Two things are clear about Trump’s chosen lieutenants as he forms his new administration: They have pledged to be completely loyal to him personally, instead of the constitution, and they are to totally disrupt their portion of the executive branch of the federal government.
Atop the long list Trump’s dangerous appointees, accused sexual predator Matt Gaetz for attorney general stands out as the worst of the worst. It is literally unfathomable. Should Gaetz be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, we would no longer be able to say that the U.S. government is based in the rule of law.
It would instead be based in the rule of the unlawful.
But putting that debacle aside for the moment, by naming Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head up a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” Trump is signaling that he intends to rule by chaos.
Consider the scale: The U.S. government employs over 5 million people, including some 2.87 million civilians and 2.24 million military personnel. This is far larger than the world’s biggest private employer, Walmart, with its workforce of 2.1 million or the second largest, Amazon, with 1.5 million.
Meanwhile, Musk only has experience running companies that are far smaller. Tesla has about 120,000 employees; SpaceX 13,000. And then there is X (formerly Twitter), which had 8,000 employers before Musk bought and dismantled it, to the point it now has only 2,300, with barely 550 in full-time jobs.
If Musk intends to do to government agencies what he did to X, which seems obvious, we’re going to experience social disruption on a scale that is barely imaginable, because these are the agencies that affect our health, finances, housing, food supply, jobs and the environment we live in, not to mention our national security and every other aspect of life you can think of.
Perhaps most dangerous of all is Trump’s reported plan to create a board to purge supposedly “woke” generals from the military. This is truly scary stuff. This has to be viewed in the context of Trump’s racist agenda, because “woke” is code for is eliminating diversity as a value in our armed forces. Anyone with any experience whatsoever with the U.S. military will tell you that its diversity is its greatest strength.
Transforming the military with its proud history of independence free from politics into a tool loyal not to the constitution but to a despot is truly the work of fascists. If successful, it would mark the definitive end of America’s democracy in favor of an authoritarian nightmare.
Our military leaders can be expected to resist, but a command-and-control structure based on following orders will have a very hard time opposing a duly elected Commander in Chief.
These are just a few of the initial dangers we face from Trump 2.0. What they add up to is now obvious — it is a coup from within.
***
I suspect I am not the only one desperately seeking escapes from the news and unable to sleep these days and nights. Yesterday, according to Wordle, I played my 1,000th game, and got the correct answer for the 979th time. That’s a 2.1 percent failure rate, which may shed new light on the phrase, “margin of error.”
HEADLINES:
Joe Biden hosts Donald Trump at the White House after president-elect jokes about third term (Guardian)
The man picked as defence secretary wants to purge the Pentagon (Economist)
Trump nominates Marco Rubio as Sec. of State, Tulsi Gabbard as DNI and Matt Gaetz as AG (AP)
House Ethics Panel Was Set to Vote to Release Report Critical of Matt Gaetz (NYT)
Republicans win the House, completing their 2024 election ‘trifecta.’ What total control on Capitol Hill will mean for Trump’s presidency. (Yahoo)
John Thune elected as Senate Republican leader to succeed McConnell (ABC)
Democrats are racing to confirm judges before Trump returns. (WP)
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ in Trump administration (CNN)
Trump Taps Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to Slash Government (NYT)
Ben Horowitz’s cozy relationship with the Las Vegas Police Department aided a16z portfolio company Skydio (TechCrunch)
Trump Draft Executive Order Would Create Board to Purge Generals (WSJ)
Mexico Signals It Could Hit Back at U.S. With Tariffs of Its Own (NYT)
The U.S. is getting less snowy. See this winter’s forecast in your area. (WP)
First-Ever Amber Found in Antarctica Unlocks Secrets of Cretaceous Rainforest (Gizmodo)
Plankton are the backbone of the ocean — and may struggle with what’s coming (WP)
OpenAI, Google and Anthropic Are Struggling to Build More Advanced AI (Bloomberg)
I Went Birding With the World’s First AI-Powered Binoculars (Wired)
LeBron James Denies Son Receiving Preferential Treatment When Being Lifted Up To Dunk (The Onion)
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