Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

This is because journalists have discovered the names of the young boys who are now running roughshod over the US government at Elon Musk’s behest.

Wired revealed the name of one last night who appears to have been given way beyond “read only” ability and he’s changing code. Josh Marshall has more on that today:

I’m told that Elez and possibly other DOGE operatives received full admin-level access on Friday, January 31st. The claim of “read only” access was either false from the start or later fell through. The DOGE team, which appears to be mainly or only Elez for the purposes of this project, has already made extensive changes to the code base for the payment system. They have not locked out the existing programmer/engineering staff but have rather leaned on them for assistance, which the staff appear to have painedly provided hoping to prevent as much damage as possible — “damage” in the sense not of preventing the intended changes but avoiding crashes or a system-wide breakdown caused by rapidly pushing new code into production with a limited knowledge of the system and its dependencies across the federal government.

Phrases like “freaking out” are, not surprisingly, used to describe the reaction of the engineers who were responsible for maintaining the code base until a week ago. The changes that have been made all seem to relate to creating new paths to block payments and possibly leave less visibility into what has been blocked. I want to emphasize that the described changes are not being tested in a dev environment (i.e., a not-live environment) but have already been pushed into production. This is code that appears to be mainly the work of Elez, who was first introduced to the system probably roughly a week ago and certainly not before the second Trump inauguration. The most recent information I have is that no payments have as yet been blocked and that the incumbent engineering team was able to convince Elez to push the code live to impact only a subset of the universe of payments the system controls. I have also heard no specific information about this access being used to drill down into the private financial or proprietary information of payment recipients, though it appears that the incumbent staff has only limited visibility into what Elez is doing with the access. They have, however, looked extensively into the categories and identity of payees to see how certain payments can be blocked.

What could go wrong?

Meanwhile, it appears that the Treasury Secretary is either out of the loop or lying to Congress:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent privately reassured Republican lawmakers Monday that Elon Musk and his team do not have control over a sensitive government system that manages the flow of trillions of dollars in payments, according to five lawmakers in the room for a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill.

Not that they care anyway. They want to be lied to. I’ve read dozens of articles in the last 48 hours about … all of this, and it’s clear that Republicans in Congress are absolutely fine with everything that’s happening. I honestly don’t think Musk’s little boys crashing the entire US government system and destroying the economy would move them. They know it’s lunacy. They are either just as crazy or so cowardly that they won’t say a word against it.

At this point I’ve lost the capacity to imagine what can stop what’s happening.

Update —

Rolling Stone reports that Elon and Trump are very upset about leaks but their plans to stop it are “ham-handed”

Among the ideas internally kicked around the Trump and Musk teams was the thought of planting younger informers or “spies” in different parts of the federal government to gain the trust of offices and teams suspected of anti-MAGA sentiments. (The Trump administration has already sought in other ways to erect a snitch network across the federal bureaucracy, encouraging staffers to anonymously tip off their superiors if they see any hint of hush-hush diversity programs operating in the shadows.)

Other ideas include potentially accessing, via virtual back-door access, some staffers’s government emails or communications to see if there’s any recent evidence of leaking to the media, though sources generally concede that it is unlikely career officials would be using their work accounts for these kinds of sensitive and unauthorized conversations. Other plans focus on Trump administration officials sending different staffers different internal messages or pieces of disinformation, to see what does or doesn’t leak — in the hopes of isolating where some of the leaking could be stemming from.

Trump and Musk allies have also discussed compiling dossiers of various federal staff and creating shortlists of suspected leakers by scouring their social media accounts to see who is friendly with certain reporters and who is “clearly a liberal,” in the words of a Trump administration official. One Musk ally says they have already asked trusted Trumpists installed in multiple agencies and departments for “brief rundowns” of names of their immediate coworkers or underlings who are the likeliest to be blabbing to the press over the past several days.

