Fake News

 

In Thomas Mills's piece today, "The Republican Dumpster Fire," he composes an excellent cataloguing on the trumpists best recent dummkopf moves I especially took note of this one:

"X, formerly known as Twitter, released a new version with a location feature that shows where accounts are located and, low and behold, some of the largest MAGA influencers are actually in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Russia. Some accounts have as many as 1 million followers." 

To which Max Berger on BSky commented:

“If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?”

The trail of influence-peddling and civil war agitation began with a big infusion of cash. But they're outed every which way from Sunday! If people are even paying attention. Surely some are.

Rock, Meet Hard Place (You Deserve Each Other!)

 

Annie Karni and Theodore Schleifer, reporting for the New York Times:

Photo Larry Taylor

House Republicans suddenly find themselves scrambling to mollify Elon Musk, who has been venting his rage at them for voting for a Trump-backed domestic policy bill he calls a “disgusting abomination.”

After Mr. Musk threatened to “fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” Republicans from Speaker Mike Johnson on down are trying to manage an unmanageable tech billionaire who has become one of the most powerful figures in Republican politics....

Mr. Musk’s opposition to the bill has put House Republicans, who tend to fall in line behind whatever Mr. Trump demands, in the awkward position of straining to satisfy two authority figures in their lives who are now at odds. They cannot afford to break with either. Their voters want and expect them to support Mr. Trump no matter what....

 

If You Think Trump Is Greedy and Corrupt, Get a Load of Elon!

Interesting intel in a series of posts on BSky by @altnps, an anonymous Federal worker in the National Park Service:

Elon Musk’s regulatory troubles [with Federal regulators]? Vanishing fast. Since Trump returned to the White House, federal agencies that once scrutinized Musk’s empire are being gutted or redirected. At the USDA, Trump fired the official investigating Neuralink.

At the CFPB [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] and beyond, Trump and Musk allies are slashing staff weakening regulators that once held Tesla and X accountable. In recent months, Trump’s DOJ dropped a case against SpaceX. Labor Department canceled a civil rights review of Tesla.

And a separate SpaceX case is quietly moving into settlement talks with the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board]. Meanwhile, more than 40 other federal investigations into Musk have gone silent with no public updates in months. It’s starting to look less like oversight and more like a cover-up.

 

Turns Out, Trump Is Touching Social Security

 

The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones at the front desk as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. But the agency no longer has a system to monitor customers’ experience with these services, because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.

And the phones keep ringing. And ringing.

--WashPost, "Social Security Is Breaking Down" 

Musk's DOGE has pushed out more than 12 percent of the SSA staff of 57,000. No wonder phones go unanswered. (I've personally been on hold for more than an hour at a time; leaving a call-back request took more than 3 hours, but it did come, and the woman who helped me was super helpful. I said at the end of our business, "I know you guys are under incredible duress and strain in your job--" She laughed "yeah!" Musk and Trump don't deserve her or any of the other good people summarily fired.)

Social Security is the primary source of income for about 40 percent of older Americans. The agency has been underfunded and understaffed for years already, before Musk brought his chainsaw to the party. Following COVID and even right now, review of an initial claim for two disability programs takes 233 days on average. Musk makes it worse. Ten regional Social Security offices have been slashed to four.

"DOGE's obsession with false claims that millions of deceased people were fraudulently receiving benefits consumed [them] at first. Then came new mandates designed to address alleged fraud: Direct deposit transactions and identity authentication that affect almost everyone receiving benefits will no longer be able to be done by phone. Customers with computers will be directed to go through the process online — and those without computers, to wait in line at their local field office." If they can find one within a day's drive.

This is recent polling:

Strange As the Weather Has Been

 

Watauga County's Hospitality House, "a western North Carolina housing nonprofit that provides 'critical' services" to Watauga, Wilkes, Ashe, Avery, Alleghany, Mitchell, and Yancey counties, is now able to mobilize for action ahead of storms -- early -- because Hospitality House has equipment (radios) to receive emergency alerts through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They were gifted the radios by the National Weather Service (NWS) during Hurricane Helene, when the storm knocked out cell service. NWS is a vital and wholly practical sub-unit of NOAA.

