Brunswick Beacon, 12.26.24
Donald Trump had a problem: what to give the man who has everything? Trump’s problem got worse on Dec. 5 when federal filings revealed that Elon Musk spent at least $277 million to help Trump and Republicans get elected.
The Federal Election Commission reported that Musk’s donations mostly went to his America PAC, including three $25 million checks in the final weeks of the race and $40.5 million to individual voters in swing states that some election law experts called “clearly illegal.”
One of Musk’s most outrageous moves was spending $20 million on a pro-Trump super PAC named for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late liberal Supreme Court justice, to fool voters into thinking she and Trump shared the same views on women’s rights.
Trump solved his problem by naming Musk to head a new Department of Government Efficiency, whose acronym, DOGE, is the name of Musk’s favorite bitcoin. Dogecoin’s price soared 340% this year, helping make Musk $170 billion richer since election day. Probably the best $277 million Musk ever spent!
Then Musk torpedoed the bipartisan agreement House Speaker Mike Johnson negotiated to avoid a government shutdown at Christmas. Musk called it “criminal” and said any representative or senator who votes for it “deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” Thirteen hours later, Trump dutifully supported Musk, pretending it was his idea by adding a demand to remove the national debt limit.
Musk and Trump’s demands failed when 38 Republicans and nearly all Democrats refused. The bipartisan bill that later passed looked like the one Musk tried to scuttle, although he was able to eliminate funding for kids' cancer research. That’s what Musk’s presidency promises!
Ronald Reagan said, “The nine scariest words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Thanks to Trump and Republicans, the nine scariest words now are, “We handed the presidency to the world’s richest man.”
Vince Amoroso
Sunset Beach
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