These are the people yammering about the Deep State…

Survival tips for Trump 2.0

“Hard not to feel like we’re all losing our minds when it’s just plain as day that what Musk is doing is obviously, flagrantly illegal,” writes Chris Hayes on Threads.

So, self care is going to be important especially for the near future. There’s a lot to take in. Others have already tuned out. But I have enough Irish on both sides that my attitude comes from the old joke, “Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?” Tuning out is not an option. That way lies helplessness, and I loathe feeling helpless. Action is the antidote.

Europeans accustomed to taking advice from the U.S. have some for their American friends facing an authoritarian regime. Watch for all those little changes that amount to big changes:

“I never liked the metaphor of the frog in a slowly boiling water, but it applies very well to our situation,” Srđan Cvijić at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy said. “One decision at a time, our regime has stripped Serbia of its democratic system. It didn’t come overnight. First they captured the media, then the judiciary, then other independent institutions, then they started rigging the elections, and finally they are trying to strip us of the right to freedom of assembly.

“So my advice to Americans is never relax, always be on guard, democracy is not given, not even in the land of the free,” Cvijić said. “Things can go backwards, you have to fight daily for your rights, otherwise someone will take them away from you.

“The most important thing to defend is solidarity and human decency,” Cvijić added. “Do not allow the enemies of democracy to lower your own standards of political behaviour.”

Márta Pardavi, the co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, has related advice:

Pardavi said it was important to dodge the trap of mirroring the political tactics of those in power.

“Avoid siege mentality that, even inadvertently, fuels polarisation. Polarisation undermines trust in public institutions such as the media and the courts,” she said.

“The lower the level of public trust in these institutions, the easier it becomes to capture them. Strive to strengthen institutions by strengthening public trust in them. In turn, ensure these democratic institutions are deserving of this public trust by performing their duties fairly and effectively. Hold them to account.”

My advice for those who have ears to hear is the Europeans’.

The common message from Europe’s pro-democracy activists was to keep fighting.

Pavel Slunkin, a former diplomat from Belarus, said: “The worst thing that Americans could do now is to stay out of politics.”

I know and hate it: Democrats have been really, really slow out of the blocks. But there is movement. Talk is cheap. Action is better. Even if it’s just leaving a voice message with your representatives, filling out an online response form or sending an efax. To Republicans and Democrats. Regularly. Not one and done.

Brian Stelter sums up advice from AOC’s livestream last night:

While the right delights in hearing about the chaos, the left is trying to organize resistance. “If you are watching the news right now, and feeling overwhelmed by the constant headlines and developments… first of all, know that you are not alone,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on an Instagram Live last night. And second, “this is exactly what this administration is trying to get you to feel.” She said “the paralysis and shock that you feel right now is the point. They are trying to induce a state of passivity among the general public.”

Her video lays out the master plan behind Musk-Trump’s individual actions. If you have the time, her suggestions are deep into her video. Trumpists want to divide and conquer? Two can play that.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc)

If you live in a community with a lot of immigrants: Know your rights. (Chicago prepared residents for immigration raids, and when ICE showed up, people told them no.)

If Muskco offers you (federal worker) a “buyout,” don’t accept. Make them make you. Do not comply in advance.

Work with community organizing groups. “We need to be little grains of sand” in the authortarians’ gears. Slow them down and you’ll reduce the damage they can do.

Show up for special elections that impact you (like Elise Stefanik’s open NY seat). Even if Democrats lose, make Republicans lose by more.

Democrats are finally emerging from their stupor after a delayed response. Part of that, AOC explains, is because Trump waited to launch the “shit show” until Congress went out of session and members went home to their districts.

She recommends using every single procedural action to slow down action on Trump nominees in the Senate. “Block every damn thing that we can” while all this Muskish firestarting continues.

Tell your Democratic senator not to vote for Trump’s nominees. Do not assume they will because there is a D behind their names.

