Elon Musk Is A Criminal. So Now What?
Breaking the law is kind of Trump’s jam.
Elon Musk has seized control of the federal government. He’s shut down the United States Agency for International Development, and his SpaceX monkeys have accessed sensitive personal data, including the Social Security numbers of most taxpayers. Even if you’re one of those voters who Googled “did Biden drop out?” on Election Day, you probably still realize that Musk wasn’t actually elected to anything. He hasn’t even gone through the GOP’s Senate confirmation express lane.
Musk’s actions are blatantly unconstitutional and illegal. Not that the mainstream media has seemed to notice: Recent New York Times headlines include “Elon Musk’s Next Target: Government Buildings,” “Déjà Vu: Elon Musk Takes His Twitter Takeover Tactics to Washington,” “Elon Musk and His Allies Storm Into Washington and Race to Reshape It.”
Even if Musk were president, he couldn’t unilaterally dissolve USAID and cut any spending that he doesn’t like. The Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse. Of course, the current GOP-controlled Congress is just MAGA puppet theatre. The Senate has rubber-stamped the confirmations of national security threat Tulsi Gabbard and known crackpot Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The GOP’s relatively small majorities would still pass whatever unhinged legislation Trump demands.
New York Times columnist Ezra Klein argues that Trump and Musk are defying the law because Trump’s too weak to govern. “A more powerful chief executive could convince Congress to eliminate the spending he opposes,” Klein said. However, as
pointed out last year, Trump fundamentally hates democracy. Even if his congressional stooges will do whatever he wants, Trump resents even acknowledging any checks on his power. He also doesn’t care about legitimately “reforming” the federal government and imposing “durable” changes to the system. Trump can’t see beyond his own reign of terror.Klein correctly observes that Trump wants to rule like a king, which is what he’s doing to alarming success. However, what Klein seemingly ignores is that Trump is an outright criminal thug. (The Times flat-out writes about Trump like he’s the Outlaw Josey Whales.)
Trump is a criminal president
Democrats frequently mention that Donald Trump is a convicted felon, but that’s not just a stain on his resume. It reflects his entire worldview. Trump is a criminal and is thus pathologically incapable of respecting norms and rules.
The Supreme Court might’ve granted Trump blanket immunity for his “official acts,” but that doesn’t make him any less of a common gangster. He is a criminal president, and Elon Musk is his made man.
Trump sees the law as an obstacle, one “stable geniuses” like himself can circumvent. Only chumps actually obey legal boundaries, like a dog cowering before an invisible fence. Describing his love for the criminal “life” in Goodfellas, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) says, “For us to live any other way was nuts. To us, those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day, and worried about their bills, were dead. I mean they were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad, believe me, they never complained again.” (Watch below.)
Democrats have claimed that we’re currently in “a Constitutional crisis,” a concept I’m not sure means more to the average American than the price of eggs. Democrats will often invoke the Constitution as if it’s the Grimmerie from Wicked. However, Trump understands that the Constitution and its amendments are just “words” with no inherent power behind them.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, the House Oversight Committee’s ranking member who’s not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, posted on social media Wednesday morning: “NEW: I just moved to subpoena Elon Musk to appear before the Oversight Committee to answer for his unlawful takeover of agencies across the government. Republicans blocked my motion without allowing any debate. They will stop at nothing to cover up Elon Musk’s lawlessness.”
Connolly’s message might’ve carried more weight if he hadn’t also posted it on the platform Musk owns and ruined. The best time for Democrats to permanently abandon X was when Musk invited back all the Nazis, but Musk’s illegal government takeover is probably the second best time.
Chuck Schumer whimpered on the Senate floor the other day, “DOGE’s conduct cannot be allowed to stand. Congress must take action to restore the rule of law.”
Schumer won’t accept that Congress is all MAGA-ed up right now. It no longer serves the rule of law. It doesn’t even actually sell olive oil. That’s just a front.
Democrats condemn Musk’s takeover as “unlawful” or even call it a “coup,” but those aren’t magic words. If they were, Musk would’ve been sent back to the fifth dimension where he belongs. Democrats have started appealing to Trump’s massive ego, suggesting that Musk is the real commander in chief. “Elon Musk is a terrible president,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted on Musk’s Nazi safe space.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett echoed Connolly’s request that Musk appear before the Oversight Committee but with far more potent verbiage: “If feels as if y'all have just decided that y’all are gonna castrate your constitutional duty and hand it over to someone who was unelected. It doesn’t matter how many cheerleaders he had on the field campaigning for him. That doesn't mean he gets to go in and sit atop any of our agencies.”
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what it means because that’s what Musk is doing. I applaud Democrats for raising awareness and calling out Trump and Musk’s criminality with fiery speeches in Congress and outside the buildings Musk’s droogs have occupied, but historically, people stage protests when they are otherwise powerless (or just stoned and bored at an Ivy League college). The native cosplayers who dumped tea in the Boston harbor were defying a tyrant king. Suffragists marched in the streets and demanded the right to vote. Civil rights activists held sit-ins at segregated public spaces. Deep down, Democrats know the law won’t stop Trump or Musk. That’s why they’re standing outside USAID headquarters holding up what amounts to “Free Tibet” signs. (Watch below.)
Granted, the courts aren’t quite as feckless as Congress. Wednesday, a second federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship in violation of the 14th Amendment, but Trump isn’t cowed. He still sees this as a test of wills.
Vice President JD Vance, when he was running for Senate, encouraged a criminal presidency during a 2021 podcast interview. He said Trump, once restored to power, should, “Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people … Then when the courts stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say: ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”
Jackson didn’t actually say this — although he would have in the movie — but he did famously defy the Supreme Court decision Worcester v. Georgia, which established that the Cherokee were a sovereign nation and the state of Georgia had no jurisdiction over them. Jackson wrote, “The decision of the Supreme Court has fell still born, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate.” That’s because the Supreme Court directly relies on the executive branch to enforce its rulings. Jackson’s actions eventually led to the Trail of Tears, which is eerily relevant given Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Tuesday, every Republican and local hero John Fetterman voted to confirm Trump capo Pam Bondi as attorney general. The Department of Justice under Bondi’s control will only enable Musk’s hostile takeover of the government. Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin publicly assured Musk that “we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people.”
When Democrats condemn Musk’s illegal acts, Musk immediately responds that they’re the ones breaking the law. This line of argument might seem beneath the level of Pee-Wee Herman, but it does reinforce a key element of Trump’s criminal presidency: The law is not an impartial system that binds the powerful and powerless alike. No, the law exists solely to protect and serve the powerful.
During a press conference on Monday, Rep. Jamie Raskin said, “We don’t have a fourth branch of government called 'Elon Musk.’” He’s right. There’s only one branch of government now and Elon Musk holds a majority stake.
Thanks to you people who couldn't vote for Harris because she didn't get you a pony, we now have the Two Beasts from Revelation running the country.
Our thin delusion that we live in a nation of laws has been laid bare. It has always been the case that there is a two tiered system of justice-one for the rich and one for the poor. Now we can see that the idea that we share a belief in a form of democracy has also been laid bare. The very thin veil of civilization has been pulled back to reveal that there are no rules, but simply power.
We as a society have granted full access to power to a group of narcissists and sociopaths and grifters that are no longer constrained by laws or norms or fear of reprisal. There is no good way for this to end, short of short term disaster and long term pain.