If it is a coup, it can be easily stopped if Congress and the Courts get off their butts and do something. How about force Musk to testify under oath in Congress.
That’s the whole point of a coup. That’s how it works. That’s the scariest piece about all of it. The people that can stop it aren’t doing anything. They are afraid. They don’t want to be on the losing side. Maybe they tell themselves if they do nothing then they can stay where they are and work to fix things from within. If they speak up then they get thrown out. It’s better to say nothing. However, they most likely never had a spine to begin with or they simply agree with what’s happening. Or worse, they don’t want to give up their cushy life and don’t care who gets hurt.
Any president can lose their minds and do crazy things. That’s nothing to worry about. We have systems in place to solve that. What you’re seeing is the system failing and our elected people doing nothing for the purpose of saving their own skin.
Not to mention this same president allowed people who did attempt a violent coup (of the "usual" kind) to get out of jail despite being convicted. (And despite previous assurances, i.e., from Vance that "of course" violent offenders would not be freed.)
JD Vance isn’t the president and everybody who was paying attention in 2016-2020 should realize that Trump listens only to Trump.
Not sure what you think the senate could have done about it…the president has the authority to pardon and he literally did it hours after he was inaugurated.
Trump listens to the last person who talked to him. You can find superclips of his schedule, and then giving a speech or press conference parroting the same ideas of the people he met with earlier that day. Then a couple days later saying the opposite, because he met with someone else that day.
One torment on an individual level, is that none of us have any particular agency to do anything about it. Not alone, not even with many. Overwhelming numbers accompanied by intense societal disfunction could, maybe, possibly work. Signs and angry chants won't stop these loons. Strategic occupations might help, like MLK overburdening jails during sit-ins, but even that is an annoyance they will put down violently if it inconveniences people in the west wing. Be very careful.
You seem to be under the impression that this isn’t what the majority wants? You also have the owner of one social media company embedded in the White House and the other just paid tribute to Trump to “settle a lawsuit” as well as ABC, CNN and CBS bowing to him and paying him off to “settle a lawsuit”.
The opposition are a bunch of disorganized wimps that don’t know how to play dirty. They are still playing by the old rules.
Yes I’m well aware of civil rights history. My still living parents grew up in the Jim Crow south.
Even r/Conservative is freaking out about various bits of what is being done. Most of them seemed to think that the tariffs against Canada were a bad idea. Same with the Trail of Tears in Gaza the president is talking about doing.
- ABC News is owned by Disney and Disney doesn’t want to have a fight with Trump after they already lost a fight with mini-Trump
(Desantis). I happen to live 10 miles away from Disney
- CNN is owned by Discovery/TimeWarner who needs the administration not to block whatever merger they are trying to make next.
- CBS is owned by Paramount Global is also trying to make a merger deal that that don’t want the government to block.
And why would you think conservatives care about Gaza? A large majority of them are Evangelical Christian and see saving Israel as a step in the second coming of Christ and the rapture (not exaggerating at all).
As far as Trail of Tears, Native Americans are constantly worried about getting rounded up by ICE because ICE can’t tell the difference between them and Mexicans.
> You seem to be under the impression that this isn’t what the majority wants?
I hope this isn't your response to me responding to a commentary about the majority
> everyone in power is supporting him or staying quiet.
because that is moving the goalposts.
And the Trail of Tears in Gaza is explicitly about the intent to shove over a million people out of their homeland because we want someone else to have it. There's a few words for what that is, but it all means the same thing.
What I am saying is that too many people don’t understand how many people in the US think Trump can do no wrong and how many don’t care about what happens to people who don’t look like them at best and have active animosity at worse. It’s even worse, many people don’t care about what happens to people who do look like them and make $1/hour less than they do.
Do you think most Trump supporters care about what happens to Palestinians? Everyone who voted for Trump knew exactly what they were getting.
It's a coup that is being allowed and empowered by the party that already controls all 3 branches of government. It's very clear what's happening: what's less clear to me is how to stop it.