Adam Kinzinger offers simple advice for returning MOCs. Actions, not talk.

this is good idea. the issues here is certain things drive news. they're kinetic. stuff like this does that. press releases and statements don't. the goal for an opposition in a case like this has to be to raise salience. this among many other things does that. https://t.co/qMsLyKQ6Eo

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 3, 2025

“Lock in and make the choice,” advises AOC. “This will be a long battle but we will win.”

He’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Musk Industries

“Calling Musk the ‘shadow president’ may be underselling the severity of the situation,” writes Amanda Marcotte this morning at Salon. 

Indeed.

Elon Musk and his youthfoul band of arsonists are gleefully burning every agency in Washington they can force their way into. It’s a hostile takeover of the United States happening in full view of the world. It’s also happening in full view of Democrats down the street just now waking up and smelling the accelerants.

Donald is in the Oval Office sharpie-signing whatever executive orders underlings drafted for him to sign and show off for the cameras like a child’s finger-painting. Donald loves signing things. (Except checks to porn stars.) Does he know what’s in them or is he too far into deepening dementia to care?

But while Donald is busily sharpie-signing, Elon Musk, another overaged adolescent, is running about unsupervised. It seems the White House doesn’t really know what he’s doing with the government Trump was elected to run into the ground.

The New York Times has published an unusually blunt account of Musk’s blitz through executive agencies, including his “efforts to shut down U.S.A.I.D., a key source of foreign assistance.” That move has “reverberated around the globe” (unlocked article):

Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, is sweeping through the federal government as a singular force, creating major upheaval as he looks to put an ideological stamp on the bureaucracy and rid the system of those who he and the president deride as “the deep state.”

The rapid moves by Mr. Musk, who has a multitude of financial interests before the government, have represented an extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual.

The speed and scale have shocked civil servants, who have been frantically exchanging information on encrypted chats, trying to discern what is unfolding.

Senior White House staff members have at times also found themselves in the dark, according to two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. One Trump official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Mr. Musk was widely seen as operating with a level of autonomy that almost no one can control.

Trump was once the Frankenstein monster running amuck through D.C. But now that he’s loosed Musk on the city, the South African immigrant is stealing his thunder. A fidgety Trump is unable to deploy his signature power moves to reel him back. He’s reduced to explaining him away.

“He’s a big cost-cutter,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Sunday. “Sometimes we won’t agree with it and we’ll not go where he wants to go. But I think he’s doing a great job. He’s a smart guy.”

[…]

Mr. Trump himself sounded a notably cautionary note on Monday, telling reporters: “Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval. And we’ll give him the approval where appropriate, where not appropriate, we won’t.”

What Trump cannot bring himself to concede (like 2020) is that his presidency is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Musk Industries. Musk has far more money, impossibly more than Trump, a man who measures his manhood by it. James Taylor sang that back when Trump was snowing Times reporters into believing his daddy’s buildings were his own. It’s not often Trump gets up-staged. In spite of holding the presidency, Trump has failed to dominate a man whose stack is so much bigger. And for the richest man in the world, the world is not enough.

President Felonious is not the only one with a mouth agape at the American carnage Musk is wreaking in the nation’s capitol:

There is no precedent for a government official to have Mr. Musk’s scale of conflicts of interest, which include domestic holdings and foreign connections such as business relationships in China. And there is no precedent for someone who is not a full-time employee to have such ability to reshape the federal work force.

The historian Douglas Brinkley described Mr. Musk as a “lone ranger” with limitless running room. He noted that the billionaire was operating “beyond scrutiny,” saying: “There is not one single entity holding Musk accountable. It’s a harbinger of the destruction of our basic institutions.”

Several former and current senior government officials — even those who like what he is doing — expressed a sense of helplessness about how to handle Mr. Musk’s level of unaccountability. At one point after another, Trump officials have generally relented rather than try to slow him down. Some hoped Congress would choose to reassert itself.