DOGE and Musk couldn't care less. They are putting at risk Hospitality House's current ability to plan ahead for weather disasters, of which the mountains of Western North Carolina are well supplied. DOGE is trying to slash more than 2,000 NOAA jobs, many of those stationed in Western NC as analysts and forecasters who write the weather alerts that Hospitality House relies on.

Todd Carter, development director for Hospitality House, spoke about the potential for "lives being lost" in a YouTube panel discussion yesterday, "Forecasting Disaster: How DOGE’s Cuts to NOAA Will Affect Weather Awareness and Well-Being," sponsored by the Center for American Progress. Elon Musk has a chainsaw and the license to slash. Musk has his own weather department; what does he need with NOAA and NWS? 

"Not everything should be for sale, not everything should be for profit,” Carter told the panel.

 

Why Is Elon Musk So Invested in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Race?

Schimel/Musk

A Wisconsin state law prohibits automobile manufacturers from also owning dealerships. Nevertheless, in 2024 Tesla applied for dealer licenses to sell its vehicles. The state denied the request in December 2024. Tesla's appeal is now in the courts and working its way up the ladder to the state Supreme Court.

A conservative-controlled court would naturally be in a position to issue a Musk-friendly decision, so Elon has become quite enamored with conservative Brad Schimel, who's locked in a death race for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court against Democrat-backed Susan Crawford. The Court is currently 5-4 liberal, and Musk and his boy want to flip it the other way.

So, yeah, Musk has been shoveling money into a Wisconsin operation to take over the Wisconsin court system, and Trump joined him endorsing Schimel last Friday. So what has happened is that the race is now Susan Crawford v. Elon Musk and Trumpism, which is not necessarily good for Brad Schimel.

Musk "barely knows" Brad Schimel, according to the NYTimes, and it wouldn't matter to Musk if he were a stickhorse so long as he will be a loyal tool on the state's highest court, a craven and careless self-interest that might make Schimel look worse than merely beholden. Musk is now trying public bribery as a way to win:

Musk dialed up his focus on Wisconsin on Thursday when his America PAC offered registered voters in the state $100 if they provided contact information and signed a petition opposing activist judges. The PAC also offered them $100 for each registered Wisconsin voter they referred to sign the petition — but the fine print of the offer said the PAC would determine whom to pay and noted payments may not be made for months. (WashPost)

That maniac needs to be stopped.

Elon Musk Called Us "Parasites"

 

 "Why 90% of Americans love DOGE: Watching Trump slash federal programs knowing it doesn't affect you because you're not a member of the Parasite Class."

--Elon Musk, February 2025, reposting and commenting on Twitter 

By "Parasite Class," Elon evidently means anyone on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or any other form of Federal assistance -- especially food stamps. I'm a recipient of both Social Security and Medicare. I am not a parasite.

You wanna see a parasite? Elon Musk and his various businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits -- nearly two-thirds of that grand amount contracted in the last five years (according to analysis by the Washington Post). He's now maneuvering despite notable conflicts of interest to make himself considerably richer via his BFF Donald Trump's illegal and frankly just plain dumb dismantling of government.

The icing on this cake is how little Musk cares that we know these things. He doesn't care that we care. And he sneers at the very concept of "empathy." “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan in a 3-hour interview. “[T]hey’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.” He doesn't feel for us. He doesn't feel for much outside his own meat. I imagine his thanking whatever god he acknowledges for saving him from the bother of caring.

Celia Rivenbark, whose tart opinions I enjoyed reading once a week over at NCNewsline, has jumped to a Substack platform (hasn't everyone?), and she's now officially a replacement for my favorite Texas spitfire, the killingly sarcastic "Juanita Jean" of The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon Inc.  (real name Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. She lost her husband and announced in January of this year that she was retiring from the blog business -- and I gather from writing altogether -- after so many years of beating politicians about the head and shoulders. We miss Juanita Jean!)

But we have now the always quotable Celia Rivenbark. She posted about Musk (on "Celia Dishes"):

Elon Musk, who has frequently and nauseatingly spoken out on the “dangers” of being empathetic to others this week, whined about his mistreatment by Democrats whom he always thought were the nice guys.

After a tough week of having his Teslas set on fire and dealerships clogged with protesters, Elon petulantly told Fox News he thought the Democrats were supposed to show empathy.