EDIT: this post keeps getting flagged. The techbros who are currently destroying our democracy are upset that they're being called out.
The current US president was voted for by just 23.1% of the US population. I am not adjusting for eligible voters, but there is no sweeping mandate regardless of what anyone would have you believe.
They are certainly trying to make it seem that way. Bluster tricks fools. What to do about is to call your representatives, boycott companies if necessary, and cast an informed vote in local, state, and federal elections every chance you have.
And it is shameful this submission was flagged successfully. It is a high quality, factual, and relevant article. I'm embarrassed to be a member of this site today.
The eligible voters who didn’t vote also made a decision. But if you are in a deep red state or deep blue state, why vote with the way that the electoral college works?
Do you have a more substantiative point than this?
To answer your question, yes I do. To try to guess what you are talking about, I'd say it's "Bluster tricks fools".
I'm not saying everyone that disagrees with this administrations actions are fools, far from it. But they are governing by press release of administrative action. They could do everything they are doing quietly, but they are not. It is clear they are trying to create a "shock and awe" type reaction. This is by definition aimed at lower information populations who are impressed by performative actions.
I also know that some disagree with me, and respect that. At least 23% of the US public, and likely much more. I'm sure many of them are intelligent and decent people. However, we have a system of rules. When that system of rules is disregarded, bad things happen to societies. So I would prefer they make their policy changes through the existing system rather that break laws, as it is widely considered they are doing.
Please let me know if you had a different point in your brief message.
Well, the author says that what is going on is "all illegal" because nobody voted for Elon Musk. But if you only count who was specifically voted for, could a president even have a team or should they be alone, as nobody else was voted for?
The original topic text isn't "high quality, factual, and relevant", it's a person not happy with the outcome. IMO, that's life for you - sometimes you lose.
It is really the fault of the US being a presidential system rather than a parlementary system in combination with district voting system. This allows for one person to easily take hold of democracy - if that person does not respect democracy. It went well so far, but that is despite social media - not because of it.
In the Netherlands we really dodged a bullet on this, post WWII the UK and US had an example function when it came to democracy. The democratic D66 party attempted to transform the Netherlands to such a system but it didn’t go through. We still have a proportial voted parlementary system, which luckily allowed populist and radical parties BBB and PVV not to take too much hold on our democracy - and they are likely on their way out.
As an European, I don't quite get what people are complaining about, Trump is doing what he said he will do and has a mandate for it. Of course the Democrat university professor will try to rally up people.
We have a separation of powers for a reason. This is throwing out the main power entrusted to our Congress. Why would any future administration care about what Congress has to say after this precedent is set?
He also doesn't have a mandate, he won by relatively thin margins just like all of our recent elections.
If they want to do this and not destroy our democracy, they just need to pass a bill to make the changes they want.
Trump delegated to Musk to do this. I'm not sure if it's gone beyond his legal powers but the fact that the recently elected president delegated things to his assistant is a weak argument that we have a coup.
You would have not said a word about Harris appointing George Soros to a similar position to make unilateral decision over things to which the president isn't supposed to control?
I might have criticized it and am not wild about Musk but I don't think either is a coup in the usual sense of the word. If Musk had taken over that could be but I'm pretty sure Trump is still in charge.
It would still be a similar form of coup (IMO) if Trump was doing it himself. We have three co-equal branches of government for a reason, and the power of the purse lies with Congress. The president not faithfully executing the will of congress when it comes to spending is the underlying issue.
If congress wants to destroy all of these institutions and agencies they have created and funded over the years, they need to do that. Not allow the executive branch to wield dictatorial powers.
Why would any future president care at all what bills congress passes going forward? Just do as you wish, there are no consequences. Is that really the system you want to live under?
Well maybe. I'm not that up on the US system and what the president does or does not have the right to do. It's funny in the video Trump is talking about $100m for condoms to Hamas which is apparently because the US sent $50m in such aid to Gaza, Mozambique and the new administration mixed up the countries as well as the amount. I'm sure this will all work out well.
