Tag: wealth
Elon Musk

How Trump Exploited Clever But Clueless (And Needy) Musk

It feels strange talking about the world's richest man, only 53 years old, in the past tense. But that somehow seems appropriate for Elon Musk, who weeks ago was considered Donald Trump's co-president. Now he's clearly falling off that high perch, just as Tesla, his star asset, reports net income cratering by 71 percent.

Musk was undoubtedly a genius building business empires, not only Tesla but also SpaceX. He also owns the former Twitter, now known as X. But though he had certain highly developed faculties, he was not a full person at all.

One struggles to portray Musk as a victim, but it's become undeniable that Trump played him. Trump exploited his wealth, neediness and limited social smarts.

Start with the 2024 campaign. We don't know the monetary rewards Trump might have dangled, but this one-time Trump critic sank over a quarter of a billion dollars into helping the president's reelection. Moments after voters gave Trump a second term, Musk's wealth mushroomed in expectation of a lucrative payback.

But then Trump made Musk the fall guy for his obviously unpopular plan to cannibalize the government workforce. Not only did his "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) strip the public of prized services, but Musk seemed to enjoy inflicting pain on thousands of workers. "The real reason (for their complaints)," he said callously, "is that those who are receiving the waste and fraud wish it to continue."

Trump is famous for skipping out on paybacks. As the chainsaw-waving leader of DOGE, Musk became politically radioactive. And no longer useful, Musk is clearly being shown the door — just as potential Tesla buyers have gone elsewhere for their electric vehicles. Both setbacks because MAGA got him to play patsy, up to and including support for far-right candidates in Germany.

Musk has joined movements advocating for higher birth rates to counter a drop in population. But Musk has taken the notion to weird levels, trying to create a master race modeled on himself. He has spread his sperm to father at least 14 children, via a number of women.

Sure, he can write big checks, but children, boys especially, need involved fathers. Some of the most screwed up kids come from money but suffer from lack of fathering. Musk's plans to gather the mothers and children in a Texas compound and visit them from time to time is as bloodless as it gets.

Why an entrepreneur who helped launch the EV revolution in the United States would work for a man dedicated to frustrating it remains a mystery. Did Musk think he would be spared?

Musk, like Trump, needs to be in the headlines all the time. He'd brag about busting unions if that got attention. Musk wasn't content to quietly enjoy his vast fortune — or enjoy giving some of it away. A dedicated father heading big companies would have used more of his scant free time tending to his offspring.

In the end Musk was conned by a con man. Musk may have been the richest man around, but he was used and is now being stripped of an exalted place in world politics — after doing dirty work that has taken a big toll on his companies. He was hustled by a man who has overseen five business bankruptcies — six if you count Trump Entertainment Resorts, which went bankrupt twice.

Thanks in good part to Musk's money, Trump was put in a position to amass millions in crypto, and engage in more grift and perhaps old-fashioned corruption. And Musk got "poorer."

Musk has an estimated $330 billion left, so no tears for him. But his legend has been sharply marked down. He's now a figure of both hate and ridicule. What a sad combination.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Elon Musk

State Department Conceals $400 Million Payout To Tesla After Public Outcry

The Trump administration is trying to hide plans to hand $400 million in taxpayer funds to Tesla, the electric car company owned by the world’s richest man—Trump supporter Elon Musk.

On Wednesday, a document published by the State Department laid out plans for the purchase of “armored electric vehicles” from Tesla during fiscal year 2025. But after reporting on the document emerged, it was edited at 9:12 PM and references to Tesla were removed without explanation.

The payout to Tesla, where Musk currently serves as CEO, would come just months after he spent millions to help elect Trump in the 2024 election. Following the election, Trump named Musk to head his Department of Government Efficiency, which has been harassing federal workers and rooting around in sensitive government systems for weeks.

DOGE has been used to purge federal workers and suspend key agencies like the United States Agency for International Development despite lacking congressional authority to do so. In a call to the World Government Summit in Dubai on Thursday, Musk threatened that he would “delete entire agencies.”

The public doesn’t like what they see from Musk and DOGE. A recent poll from Economist/YouGov found that 52 percent of respondents view Musk very unfavorably or somewhat unfavorably, and 63 percent think he has a lot of influence over Trump.

Despite the very clear potential for massive corruption, the White House has claimed that Musk will voluntarily excuse himself from any possible conflicts of interest that arise. But Musk has spent years already intertwined with the federal government thanks to the billions in federal contracts tied up in his other company, SpaceX.

At the same time, the Trump administration has scaled back and stalled ongoing federal investigations of Musk’s companies that began under the Biden administration.

While the State Department order did not specify what part of Tesla’s product line would be purchased, the armored description appears to point to Tesla’s widely derided Cybertruck. The brainchild of Musk, the unsightly Cybertruck has been plagued with endless flaws and multiple product recalls.

Musk claims that he and Trump are working to create a more efficient and transparent federal government. Instead the two have lied and smeared for weeks. Yet Musk stands to make a lot of money thanks to the politician he bankrolled.