“I thought the left, you know, the Democrats, were supposed to be the party of empathy and caring. And yet they are burning down cars…” That was the real quote.

But what I think he meant to say was: “I thought the left, you know, the Democrats, would always let me tear off their heads and pee down their bloody neck-stumps. I mean there really should be some things you can depend on in this life.”

The stones on this guy, am I right?

Elon, you thought all the heinous, illegal, wildly unjust, deeply disruptive, greed-monster shit you’ve been pulling since the inauguration of President Donald Jimpeachment Trump should go unnoticed? Hmmmm?

Because we, the Democrats, are empathetic???

And now YOU are disappointed in US?

That’s rich as 2 feet up a bull’s ass is what that is.

Elon Musk is Jethro's bronze monkey, the current curio in Trump's other cabinet, a monkey so shiny and strokeable, yet whose shine is already diminished among many. It will take at least one election cycle -- the midterms of 2026, say -- to prove just how short a shelf-life Elon has.

Every Republican Deserves This Heavy Anchor

 

This Democratic attack ad from Wisconsin makes Elon Musk the surrogate for every Republican everywhere. In this particular instance, it's Republican Brad Schimel, running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The election is April 1st (Fool's Day). Musk is the biggest spender in this race and truly deserves taking center stage for what's wrong in the U.S. this year. Depending on the outcome of this special election, Elon Musk may become the poster child in every Democratic campaign everywhere.

My Nominee for FAFO Champ

 

The Stupidity. The Hurtful Stupidity

 

"The Trump administration on Thursday informed hundreds of probationary employees responsible for producing critical weather forecasts, maintaining radar systems, gathering data from satellites and monitoring key commercial fisheries that they were fired." (Scott Dance, WashPost) 

800 souls, doing vital jobs connected to the health and safety of millions of citizens.

The targeted agencies: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service. The jobs named above are actually crucial for tornado season, already underway and predicted to be fierce, and we're only three measly months before the official start of hurricane season.

That's Trump 2.0 for you, stupid in its haste to pose as a showboating strongman, playing to the gullible plebs. 

The real power (and coincidental hit-man), Elon Musk, could give a giant fuck. He has his own weather people.

The Age of (Donald Jethro) Trump

 

Elon's "Muskrats," Trump's Time Bomb

Presidents Trump and Musk have merged their cult followings, attention addictions, conspiratorial mind-sets, disinformation artistry, disdain for the Constitution, talent for apocalyptic marketing and jumping-from-thing-to-thing styles.

--Maureen Dowd, "Musk’s Lost Boys and Trump’s Mean Girls," NYTimes

On some weeks, Maureen Dowd's column in the New York Times is worth dipping in bronze:

Trump loves to be admired by the elites, and he adores money. Musk has gotten the keys to the American kingdom so he can attack “the woke mind virus,” which Musk says “killed” his “son,” who transitioned as a teenager. Both men are driven by revenge to smash up the government.

Musk has employed his flying wedge of 20-something hipster lords of the new universe. “Muskrats,” career bureaucrats call them, who are themselves referred to as the “dinosaurs” by the Muskrats in their campaign to rifle every government computer system. Some of the Muskrats have become infamous: "A 19-year-old with the internet pseudonym 'Big Balls' lost an earlier internship for leaking company secrets; a 25-year-old was ousted over racist posts. He wrote on X, 'I was racist before it was cool,' and 'You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,' and 'Normalize Indian hate.' Even though he is married to an Indian American, Vice President J.D. Vance rescued the 'kid,' as he called him, and helped him get his job back."

I realize the MAGA crowd loves all the crudest comments and cruelest decisions coming out of Trump 2.0 (now "squared by Musk," sez Maureen), but what about the sane middle? There is clearly no limit to the Trump wrecking ball, but when will it tear down something essential to the low-information voters? Surely that's happening already, the creeping realization that maybe total annihilation was not what they had in mind. And closer comes the mid-term elections of 2026 -- perhaps our last chance to keep the Republic against the madness of the king.

The Table Manners of a Billionaire Pig

 

Last December, before Earth went wobbly on its spindle, the US Department of the Treasury wrote a letter to Congress informing it that a Chinese intelligence group had broken into its systems and stolen unclassified material. "A full assessment of that damage has not been made public. But it was a reminder that the Treasury Department — as much as the Pentagon and its contractors, the C.I.A. and the White House — is high on Beijing’s target list" (David E. Sanger, NYTimes).

