As posted at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-30-2025, Trump blamed the helicopter pilot, Biden, and DEI policies for the Washington air crash. The buck stops with Trump though (and he and Musk weakened the FAA).
The post https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-3-2025 describes Elon Musk’s US “coup”. He is taking unpopular actions that benefit him personally. He is unauthorised, though, so politicians can distance themselves from him.
As reported https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/04/elon-musk-government-legal-doge/ there are “numerous legal objections” to the DOGE takeover of federal agencies. Will lawyers be able to force the damage to be reversed?
Trump cannot now distance himself from Elon Musk news.sky.com/story/trump-...
Elon Musk’s far right political views aren’t popular in Germany, where Tesla's market share of EV's has dropped from 14 to 4% https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/02/07/tesla-sales-crash-in-germany-as-ceo-musk-continues-political-activism
Republicans want “to protect home-state interests, industries and jobs” so Musk’s plans might be trimmed: https://apnews.com/article/trump-musk-doge-republicans-mike-johnson-26ba7e32fb2bc1c054bf20d911aa5a8f
It’s easy to see why advocates of Bitcoin want to weaken consumer protection – Elizabeth Warren has a valid point https://realclearwire.com/articles/2025/02/14/doge_is_right_to_defang_cfpb_152360.html
Musk has clear conflicts of interest. He can too easily abuse his power to enrich himself www.thedailybeast.com/commerce-dep...
Wisconsin voters have shown their disapproval of Musk and his attempt to buy votes https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-supreme-court-elon-musk-81f71cdda271827ae281a77072a26bad. Democratic election results should not be determined by money.
Elon Musk can’t ethically be in control of government spending and simultaneously bid for lucrative government contracts https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/musks-spacex-is-frontrunner-build-trumps-golden-dome-missile-shield-2025-04-17/
A Trump attack on this “safeguard against fraud, abuse and deceptive practices” looks like an attempt to put the interests of big corporations ahead of consumer protection https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-4-18-2025
Musk has outlived his usefulness. His devastation of public services was intended to cut costs, to make room for tax cuts that would make the rich richer, but its efficiency has been questioned and it has been unpopular https://www.reuters.com/world/us/100-days-doge-lots-chaos-not-so-much-efficiency-2025-04-24/
The US robber barons are back. Together with the Trump family, corporations are enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of the population – as shown in this detailed report by Heather Cox Richardson: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-27-2025.
Republicans are making a huge political gamble in proposing to cut Medicaid benefits. Low-paid Trump supporters are more likely to notice the loss of Medicaid than a change in income tax https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/house-republicans-unveil-medicaid-cuts-democrats-warn-leave-121701684
A democracy?? Republicans are pushing through tax cuts for billionaires without time for debate, and delaying cuts to Medicaid to 2029 so voters don’t see them before the 2028 election https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-to-take-medicaid-from-millions-of-americans-republican-congress-72-hours-bill
Trump and Musk are having an emotional public spat: a noisy personal confrontation. Trump's behaviour is undignified and unbecoming to a President of the United States https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wd2215q08o
It's not illegal for Trump and his family to make money by exploiting his position as U.S. President, but it highlights the fact that he is wealthy – and he will profit more than most Americans from his ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/whats-that-smell-trump-unveils-new-fragrances-with-his-name-brand-2025-07-01/
Musk and DOGE made careless cuts in public services, making them less able to respond to issues such as the Texas floods https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/us/politics/texas-floods-warnings-vacancies.html
The Texas flood deaths might well have been avoided if Kerr County had installed a flood warning system, as requested by its sheriff, but the budget wasn’t approved. Politicians wanted to keep taxes low https://www.wsj.com/us-news/officials-pushed-for-better-warning-system-years-before-devastating-texas-floods-0143b5f1