While officials and electeds wait for someone else to stop him, “Musk is crowdsourcing ideas of what he should unilaterally cut from the absolute worst people on the internet,” Marcotte writes:

The first target of Musk’s illegal campaign to cut programs that Congress has authorized money for is USAID, a program started by President John F. Kennedy that administers foreign aid and development assistance. The program has long been embraced by both parties, with Democrats supporting its charitable aims and Republicans more interested in how it buys goodwill that keeps the U.S. as the top international power. Shutting it down would also undermine Trump’s efforts to reduce immigration from places like Central America, by increasing the poverty and desperation that drives migration. But Musk doesn’t care about the law or the disastrous effects. He’s too busy trying to please his minions on X, especially the ones with nice things to say about Adolph Hitler. 

[…]

Musk’s baby-faced boy army is just an especially galling example of how the billionaire believes random know-nothing right-wingers should usurp the authority of elected representatives. Their youth is alarming not because they lack experience — which will thankfully make it harder for them to figure out how to execute Musk’s supervillain-style plans — but because of what it suggests about Musk’s strategy. Young people tend to be more naive and are probably starstruck by their celebrity boss. Such people are easier to lure into committing direct crimes, so they incur legal liability instead of Musk. It’s easy to see how young men, drunk on memeified far-right politics and the cloak-and-dagger excitement of hacking into government offices, might not see how they’re taking serious risks with their futures by playing illegal games. 

They won’t. The Musk-Trump administration has eliminated the FBI’s leadership and means to install fangirl Pam Bondi to head what Trump derides as the Department of Injustice. Bondi will redefine “selective enforcement.” Meaning illegal is what Trump says it is now that the Roberts court has effectively indemnified him.

For his part, Musk is living his supervillain dream. All that’s missing is him smugly laying out his evil plan before its denouement. But those Bond set-pieces only occur in the presence of heroes prepared to stop them. So far, heroes are in short supply.

He said he would do it but they didn’t believe him

I wonder how many people feel this way:

EL PASO — On a recent windy, cold afternoon in this border city, dozens of people gathered at a park for an immigrant rights demonstration to denounce the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Some held signs reading: “Immigrants Make America Great.”

Alan, a local police officer, and his wife came and held a Mexican flag. He said he joined the demonstration because he worries about his father, an undocumented immigrant who works at a farm in southern New Mexico.

Alan said he voted for Donald Trump because of worries about the economy and because he believes Trump is pro-police and would combat the public’s negative perception of law enforcement. He said he believed Trump’s promises to make everyday items affordable for middle-class families.

But after two weeks of Trump in the White House, Alan — who declined to give his last name because he fears retaliation against his father — said he now regrets his vote. Partly because he was angered when Trump granted clemency to people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

I am trying to dredge up some empathy for these folks and hopefully I’ll be able to eventually. These folks do seem like sad sacks who are more to be pitied than censured. But considering the carnage we are currently experiencing, with the worst yet to come, I’m not there yet. Trump didn’t try to hide it. His voters just didn’t believe anything he said.

All they knew was that he wasn’t Biden or Harris, who they irrationally hated, and that Trump promised to make America 2019 again (as if that was some kind of utopia.) They didn’t think he meant any of the bad stuff. But that’s the only stuff he actually meant.

I wrote about Ed Martin, the new US Attorney for Washington DC, the other day. He was one of the organizers of the Stop the Steal rally, spoke on January 5th, and raised money for the defense of the January 6th insurrectionists.

Here he is sucking up to President Musk and assuring him that he’ll use his police power against his opponents:

"We will not act like the previous administration who looked the other way as the Antifa and BLM rioters as well as thugs with guns trashed our capital city. We will protect DOGE and other workers no matter what."

— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) 2025-02-03T17:38:13.064Z

They know there will likely be big protests eventually. It just seems inevitable. We’re already seeing them happen in cities where the immigration raids are taking place. When they do, especially if there’s a big march in DC, I suspect there will be violence.

