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submitted 5 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Summary

The White House confirmed that Elon Musk is working as a "special government employee" under Trump, granting him significant authority to cut federal spending.

Musk has a government email, office space, and access to sensitive Treasury systems. His team abruptly shut down USAID headquarters on Monday.

Musk is consolidating unchecked power, raising legal and ethical concerns, particularly given his federal contracts.

Musk is unpaid and may not be required to disclose financial interests.

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[-] ptz@dubvee.org 140 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)
[-] wagesj45@fedia.io 81 points 4 months ago

Does that mean his communications will be subject to FOIA?

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 64 points 4 months ago

Fat chance. I read he brought in his own server and connected it to the network at the OMB to spam emails to federal employees. That seems highly illegal.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 34 points 4 months ago

Gosh, I remember a quaint time in the olden times when having your OWN EMAIL SERVER was something worthy of being lined up against a wall and shot for.

Guess that only applies to Democratic candidates for President named Hillary.

Also, and it bears repeating - I guess this would have been jUsTaSbAd under Kamala, because something something neoliberal argle bargle status quo genocide....

[-] wagesj45@fedia.io 11 points 4 months ago

I tend to agree, but we should at least try. Pull every lever of governance we have for as long as we have it.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 7 points 4 months ago

I don't disagree but it's not as if we're dealing with people who have any sort of integrity or honor, who'll accept when they've done something wrong.

[-] Cort@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago

Doubt it. I bet they'll try to classify any of his communications as presidential advice, which would make them privileged communications not subject to foia

[-] Eeyore_Syndrome@sh.itjust.works 74 points 5 months ago

He failed background check.

[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 50 points 4 months ago

The richest man on the planet who once joked about ending world hunger is cutting federal spending of the richest and most powerful nation on the planet. Let that sink in for a moment.

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 41 points 4 months ago

And they were in an awful hurry to kill USAID.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago

That's probably just a trial run. They are floating the idea of killing the Department of Education now.

[-] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 50 points 5 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Not good enough.

Just because Trump declares him special doesn't mean he is, or that he should have special privileges, anymore than his moronic cabinet picks can start moving their shit into their offices before being confirmed by the Senate.

[-] joyjoy@lemm.ee 29 points 5 months ago

And being special doesn't excuse him from being a nazi.

[-] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 4 months ago

He's only special in the short bus sense of special.

[-] joyjoy@lemm.ee 35 points 4 months ago

Let's be careful to not throw our differently abled friends under the bus by comparing them to Musk.

[-] frezik@midwest.social 14 points 4 months ago

After all, most of them are kinder and have more sympathy than Musk.

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[-] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 months ago

As long as we the people continue to allow it, he is indeed whatever they say he is.

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[-] xzot746@sh.itjust.works 44 points 4 months ago

So is there no conflict of interest with the companies he runs getting federal contracts? Don't politicians need to put their companies into some type of trust where they can't run it and make decisions that would be in their favour? I mean I know it doesn't work like that with stick trading (cough cough Pelosi).

[-] hydroxycotton@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I brought up the conflict of interest to a trump coworker and he deadass said, "I get the conflict of interest, but I just don't care." The mask is fully off.

Edit: not that I'm surprised, just depressed and somewhat bewildered

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago

Trump did away with the trust thing. And they let him because it wasn't a law, it was just something that was understood to be done. No talk of him doing it this time either.

[-] IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Company he runs? You really think he has time to run 5 companies while jerking off on twitter and now is spending his time jerking off in the treasury. The man just does what ever he feels. None of it is remotely called “work” he’s basically a walking jerk off

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[-] jballs@sh.itjust.works 40 points 4 months ago

“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.

Any bets on how long it will be until Elon does something so unpopular that there's blowback on Trump and it becomes "Elon acted on this alone and I had nothing to do with it."

[-] w3dd1e@lemm.ee 23 points 4 months ago

I insist on only calling him President Musk because I know when he takes enough attention and credit from Trump, Trump will get mad and tell Elon to fuck off.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 9 points 4 months ago

It will be glorious if it blows back so hard that Musk ends up in prison.

[-] w3dd1e@lemm.ee 13 points 4 months ago

We can only hope. This morning, I saw multiple news articles with “President Musk” in the title. I suspect it’s intentional for that reason. But at minimum, I hope it’s starting.

[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 29 points 4 months ago

Like... Like a super special employee? An S.S.?

[-] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 29 points 4 months ago

No no, not a coup, a special government operation )))))l

[-] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 27 points 4 months ago

But he's autistic guys! We're all misunderstanding, there is no Nazi coup going on.

[-] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

[-] Talaraine@fedia.io 22 points 4 months ago
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[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 20 points 5 months ago

I have to admit, president musk was not on my bingo card.

[-] 1024_Kibibytes@lemm.ee 18 points 4 months ago

It's been on my Bingo card since I realized that he basically bankrolled Trump's campaign by himself. He set up a PAC just to win the election.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 20 points 4 months ago

Trump hires immigrant on welfare.

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

Also "special" sometimes used as a slur for the neurodivergent, so he's also a DEI hire.

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[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 15 points 5 months ago

But not an actual employee??

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

He's special, alright.

[-] __nobodynowhere@sh.itjust.works 11 points 4 months ago

It's legal because I said so

[-] Norgoroth@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

I heard the second amendment was made for special situations

[-] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 4 points 4 months ago

The militia is busy fighting the woke mind virus

[-] kn0wmad1c@programming.dev 8 points 4 months ago

I hope Musk is going to his office every day, because how could he possibly work remotely?

[-] Nastybutler@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

I know you are joking, but he's literally brought in sofa beds to his offices so he and his young minions can live there while they dismantle the government

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[-] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 months ago

And yet the security in federal offices listen to him as if he was their commander. Those guards should be investigated and charged. Its their literal duty to disobey unlawful orders.

[-] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 7 points 4 months ago

Employees get paid. He's a special government intern. Violating internship guidelines to prevent abuse of power using unpaid interns in a 'special' way. Also these asshats were up in arms about 'Special Counsel' investigations being illegal like 2 weeks ago. We good with those again, or no?

[-] Kichae@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 months ago

Aww, who's the specialist little boy in the government? Who is? Who is?

[-] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 4 points 4 months ago

Well, isn't that 'special'.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

And here I thought that was Trump's title.

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this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
483 points (100.0% liked)

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