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Trump and Musk's dismantling of government is shaking foundations of US democracy
By LISA MASCARO WASHINGTON©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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lincolnman
Of course it is - that's their intent - neither of them support democracy - one is an idiot autocrat and the other is an autistic autocrat...
They want a oligarch-like kleptocracy where the uber-rich control everything - just like Russia...
They'll use every cultural issue they can to deflect and cover their tracks...and the MAGA-masses are so gullible they'll fall for it...
The rich get the goldmine, everyone else gets the shaft...that's MAGA-world in a nutshell...
Yrral
I think a Judge should convene a grand jury especially for Musk
TaiwanIsNotChina
It's a big problem: the bulwark is the courts and they move slowly. We were never supposed to have been in a position where the public willingly put in a Caesar.
theFu
Allowing Musk to still control multiple companies with US govt contracts AND heading any govt department is a conflict of interest.
The fact that Trump hasn't turned over all his companies to be run by a blind trust is still wrong. Huge conflict of interest. When he looks at Gaza rebuilding, all he sees is "Trump" buildings everywhere, built at premium prices by 250K new Trump employees for hundreds of $billions. It can't be allowed.
So many things Trump has abandoned that have been part of being an American President for centuries, because the original men who started these non-mandated acts were good men, unlike Trump.
Trump just likes to disrupt things and hear his name. Musk is similar. Those traits make them terrible leaders for the US govt. Let them lead a 20K person company, but not a country.
Zaphod
LOL, "dismantling of government"? Is that what transparency is called now? If the slushfund that spent 50 mio US tax payers money on condoms for Hamas and more millions for sex change operations in Guatamala gets audited, that dismantles the government now? The derangement in the legacy media is amazing.
TaiwanIsNotChina
I don't even have to look it up to know that what the Serb says is nonsense.
Tokyo Guy
Like Bill Hicks said. "Go back to bed America, your government has it all figured out. Go back to bed. Here's American Gladiators. Here's 56 channels of it!"
mikeylikesit
Shaking the foundations of democracy?
So, in a democracy, the people aren’t supposed to know that $32 million flowed from the government to Politico, and millions more to the New York Times, BBC, and other news organizations? The government has been covertly purchasing propaganda, and the threat to democracy is that this sordid spending is now exposed?
mariasjapan
Elon Musk is a terrible president!
Zaphod
mikeylikesit
For those who get their all their information from Politico, the NYT, BBC, Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid and similar paid professionals, apparently so. Talk about a successful deep state program.
TaiwanIsNotChina
US government expenditures are 6 trillion dollars. How much do you think Musk will divert to himself of that?
KnightsOfCydonia
I think you mean the condoms for gaza mozambique no?
Stop getting your news from faux news, you just embarrass yourself.
1glenn
It turns out that putting someone who is certifiably insane in the White House has a downside.
Peter Neil
the slipshod use of the word democracy is a problem. ain’t no democracy.
the decline of the separation of powers is what’s occurring now. that and a transformation to an oligarchy no different than russia, and an unchecked authoritarian government.
there’s an old saying that you become what you hate. it’s happening before your eyes.
Charles Marlowe
Wonderful! Good for Trump and Musk. i pray they succeed. If only Japan, or even better my country the UK had a similar initiative. We need to massively reduce the size of the state which increasingly exits solely to serve itself and is a sort of make-work scheme for the otherwise unemployable. People all over the world are realising that 90% of what governments do is unnecessary and even damaging. We don’t need politicians, most government agencies are useless and there is almost nothing that the state does that isn’t better done by the private sector. And not just domestically but the same principle applies internationally. What is NATO for? The Soviet Union no longer exists. What is the EU for? To make those who work for it rich and impoverish the disenfranchise the people of the bloc. What is the WHO for? I could go on and on…
Sufferers from Trump Derangement Syndrome will never admit it of course, but they are a lost cause. On this at least, he is unquestionably right.
TaiwanIsNotChina
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/30/is-the-us-sending-50m-in-condoms-to-gaza-as-trump-claims
Why, because he is a good boy and could never do anything wrong?
GBR48
The USG hide black ops slush funds all over the place. Musk is going to dive in and accidentally cancel heaps of them. The CIA will not be amused.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Among russia/China/US, only the US attempts to do things transparently. There is no place to hide trillions of dollars in black ops funds.
TaiwanIsNotChina
USAID is 0.6% of the federal budget. MAGAs will announce that handing over the Global South to China is a great success.
Underworld
Burgerland
What USAID is spending was decided by Congress with full transparency. Now the detractors are making up stories like 'condoms to Gaza' to rile up MAGA. Looks like they are succeeding.
Turning out the USAID conspiracy theory was wrong all along. Again.
Underworld
TaiwanIsNotChina
Indeed. I thought MAGA was anti-China, but instead they are handing China gifts.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Roulette wheel came up with "11 million" and "drain the swamp" today I see.
bass4funk
Because he wouldn't need it. But I am just glad that they are shrinking the government waste, so that is the best thing that could happen and if the left were so transparent, then why are they so opposed to all of us knowing where our money is going?
Zaphod
I am curious if some of our Trump haters can explain how spendig 50 mio USD for condoms for Hamas, 4.5 to "combat misinformation" in Kasachistan, 2 mio for meals for Al Nusra, 7.9 mio to teach Sri Lankan journalists to "avoid binary gendered language", or 20 mio for a TV show in Iraq of taxpayer money is in the interest of the country or the taxpayer? Seems to me this audit is very much overdue and needed.
Would be curious to see who disagrees and why.
BB
iknowall
Since when is seeing where taxpayers' money actually goes a dismantling of democracy?
Oh, when there is a Republican president.
Who was elected democratically.
TaiwanIsNotChina
I'm sure the average Serb is able to understand that there is more than one Gaza in the world. I guess not this Serb, though.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The US correctly predicted that russia would launch a disgusting war of aggression. That is all that matters.
Zaphod
TaiwanIsNotChina
Their satellites can see troop movement and see that the Russians were acting to counter-act the Nato supported massing of troops for the total annexation of the dissident ethnic Russian provinces that had separated from the Kiev regime installed in 14.
It is like "predicting" that a sleeping bear will wake up and bite you if you poke it enough. Some "prediction".
TaiwanIsNotChina
And what pill website did you get this gem from? You can't annex what is legally yours and even poor at war russia knows how to plant landmines and mass artillery.
Just because you say it, doesn't make it so. Phone calls don't change governments.
iknowall
The foundations of democracy were trampled on by the Democrats during the Biden administration and now that Trump is successfully rebuilding the government from the ground up the Democrats see more clearly the writing on the wall that says the Democratic Party is dismantling itself and is almost at the height of its insignificance.
TaiwanIsNotChina
He says with no evidence whatsoever. Democrats doing quite well with zero defections when the rubber meets the road. You'll see.