whims.
- There are not that many e-trucks... Only Americans buy these, and they proved that the majority is OK wit supporting Nazis...

194 comments