It would be nice if the big march, should it happen, be led by women again. It would not preclude the police crackdown because that’s what Trump and his henchmen are looking for. But it will illustrate for the American people more clearly who they really are.

By the way, I came across this about Martin. He’s quite a piece of work:

NEW: Our report tonight on Ed Martin, who is helping craft the Republican Party's platform at the convention and has raised jailing women who get abortions and advocated for a national ban without exceptions for rape or incest. pic.twitter.com/cBzElHhLyr

— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) July 3, 2024

At least one of them is:

At the press conference outside of USAID headquarters, Senator Brian Schatz:

"If you want to change an agency, introduce a bill and pass a law. You cannot wave away an agency that you don't like or that you disagree with by executive order, or by literally storming into the… pic.twitter.com/st0kaEmibI

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) February 3, 2025

At the press conference outside of USAID headquarters, Senator Brian Schatz:

“If you want to change an agency, introduce a bill and pass a law. You cannot wave away an agency that you don’t like or that you disagree with by executive order, or by literally storming into the building and taking over the servers. That is not how the American system of government works.”

The WSJ reports:

Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) said he would place a “blanket hold” on all of President Trump’s State Department nominees until the administration’s attack on the leading U.S. foreign-assistance agency ends, a move that threatens to stall Trump’s ability to get his foreign-policy team in place.

Schatz’s threat came as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency aims to close the U.S. Agency for International Development; the agency’s existence as an independent government organization is codified in federal law. Over the weekend, DOGE staffers forced their way into USAID’s headquarters in Washington, gaining access to classified information and closing the building to employees on Monday.

The Senate typically speeds up the confirmation of many nominees through “unanimous consent,” a process that bypasses a formal vote if no senator objects. By objecting, Schatz’s hold would halt the Senate’s ability to move nominees quickly, requiring Senate Majority Leader John Thune to use precious floor time to advance the president’s picks through the confirmation process.

“I will oppose unanimous consent,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “I will vote no. I will do maximal delays until this is resolved.”

Speaker Jeffries seems to have come up with a plan as well:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a key demand Monday as a March 14 government funding deadline approaches, saying President Donald Trump’s recent federal spending freeze “must be choked off” as part of any bipartisan deal to keep the government open, “if not sooner.

The ultimatum, detailed in a letter to House Democrats, is a signal that Jeffries will use Democrats’ leverage in the narrowly divided House to push back on the Trump administration. Historically, Republicans have found it difficult to stick together on government funding bills, with the Senate filibuster giving Democrats additional clout.

[…]

House Democrats also plan to introduce legislation blocking “unlawful access” to the Treasury Department payment system that billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk and his allies recently gained access to as part of their “Department of Government Efficiency” initiative.

The caucus’ messaging arm is also set to highlight GOP policies that would increase the cost of living including the sweeping tariffs rolled out by the Trump administration over the weekend.

In other efforts, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) is planning a caucus meeting with outside experts on how to “enhanc[e] our ability to unpack and expose a recently uncovered Republican scheme to Rip Off the American taxpayer,” while the No. 3 Democrat, Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), is set to convene House Democrats’ immigration working group as the party searches for a response to GOP-led crackdown on migrants and the border.

Jeffries also urged Democrats to hold outreach in their districts today or this week to “discuss the challenges we are decisively addressing on their behalf.” He said that he will be holding a telephone town hall later Monday and will be tracking caucus participation.

Better late than never.

Honestly, they need to just stand together on the budget and debt ceiling and demand that Elon Musk be banned. Period. That would go a long way to alleviating one of the gravest dangers this nation faces. It’s truly a matter of national security.

Josh Marshall has another good piece today about what Democrats can do. It’s very good and I urge you to click over and read it.

