Summary
Elon Musk vowed to cancel government grants after allegedly gaining access to the US Treasury’s payments system, triggering the abrupt resignation of a senior official.
Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), claimed his team found Treasury officials approving payments without scrutiny.
Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden, raised alarms over Musk’s influence on federal funds. Treasury access concerns intensified after Trump ally Michael Flynn posted grant payments online.
Musk’s authority to halt payments remains unclear, and the Treasury has not responded to inquiries.
Who the fuck even is this guy? No vetting process, no confirmation hearings, nothing.
And he’s just given this kind of power?
This country is so very, very fucked. Thanks to donvict’s base and a huge assist from the apathetic and the “bothsides” idiots.
Reminder that he’s not even American. He’s a South African billionaire with no allegiance to any one country. He’s a carpet bagger
Would you say the same thing about a naturalized immigrant doing things you agree with?
He’s a citizen whose status allow him to take pretty much any government related position except for being president, leave the immigration bit out of it as it’s the same rhetoric being used by the far right to justify what they’re doing to some naturalized citizens right now and it’s a very dangerous slippery slope you’re on.
Funny enough he’s an illegal immigrant :)
Was, but yes, that’s an issue on its own, but he ended up becoming a US citizen in the end, attacking him on his migrant background is very touchy.
It‘s Fine. He‘s Rich and allowed to lie on his citizenship application. Everyone else would still lose it in retrospect. But he’s just a poor white cisguy, give him a break
I think a lot of people still, even now, believe that the statement “this country is fucked” is a bit overboard.
They don’t grasp that the writing is on the wall. America literally is fucked. The point of no return has already been passed. What you’re witnessing is the wholesale sellout of America to the wealthy, who will remain in power indefinitely, and a system way too far gone to do anything about it.
It’s over.
Next stop, Russia 2.0. In the end, we really weren’t any better than them.
He wasn’t “given it”. He stole it and nobody with the power to stop him is trying to stop him.
he was given it by the elected president. which i think is so much worse
Except the president doesn’t have that authority. Congress could push back, but it’s currently populated by sycophants.
no one has stopped him so far
It’s exactly how Hitler got power.
Only on a very superficial level. Very different situation under a very different constitution.
‘Both got appointed by the president’ is comparing apples and oranges. That is in no way meant as a defense for Musk, but the argument is very weak and I’d prefer if we criticized him from a more solid basis.
I’d prefer if we criticized him from a more solid basis.
The other side wouldn’t care to pick nits. Personally, I’d say just allow it and perhaps try to come up with better, juicier stuff.
While the nuance is appreciated, I think it’s a trajectory worth considering.
When Trump is no longer able to even pretend to lead, in his circle there are not any obvious successors that seem likely to have the same capacity to steamroll the GOP into whatever the hell they like while also being a legal candidate for president. However if he uses his transient status to overly enable Musk to lead in ways he is legally forbidden to do so, then it elevates the risk of Musk as the heir apparent to the Trump problem.
When this nation was strong we executed people for less than what this freak is doing.
Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden, raised alarms over Musk’s influence on federal funds. Treasury access concerns intensified after Trump ally Michael Flynn posted grant payments online.
That’s funny, the only thing I get when I search for “Michael Flynn grant payments” are about payments Flynn received from the Russian government
He’s not an employee of the Federal Government. This is completely illegal. And he’s a psychopathic junkie so…
“Illegal” no longer means anything for the top people in the Trump administration. Including the ones who are not official employees.
Yup, they know what we all know. That the American justice system is the butt of a joke.
It’s open season for criminality if you’re a politician or rich person.
Why isn’t he arrested
Arrested? This man needs to be 6 foot under by any means necessary. That’s the only way this thing ends. Nobody is going to arrest him.
That’s what I’m wondering!
Which brownshirt do you want to arrest him? The ones in Congress? The ones in the SC? The gestapo?
Gazpacho
He IS the gestapo!
What did you think they meant by “Department of Government Efficiency”?
Hey now, just because they sent a message to everyone in the government to report on any suspicious DEI looking stuff… oh wait…
psychopathic junkie
I think you just hit on the Cabinet hiring requirements.
Democrats “raised alarms”? Gee thanks, that’ll take care of it you pathetic wimps. Why haven’t they brought an immediate case to the Supreme Court for an emergency ruling? A non-elected, non-nominated or confirmed by Senate (and we should of course note) immigrant has been given access to the United States Treasury. This is insane.
RIGHT!? The treasury and HR! Why are Senators not screaming until they’re hoarse!? If this isn’t the worst Executive overreach in the history of this country I don’t know what is!
He’s already hoarse from the last bout https://newrepublic.com/post/190958/robert-f-kennedy-jr-bernie-sanders-big-pharma-money
There have been two court orders requiring that payments continue normally. It looks like Musk has decided that court orders do not bind him. It hasn’t even been two weeks and already we’re at the constitutional crisis?
It’s only a constitutional crisis if anyone will pursue it.
If court orders don’t apply and higher institutions do nothing, well, there is no crisis.
It’s time for Elon to go
We need Luigi
Can we please send this fuckwit back to where he comes from? Like, the seventh circle of Hell?
Deport fElon.
Is it appropriate to say something about sending him back to a continent of origin or is the whole sentence racist no matter the subject?
I would say it’s fine to use his and his ilk’s language against him, but I wouldn’t force Muskrat upon any country.
Like how they hate our freedoms?
We don’t want him. I propose shooting him out of a cannon into the sun
Stick him in a Cybertruck and launch that into the sun.
Too energy intensive. Just launch him into a Sun orbit so he can join his roadster.
The 8th circle might be a better fit, especially in the 8th Bolgia for councellors of fraud.
So if he’s acting as a government official doesn’t he need to be confirmed by Congress?
I thought we were agreed: Any Musk photo in news from now on is his Nazi salute.
He ain’t a Nazi. I mean… Nazis make good cars /s
Lol Germans make good cars. South Africans and Americans make shit cars, Nazi or not.
Hitler didn’t mean to do that. He was just excited and he had self-diagnosed autism.
Wait, who are we talking about again?
The world’s richest man, who bankrolled Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and was tasked by the president with running the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, boasted on his social media site X that he was “rapidly shutting down . . . illegal payments” after a list of grants to Lutheran organisations was posted online.
The threat came after Musk appeared to confirm on Saturday that DOGE had access to the Treasury system, which disperses trillions of dollars each year, including social security payments.
He justified the move by claiming his team discovered “that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups”.
The system has been run by career civil servants and the Treasury already has an in-house team tasked with identifying fraudulent payments. A source with knowledge of the situation said that DOGE representatives did not have the authority to cut payments, only to read the data.
Senator Ron Wyden, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said his office had been told that Treasury secretary Scott Bessent had granted DOGE “full” access to the system.
Lutherans!! Well, I’m glad Elmo Nazi shut that shit down! Who knows how long those shady Lutherans were growing fat off the Treasury’s ample, juicy teats!
Srs tho, omfg the batshit is everywhere.
Oh.