So here come Elon Musk's band of Silicon Valley hotshot bandits and misfits (at least one as young as 19), with a whole lot more access to Treasury's databases than just "READ ONLY." "Across the federal government, civil servants have witnessed the sudden intrusion in the last two weeks of these young members of the billionaire’s team, labeled the Department of Government Efficiency. As Mr. Musk traipses through Washington, bent on disruption, these aides have emerged as his enforcers, sweeping into agency headquarters with black backpacks and ambitious marching orders" (NYTimes).

They were opening a lot more than their backpacks, and that was precisely the source of Federal Judge Paul A. Engelmayer's order on Saturday to stop these rodents from boring into secrets about every American and his/her money, at least until a trial can be held. Judge Engelmayer cited the risk specifically of the ever-present threat of hacks by foreign adversaries, “the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information.” The Musk Squad's Easter egg hunt looked sloppy and dangerous.

The request for Judge Engelmayer's temporary restraining order came after some 19 attorneys general (North Carolina's Jeff Jackson among them) filed suit on Friday. It took Engelmayer less than 24 hours to (theoretically) shut down Musk Squad's fishing. ("Theoretically," because Trump's appointments are also now occupying the department and have full access to everything, and who the hell knows who they'll share it with.)

Outside experts have described, in detail, what could happen when an outsider gains sudden access to a locked-down system: Personal data could leak, payments could be diverted and information about political rivals could be collected.

Bruce Schneier, a cybersecurity expert at Harvard and the author of a series of books on security vulnerabilities, including “Click Here to Kill Everybody,” called the entry of Mr. Musk’s force “the most consequential security breach” in American history.

Mr. Schneier noted that the intrusion came “not through a sophisticated cyberattack or an act of foreign espionage, but through official orders by a billionaire with a poorly defined government role.” ...

“Hostile intelligence services are likely already at work trying to assess which Musk team members might be sloppy with their digital devices or vulnerable to entrapment or coercion.” (NYTimes)

Wired magazine named six of Musk's "Spartans" (as they like to call themselves, mythologizing their own personal pains), ranging in age from 19 to 24. They've been raised all their life on computers and social media, which means sarcasm and spite, so what could possibly go wrong giving them full access to all our information?

Stupidity!

 

MUMPS (the "Musk-Trump Syndicate" -- that's what Thomas Mills calls the junta currently wrecking the furniture and derailing actual human lives) caused the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to abruptly withdraw financial support for testing in clinical trials (in Africa among other places) of new health-care devices and medicines. MUMPS issued a stop-work order to all organizations around the globe that receive its money. ("The abrupt move followed an executive order by President Trump freezing all foreign aid for at least 90 days. Since then, the Trump administration has taken steps to dismantle the agency entirely.") (NYTimes)

The Times focused some reporting on just a few of the persons impacted negatively by this stupidity. Like the 22-year-old woman in South Africa who was participating in a research study that was testing a new device to prevent pregnancy and H.IV. infection -- a device that was surgically inserted into her vagina which required constant monitoring.

In interviews with Times reporters, scientists — "who are forbidden by the terms of the stop-work order to speak with the news media — described agonizing choices: violate the stop-work orders and continue to care for trial volunteers, or leave them alone to face potential side effects and harm."

Not just stupid, but cruel too, and totally irresponsible with other people's lives and health.

The United States is signatory to the Declaration of Helsinki that lays out ethical principles under which medical research must be conducted, requiring that researchers care for participants throughout a trial, and report the results of their findings to the communities where trials were conducted.

The Times identified more than 30 frozen studies that had volunteers already in the care of researchers, including trials of:

malaria treatment in children under age 5 in Mozambique
treatment for cholera in Bangladesh
a screen-and-treat method for cervical cancer in Malawi
tuberculosis treatment for children and teenagers in Peru and South Africa
nutritional support for children in Ethiopia
early-childhood-development interventions in Cambodia
ways to support pregnant and breastfeeding women to reduce malnutrition in Jordan
an mRNA vaccine technology for H.I.V. in South Africa

It's staggering, the Devil-may-care-but-I-don't inhumanity of Musk and his facilitator, Jethro -- it's unethical, it's immoral, it's dishonorable, it's un-American. It involves and implicates ALL OF US as voting citizens of this Republic.

