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I don’t know how Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly got my phone number, but a text from him landed the other day with a thud.
“Elon Musk came after me again,” said the text. Sure, sure — I knew it was a ploy for cash, but I was intrigued.
Turns out the impetuous billionaire had gratuitously insulted Kelly after the senator had posted a long thread on X about his recent trip to Ukraine.
“What I saw proved to me we can’t give up on the Ukrainian people,” wrote Kelly. “Everyone wants this war to end, but any agreement has to protect Ukraine’s security and can’t be a giveaway to Putin.”
Musk’s reaction: “You are a traitor.”
Let that sink in, to quote Musk himself.
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Kelly is an American patriot. He flew 39 combat missions as a U.S. Navy pilot during Operation Desert Storm. Later, as a NASA astronaut, he twice commanded the space shuttle.
Musk, by contrast, left South Africa at age 17 in part to avoid compulsory military service.
His puerile insult brought to mind the infamous remark then-presidential candidate Donald Trump made in 2016 about Republican Sen. John McCain, also of Arizona, a Navy pilot who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
“He’s a war hero ‘cause he was captured,” said Trump, who ducked the Vietnam draft by claiming he had bone spurs. “I like people who weren’t captured.”
I don’t know which billionaire is less suited to wield power in a democracy, Musk or Trump. Neither has a lick of empathy, an indispensable trait in a great leader.
“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy,” Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan last month. “So we’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on.”
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Musk recently reposted a meme denigrating Americans who receive federal benefits as “the Parasite Class.” This from someone whose empire, including Tesla and Space X, were built with billions of dollars in government funding, i.e. your tax dollars.
Musk’s frosty attitude toward his fellow humans helps explain why he is able to sleep at night while denying lifesaving food and medicine to people in the many undeveloped countries that used to be helped by the U. S. Agency for International Development, the first of the programs he’s been trying to chain-saw out of existence.
Trump and Musk’s slash-and-burn approach to government, to the economy, to relationships with traditional allies, and the way they have reduced the White House to a Tesla dealership amply demonstrate their lack of concern for the American people. (Have you checked your 401(k) balance lately?)
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But more important, their actions show they are not really interested in an efficient government, the putative reason Musk became, essentially, co-president.
It’s hard to keep track of all the lawsuits that have been filed accusing the pair of illegally slashing government agencies and programs. Their method is pure madness.
Take their plan to cut by half the workforce of the Internal Revenue Service. According to Washington Post contributor Natasha Sarin, a Yale Law School professor who served as deputy assistant secretary for economic policy in the Biden administration, IRS layoffs at the scale promised would “very conservatively, lead to a $400-billion increase in uncollected taxes over the next decade. It could easily mean more than $2 trillion in losses.”
On Thursday, federal judges in California and Maryland ruled that thousands of federal workers across 19 agencies had indeed been fired illegally and ordered their reinstatement. Thanks to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a name George Orwell would have been proud to dream up, the country now finds itself mired in a legal morass that could last years.
As President Trump publicly embraces anti-democratic dictators he is forfeiting the United States’ 80-year leadership of the free world.
Anyway, the U.S. Constitution was never designed with efficiency in mind. The founders created a system of checks and balances specifically to prevent concentrating power in the hands of one person. Our supine Republican Congress, in fear of alienating Musk and Trump, has abdicated its role in this critical balance, handing over control of the purse strings to Trump and Musk.
“When you have an efficient government,” President Truman once said, “you have a dictatorship.”
In their fecklessness, Musk and Trump are perfect for each other. They are the political reincarnation of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the tragically self-absorbed couple in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”
“They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together,” wrote Fitzgerald, “and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
And oh, what a mess Trump and Musk have made.
The question now is whether Americans will stand up to this terrible twosome and wrench our democracy back from their grasping little hands.
Bluesky: @rabcarian.bsky.social. Threads: @rabcarian
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Ideas expressed in the piece
- The author argues that Elon Musk and Donald Trump exemplify a “toxic lack of empathy” through policies prioritizing corporate interests over public welfare, such as Musk’s derogatory labeling of Senator Mark Kelly as a “traitor” for advocating continued U.S. support for Ukraine[1][6][9]. Kelly, a decorated veteran and former astronaut, emphasized that abandoning Ukraine would embolden Russian aggression and undermine global trust in American alliances[2][4][8].
- Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is criticized for dismantling federal programs, including drastic IRS workforce cuts projected to cost hundreds of billions in uncollected taxes, while benefiting billionaires like himself[9][5]. Legal challenges have arisen over illegal layoffs of federal employees, with courts ordering reinstatements[9].
- The article contrasts Musk and Trump’s avoidance of military service with Kelly’s combat and NASA background, framing their governance as reckless and self-serving. For example, Musk’s dismissal of empathy as a “civilizational suicidal” trait clashes with Kelly’s firsthand accounts of Ukrainian resilience[3][8][9].
Different views on the topic
- Elon Musk and Trump allies defend pausing military aid to Ukraine as a strategy to force concessions from Russia, with Musk asserting that Kelly’s support for Kyiv undermines U.S. interests[1][6][9]. Musk’s “traitor” remark reflects broader skepticism among some conservatives about prolonged involvement in the war, arguing it risks escalating tensions with Russia[3][6][7].
- The Trump administration claims withholding aid pressures Ukraine to negotiate, with Trump stating intelligence sharing could resume if Kyiv meets U.S. demands[6][8]. This aligns with Musk’s view that Western “empathy” enables unsustainable foreign commitments, though critics argue this approach weakens Ukraine’s bargaining power[8][9].
- Supporters of DOGE’s austerity measures argue they streamline government efficiency, despite legal rulings against mass layoffs. Musk has defended his policies as necessary to reduce bureaucratic bloat, though opponents highlight their destabilizing impact on federal operations[5][9].