A man Ben Smith from Semafor calls a “MAGA Intellectual” (a contradiction in terms) has been tapped for Assisstant Secretary of State:

Beattie has been a vocal critic of broad swathes of American foreign policy and represents a dramatic step away from the establishment Republicanism Rubio long embodied:  In a widely-circulated essay on the site he founded, Revolver, Darren Beattie compared the “color revolutions” that Western democracies backed in Eastern Europe in the 1990s and 2000s to “the coordinated efforts of government bureaucrats, NGOs, and the media to oust President Trump.”

Beattie, who has a PhD in political theory from Duke University, where he also taught, was fired in 2018 after attending a conference with white nationalists. He was appointed by Trump in 2020 to a the Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad, a move that the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, called “outrageous” at the time. (Greenblatt declined to comment Sunday.) The commission works with other governments to preserve sites related to World War II and the Holocaust.

Beattie’s appointment will send another signal that the new administration is rooting itself deeply in the new right.

Ben Smith writes:

“Darren personifies the America First Right — smart, tough, relentless — with a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude. He made Revolver a major player in the frontal attack on the Deep State,” the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said in a text message. “As important as his agency will be in the building at ‘Foggy Bottom’ , the symbolism of his hire by POTUS screams: ‘We Don’t Give 2 F****x’ for convention.’” The media figure Tucker Carlson called Beattie “decent and genuinely smart” in a text message.

The move offers a glimpse, however, at how Rubio is staffing his department to reassure the MAGA faithful that he’s with the program. Rubio’s director of policy planning is another MAGA intellectual, Michael Anton, whose essay, ”The Flight 93 Election″ made the case for electing Trump in 2016 at any cost.

The so-called “intellectual” Rubio has hired is responsible for this:

Every time I see a post about Beattie, I'm also going to note that he was also the engine for the bullshit claims about federal agents at the Capitol riot, esp. Ray Epps.

— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) 2025-02-03T15:07:50.283Z

He’s nothing more than a Big Lie, white supremacist troll.

Back in 2009, Mitch McConnell led his minority Senate Republicans to obstruct the Democrats at every turn. At the time, the Democrats had a filibuster proof majority but the Republicans (and a few helpful Vicy Dems) managed to drag out the negotiations for months and made it as painful as possible.

A former staffer posted this on Blue Sky yesterday:

Maybe someone should send it to the Democratic Caucus. It might give them some ideas.

Speaking of Mitch, he was on 60 Minutes last night and it was interesting:

I thought this was particularly good:

Stahl: “You said he [Trump] is nasty, not very smart, a sleazeball”
Mitch McConnell: “Those were private comments”
Stahl: “But they’re in your biography.”
McConnell: “Yeah”

But you voted for him Mitch.

McConnell: “[Tariffs] will drive the cost of everything up. In other words, it will be paid for by American consumers. I mean, why would you want to get in a fight with your allies over this?” asks Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Did you not hear him when he promised to do this during the campaign?

Watch the whole thing if you have time. I guess he knows he’s short time and doesn’t believe he has anything to lose. His biographer says that the Court he put in place that saved Trump’s bacon ended up being the greatest stain on his legacy but he deserves to be pilloried for centuries for what he did to the judicial system. They don’t call him the gravedigger of democracy for nothing. Look where we are. At least he is forced to look at his handiwork.

During the last election economics were on everyone’s minds. Despite the greater economy being healthy with an extraordinary job market not seen since the 1960s, people told pollsters that they were extremely upset about the high cost of living that had been brought on by the disruption of the pandemic and took a couple of years to finally sort out. In poll after poll, Americans said that inflation was the biggest problem facing the nation.

When asked what he planned to do about this, then candidate Donald Trump’s only answers were “tariffs!” and ” growth.” It was the cure all for every economic pain that ailed you. Here he is answering a question about what specific legislation he would propose to deal with the high cost of child care. Yes, you guessed it. Tariffs.

He promised over and over again that he was going to lower the cost of living and he made it clear that the way he planned to do it was with his beloved tariffs.

