The Witness Chronicles, 12/29/24

The super rich dudes vs MAGA

Photo by Chris Leipelt on Unsplash

Are the Media and Politicians Normalizing What Trump is Doing?

Trump’s Policies and People are far from normal

I intended to publish this piece on Thursday but developed a head cold that basically turned my brain into mush. It seems to be clearing up, but in the interval yet another story emerged about the people around Trump, specifically Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Apparently they both went on record saying we should exempt from deportation tech workers here on H1-B visas that allow people with needed skills to take jobs in the US. Both men, of course, went too far in their comments, stating outright that educated engineers and other talent from other countries have a far better work ethic than American workers.

As expected this did not go over well with hardcore MAGA leaders, including Trump’s one time buddy, outspoken racist Laura Loomer who got into it with Musk on X. And just like that we have a schism between MAGA and the billionaires. It’s not clear who Trump favors as he has been notably silent on the issue.

But it did occur to me that he might abandon MAGA now that they have elected him and he will no longer be running for office. I thought this might happen gradually but now it seems Musk and Ramaswamy might have forced the issue, which started building in Congress during the budget fight.

This comes on top of the other issues I had written about originally, including a chain of related events. We got the Matt Gaetz House Ethics Committee report on his sexual behavior and drug use. The picture it paints is a monster out of control and who obviously felt he was above not only the law but above any sense of decency, by any standards.

Elon Musk defended a neo Nazi political party (AFD) in Germany just before a man drove his car into a holiday market there killing five and injuring over 200. The man supported the anti-immigrant hate of that party. Now Musk is spearheading what may be the American equivalent of that facist party.

Trump and Musk have openly said they will blackmail disloyal members of their own party using Musk’s bottomless funds. This past week Trump said he wants to buy Greenland and take back the Panama Canal based on lies claiming Panama charges US ships more than Chinese ships.

And he basically threatened the sovereignty of Canada, our neighbor to the north, a long time ally. All of these actions would violate the most basic standards of international law. It appears he wants Greenland because it is big, demonstrating he has no clue why it is so sparsely populated. Most of it is unliveable.

Even though he has already secured the election, Trump is still out there railing against anyone and everyone who refuses the kiss his ring and prostate themselves at his feet.

Treating these people as anything close to normal is criminal in its disrespect for everything this country represents, no matter what party you align with, yet we hear talk of compromise from politicians across both aisles and in much of the mainstream media.

Even worse, it seems the American public really doesn’t care. There used to be a concept called civic responsibility and respect for the law.

The largest disconnect so far is the reality that all of Trump’s proposed programs cost huge sums of money, putting them in direct conflict with his announced cost cutting goals. The reality is that Trump and his party do not actually care about cost cutting unless it allows them to create even bigger tax breaks for huge corporations and the ultra wealthy.

His last round of tax cuts for the wealthy added $4 trillion to our debt. All the cost cutting they talk about would only relieve $2 trillion of that and no one believes Musk and Ramaswamy can cut even fraction of that amount. It’s all bullshit and they know it.

And then there is the inconvenient reality that most of the things they want to do would require a strong majority in Congress, a majority he does not have, despite his claims of a mandate.

My guess is that his party will eventually turn on him, in part because they know he will not be returning and that his power over them will diminish. And all of this points to an upset in the midterms just two years from now. Many of the programs they want to cut, and the people they want to deport, directly affect Republican states and localities.

I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that he and his people may be setting themselves up for a disastrous failure. And his unelected and unconfirmed debt czar Elon Musk has nothing to lose if the whole thing falls to pieces. Even if he fails completely he will gain billions during the administration. He may have already got his big prize with his defeat of a budget item outlawing major manufacturing projects involving sensitive US technologies in China, like AI.

Maybe I’m too optimistic about the incompetence and conflicts in his sweeping changes. But we may also see erosion in his base as people do not see prices coming down, something he has already admitted is unlikely. And then there is the ever present question of his personal mental stability. He seems to believe he is being taken seriously if he pretends to be Presidential when he has major media interviews, while saying things that are outright lies.

The reality is that if you take Donald Trump’s life as a whole he is a serial failure, the one exception being his uncanny ability to hypnotize a group of people so they lose their ability or desire to find truth. But he has no more elections ahead of him and speaking to the converted is no longer him preaching to a bunch of rubes. He now speaks to the entire country he is supposedly leading.

The other factor here is yet another campaign claim, the absurd number of things he has promised to do on his first day in office. It appears his people are scrambling to at least have the appearance of doing this but his claims were so wide ranging that they may be doomed to failure. Among those claims he said he could end the Ukraine Russia war in one day, and would round up millions of illegal immigrants who are criminals. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Or maybe I’m totally off base and he consolidates power and crushes dissent in Congress. So far we are seeing little evidence of that and we have not yet even started the confirmation process for his Cabinet nominees. That could well reveal his weakness and laziness for all to see. Many in the Senate are very alarmed at the caliber of people he is choosing. More than a few of his nominees are either sexual predators, ex-cons, or openly consorting with our enemies.

It’s really quite incredible to find myself speculating about this stuff. The scale of the potential incompetence and dislocation from reality is mind blowing, and we have not even gotten started yet. I take comfort in that but I also thought Kamala Harris had it in the bag. So, who knows?.

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