https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-30-2025
"In July 2024, according to an article published today by Kirsten Grind and
Megan Twohey in the
New York Times, billionaire Elon Musk texted privately
about his concerns that government investigations into his businesses would
“take me down.” “I can’t be president,” he wrote, “but I can help Trump defeat
Biden and I will.”
After appearing on stage with Trump on October 5, Musk texted a person close to
him: “I’m feeling more optimistic after tonight. Tomorrow we unleash the
anomaly in the matrix.” About an hour later, he added: “This is not something
on the chessboard, so they will be quite surprised. “‘Lasers’ from space.”
Musk invested about $290 million in the 2024 election and, when Trump took
office, became a fixture in the White House, heading the “Department of
Government Efficiency.” It set out to kill government programs by withholding
congressionally approved funds, a practice that courts have ruled
unconstitutional and Congress expressly prohibited with the 1974
Impoundment
Control Act.
Musk vowed that his “Department of Government Efficiency” would cut $2 trillion
from the U.S. budget, but he quickly backed off on those numbers. In the end,
DOGE claimed savings of $175 billion, but that claim is unverifiable and
CNN’s Casey Tolan says it’s probably wrong: less than half of it is backed up
with any documentation.
Instead, as
CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf reported today, since DOGE cut staffing at
the enforcement wing of the Internal Revenue Service, for example, and cut
employees at national parks, which also generate revenue, its cuts may well end
up costing money. Max Stier, who heads the Partnership for Public Service,
suggests DOGE cuts could cost U.S. taxpayers $135 billion because agencies will
need to train and hire replacements for the workers DOGE fired. Stier called
DOGE’s actions “arson of a public asset.”
Grind and Twohey reported that Musk’s drug consumption during the campaign—they
could not speak to his habits in the White House, although he appeared high
today at a White House press conference—was “more intense than previously
known.” He was a chronic user of ketamine, took Ecstasy and psychedelic
mushrooms, and traveled with a box that held about 20 pills for daily use.
Those in frequent contact with him worried about his frequent drug use, erratic
behavior, and mood swings. As a government contractor, Musk should receive
random drug tests, but Grind and Twohey say he received advance warning of
those tests.
It was never clear that Musk’s role at DOGE was legal, and the White House has
tried to maintain that he was only an advisor, despite Trump’s February 19
statement, “I signed an order creating [DOGE] and put a man named Elon Musk in
charge.” On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that 14 states can
proceed with their lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk and the “Department of
Government Efficiency,” saying the states had adequately supported their
argument that “Musk and DOGE’s conduct is ‘unauthorized by any law.’”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