This Elon Musk/Donald Jethro Trump Coup Is Happening Right Now

 

The complete 20-minute briefing Congressman Jamie Raskin gave Brian Tyler Cohen on the coup happening in real time. Watch it.

Trump Denied Responsibility Quick. Isn't It Obvious Why?

 

Trump got himself in front of cameras quick today after last night's tragic collision between the American Airlines flight and a Blackhawk helicopter. We all heard who he blamed with zero evidence (or even logic) -- he blamed Democrats for instituting DEI (his new favorite whipping post) -- but bizarrely Trump added a few new grace notes, mentioning people with "physical and psychiatric conditions" including "dwarves, amputees, and epileptics" who just might have been the air traffic controllers on duty last night who caused the collision. "Who knows," sez Jethro, "but many people say."

His main mission for getting out front and blaming other, nameless people is the obvious evidence that he himself and his goddamn autocratic need to make everyone bend the knee is very possibly the real culprit:

1. Notably, when the Trump administration came in on 20 January, it started swiftly firing federal employees, meaning the Federal Aviation Administration’s leadership is now dotted with vacancies. There is currently no Senate-confirmed administrator leading the agency.

2. Elon Musk, Trump's new butt buddy, had a vendetta against Michael Whitaker, the Federal Aviation Administrator under Biden, who left the agency on inauguration day after Musk demanded his firing.

3. The Washington DC airspace is incredibly, dangerously crowded, especially after the 2024 FAA reauthorization bill added five incoming and five outgoing flights to Washington national airport each day because some members of Congress demanded more direct routes to their home states. Democratic senators from Maryland and Virginia warned that those added flights would be a safety risk:

“The very title of the ‘Direct Access to the Capital Act’ gives the game away that this bill is written to maximize the personal convenience of a comparatively small number of powerful, well-connected individuals at the expense of safety and efficiency of flights – which should be our top priority,” Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia told the Washington Post at the time.

4. Another of Trump's ExecOrders instituted a "blanket hiring freeze," and it's already been reported that the tower at Washington national airport was understaffed with controllers. (Guess they couldn't get any of the dwarves, amputees, or epileptics to come to work last night.) Congressman Rick Larsen, ranking member of the House committee on transportation and infrastructure, said, “Hiring air traffic controllers is the No 1 safety issue according to the entire aviation industry. Instead of working to improve aviation safety and lower costs for hardworking American families, the administration is choosing to spread bogus DEI claims to justify this decision.”

5. Within hours of starting his goddamn tyranny on Jan. 20th, Trump also forced out the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) administrator, David Pekoske, and gutted an aviation security advisory committee.

It's his super-power -- or at least it has been -- for Trump to deny all responsibillity. Because he's a lying turd.

Look Who Killed the Electric Car This Time (And Where Is Elon Musk on This?)

 

Among the many other ExecOrders (EOs) that Trump signed Monday, he erased tax credits for electric-vehicle (EV) purchases, he ended federal grants for chargers, and he shitcanned subsidies and loans to help retool assembly lines for EVs and to build battery factories -- a sweeping repudiation, in other words, of a centerpiece of Joe Biden's multibillion-dollar Inflation Reduction Act to address climate change by limiting what comes out of your tailpipe. Who knows if these backward and malicious EOs can survive legal challenges.

Biden’s initiative provided tax credits of up to $7,500 for buyers of new electric vehicles and $4,000 to buyers of used models. The credits effectively made the cost of buying some electric cars roughly on par with prices for cars with gasoline or diesel engines. Those are ended, if Trump gets his way.

Those EOs also (just incidentally) penalize American automakers that have invested billions in designing and building electric vehicles. The Biden administration had encouraged them to. They are now collateral damage to Trump's determination to stamp out even the memory of the man who beat him in 2020.

According to the NYTimes, Trump's orders "could cause U.S. carmakers to fall behind ... Asian and European automakers .... Already, 50 percent of car sales in China are electric or plug-in hybrids, and Chinese automakers like BYD are selling more cars around the world, taking customers away from established car companies, including American manufacturers."