That would be classic corruption.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Karoline Leavitt

Trump Press Secretary Can't Confirm Musk Security Clearance

President Donald Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on Monday could neither confirm nor deny whether billionaire Elon Musk has received a security clearance as a US government employee under the president's new administration.

During a press conference outside of the White House, CNN's Chief White House Correspondent Caitlin Collins asked the MAGA secretary, "Can you confirm that Elon Musk is a special government employee? And what kind of security clearance does he have?"

Leavitt replied, "I can confirm he's a special government employee. I can also confirm that he has abided by all applicable federal laws. As for his security clearance, I'm not sure, but I can check."

Collins then asked, "Did he pass a background check, do you know?"

"I don't know about the security clearance, but I can check," Leavitt replied.

Collins then asked if the MAGA secretary knows whether anyone on Musk's team has security clearance.

"I don't, no. But, again, I can check on that for you," Leavitt said.

Nico Perrino, executive dircector of the free speech nonprofit FIRE, replied: "Here we have a government employee holding press conferences about his government work on his privately owned social media platform, where he's also banning journalists and members of the general public who criticize him. Seems we're getting into First Amendment territory ..."

Former Politico CA reporter Carla Marinucci commented: "He’s acting co-president — with access to millions is private citizens’ data — and she doesn’t know if he has a security clearance???!"

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Elon Musk

New Polls: America Rejects Musk And His 'DOGE' Exploits

Much of the American public is souring on billionaire Elon Musk and the heavy influence he appears to wield over the federal government.

Fifty-two percent of registered voters have an unfavorable view of Musk, while just 39 percent view him favorably, according to new data from the polling firm Civiqs. That includes a stark gender divide: A little under half of male voters (45 percent) have a favorable view of Musk compared with 57 percent of female voters who view him unfavorably.

More than three-quarters (79 percent) of Republicans held the X owner in high regard, while 95 percent of Democrats aren’t fans. Independents lean toward Democrats’ opinion too, with 52 percent having an unfavorable view of Musk and only 36 percent having a favorable view.

However, there was a time when Musk wasn’t nearly as much in the public eye and Americans had a relatively positive view of him. But turning X into a far-right echo chamber and cozying up to President Donald Trump seems to have sullied his image. In the span of a few months, Musk dunked on a recent artificial intelligence venture Trump announced and helped defeat a government spending bill in Congress. You’d think this would be enough to keep him busy, but Musk also managed to piss off some of Trump’s biggest allies, including former adviser Steve Bannon, who seems to really despise him.

“He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy,” Bannon said of Musk in January. “I made it my personal thing to take this guy down.”

A January survey from The Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows how much Musk’s recent moves have harmed his public perception. According to the poll, more than half of Americans (52 percent) had an unfavorable opinion of Musk, compared with 36 percent who viewed him favorably, putting him 16 points underwater. Compare that to a December survey from the same pollster that showed Musk’s favorability only 10 points underwater.

Other recent polls back this up:

  • A Wall Street Journal poll had Musk’s favorability 11 points underwater (40 percent favorable, 51 percent unfavorable).
  • A Marist College poll for NPR and PBS News found Musk 9 points underwater (37 percent favorable, 46 percent unfavorable) among registered voters.
  • Then there’s a Quinnipiac University poll from December that had Musk 5 points underwater (39 percent favorable, 44 percent unfavorable). Compare that with a Quinnipiac survey conducted two years prior, in December 2022, which showed Musk being slightly above water (36 percent favorable, 33 percent unfavorable).

Perhaps Americans dislike Musk because he’s linked to Trump, who is hellbent on pushing through unpopular things like tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico.

Then again, they also might not like Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory commission with no direct power over the federal government. It makes sense that Americans are on edge about Musk’s well-publicized promises to slash federal spending. After all, a Data for Progress poll for the Progressive Change Institute shows most likely voters are very concerned about DOGE’s threat to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, veteran’s health care programs, and food assistance for low-income families.

On top of that, Musk seems to wield a lot of governmental power for someone who was never elected to public office. And several polls show that people don’t like how much influence he seems to have over Trump and Republicans.

The December survey from Quinnipiac also showed that 53 percent of voters disapprove of Musk’s major role in the Trump administration. But there’s a partisan split. While 90 percent of Democrats are opposed to his role in the administration, 81 percent of Republicans approve of it. (Independents are largely against Musk’s role as well, with 57 percent disapproving.)

Other polls have found similar results. For instance, The Wall Street Journal’s poll found that half of voters think it’s a bad idea for Musk to advise Trump on spending bills and other matters, while just 39 percent say it’s a good idea for him to do so.

What’s more, Data for Progress found that 51 percent of likely voters believe Musk will use DOGE to his own benefit instead of making the government more efficient. While Democrats (74 percent) were more likely than independent or third-party voters (49 percent) to think this, Republicans expressed concerns too. An eyebrow-raising 29 percent of Republicans agree that Musk will use DOGE to “redirect more government resources towards himself and weaponize the federal government to undermine his business rivals.”

These combined data points suggest that the political middle is over Musk. And even some who don’t yet despise him are wary of what he’ll do as Trump’s “first buddy.”

And for Trump, Musk might become a big liability if the base turns on him even more than they already have.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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