The oil and gas guys are obviously very happy with Trump. Elon Musk on the other hand went very quiet, which makes one wonder. According to Jack Ewing, "There is no sign that Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla) is using his influence to blunt the attack on electric vehicles. Tesla accounts for slightly less than half the electric cars sold in the United States, and almost all its vehicles qualify for $7,500 tax credits .... analysts note that Tesla’s sales and profits would be hit hard if Mr. Trump successfully repealed or truncated the electric-vehicle tax credit, California’s clean-air waiver and other such policies. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment."

Odd. Maybe there's an angle for Musk I'm not seeing, or he's way too obsessed with the Conquest of Mars.

The Money Count

 "The Money Count" is a reoccurring feature, as outrage and/or hilarity demand.

How much money does Elon Musk stand to make on Trump's promised conquest of Mars? The government contracts! New merchandise! Exclusive rights!

Last September, Musk said that SpaceX would launch five Starships to Mars in 2026, unmanned, to test the entry through "the thin Martian atmosphere and to arrive on the surface in one piece." He promises to have manned flights by 2028.

Trump nominated Jared Isaacman to head NASA, a billionaire who has flown two private astronaut missions on SpaceX rockets and who is a close associate of Musk.

What a team! Musk and his best bud Isaacman, spending the Republic's treasury on an adventure to Mars. Did you ever see a table-setting as conducive for a big fat gourmand's meal?

The Money Count -- "No Kidding!" Edition

 

"The Money Count" is a reoccurring feature, as outrage and/or hilarity demand.

Scenes from the swearing in in the Capitol Rotunda:

Musk’s schoolboy grin when Trump promised to go to Mars. I completely endorse going to Mars as a national project, but when that also means that billions of dollars may flow into the pockets of Trump’s wealthiest supporter, it reeks of potential corruption and graft.

--David French, NYTimes

It was very telling that the tech oligarchs had front-row seats, in front of the cabinet. The age of algorithmic feudalism has begun.

--Michelle Goldberg, NYTimes

[NYTimes headline] Trump Takes Office as a Newly Minted Crypto Billionaire

The Trump family’s new crypto tokens are worth well over $10 billion on paper, after a frenzied rally pushed up the value of the digital assets in the days before the inauguration.

The so-called memecoins got another boost on Monday when Robinhood, the trading platform that made a big donation to Mr. Trump’s inauguration fund, began letting its customers trade the $TRUMP coin. Memecoins, a type of cryptocurrency tied to an online joke or a celebrity mascot, are not often available to trade on major platforms.

Mr. Trump announced the launch of the new token, known as $Trump, on Friday night. Another token, $Melania, went on sale late on Sunday. Trump affiliates appear to control a majority of the tokens, which will be released gradually over the coming years.

Before the tokens started trading, Forbes had listed Mr. Trump’s net worth as $6.7 billion, most of that coming from Trump Media and Technology Group, which runs the social media platform Truth Social.

Ethics watchdogs have warned of deepening conflicts of interest as Mr. Trump returns to the White House, with the tokens creating new opportunities for executives, crypto traders and companies inside and outside the United States to curry favor with the Trump administration.

A onetime crypto skeptic, Mr. Trump embraced the digital currency industry last year, promising to turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the planet.” In September, he and his sons helped start a crypto business, World Liberty Financial. He has also tapped advocates for looser regulation of crypto to key regulatory and advisory positions in his administration.

Crypto markets have risen sharply since Mr. Trump’s election victory. The price of Bitcoin hit a fresh record high on Monday, jumping above $109,000.

 

The Money Count: Billionaire Boys

 

"The Money Count" is a reoccurring feature, as outrage and/or hilarity demand.

"Billionaires are signing seven-figure checks and jockeying for space at the inaugural ceremony." (NYT, 20 Jan. 2025)

Elon Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help Trump win, is expected to have an office in the White House complex, possibly the West Wing. About which Michael Waldman, president and chief executive of the Brennan Center for Justice, quipped: “It’s tempting to liken this to the Gilded Age, but John D. Rockefeller didn’t actually run McKinley’s campaign or move into the White House.” Musk already has billions of dollars in contracts with the Federal government.

Trump's Billionaire Boys Club “would like to get the policies they believe in from the federal government — more oil drilling, easier antitrust policy, more favorable crypto policy, less bank oversight." (NYT, 19 Jan. 2025)