Well, we’re about to find out how that’s going to work. Over the weekend, Trump followed through on his threats to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada and 10% on China, ostensibly because of immigration and fentanyl coming over the borders which is ridiculous. There’s no need to discuss Trump’s obsession with immigration except to say that Mexico has been cooperating fully with US demands and there simply is not a problem with illegal immigration at the Canadian border except maybe from Americans trying desperately to escape Trump’s dystopia.

As for fentanyl, Trump claims that 200,000 people have died from fentanyl this year (I assume he really meant last year. ) But that’s wrong too. Fentanyl overdoses were down 21% last year and in total didn’t even come to half that number. Obviously, all overdose deaths are a tragedy but how Trump thinks hitting Mexico and Canada with tariffs is supposed to solve America’s drug problem is a mystery. Of course, in his mind they are instruments of magical power so perhaps he can make them work.

Canada responded immediately to the announcement with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivering what may be remembered as his finest speech just as he is leaving office. It made me, and I would imagine, plenty of other Americans feel a deep sense of shame at what our president is doing to our closest allies:

“We have fought and died alongside you… during your darkest hours … we were always there standing with you …grieving with you the American people.”

One might have understood Trump aiming tariffs at China, which is the United States’ greatest economic adversary, but then his co-president Elon Musk has important business there so perhaps that wouldn’t be prudent. But these demands on Canada and Mexico are incredibly vague and impossible for either country to actually accede to, raising the question of what he’s really after with these draconian hits on two of America’s closest allies and trading partners.

Economist Paul Krugman wondered the same thing and hypothesized that it’s “essentially a dominance display. And the many people pointing out that it’s a terrible idea probably only reinforced his determination to show that he’s in charge and smarter than anyone else.” That sounds right, especially when you hear his recent rhetoric around America’s relationship with the world.

While signing the Laken Riley Act Trump rambled on about his recent confrontation with Colombia over the treatment of migrants being returned to their country. He said, “we may have tough talk from others, but it’s not going to mean anything. They’re going to all take them back and they’re going to like it too. They’re going to like it.” It’s like he’s speaking in old movie dialog these days.

The other day when he virtually attended the World Economic Forum he said “one thing we’re going to be demanding is we’re going to — be demanding respect from other nations.” In the next breath came this, so we know what he was thinking of in his stream of consciousness “weave”:

Canada.  We have a tremendous deficit with Canada.  We’re not going to have that anymore.  We can’t do it.  It’s — it’s — I don’t know if it’s good for them.  As you probably know, I say, “You can always become a state, and if you’re a state, we won’t have a deficit.  We won’t have to tariff you, et cetera, et cetera.” 

I think everyone has assumed that he is just trolling his younger, handsomer nemesis Trudeau with this endless talk about Canada becoming the 51st state but at this point you have to wonder. His recent obsession with territorial expansionism and all the talk of buying (or seizing if necessary) Greenland and taking back the Panama Canal it seems that he has truly absorbed the idea that the United States should be growing its territory. His threats to Canada have become even more unhinged in recent days, suggesting that the US plans to choke its economy into subservience:

It’s nonsense, of course. The trade deficit with Canada is minor and it is not a subsidy. He’s very confused about all of this. But it seems more and more obvious that he’s seriously entertaining fantasies of being some sort of world conqueror. If it’s a negotiating tactic it’s a mighty weird one.

We’ll soon see if he really means to carry out this inane tariff plan. The markets may react badly which has, in the past, served as a moderating influence on him at least in the short term. (The Wall St. Journal called his plan “the dumbest trade war in history.” )

He told reporters that he will be holding a call today with Mexico and Canada so maybe they can head this off before chaos reigns. If he’s been watching Fox News he may have detected a little bit of a problem:

"It seems like virtually every sector of the American economy" — Fox News has put together a scrolling list of the "goods affected by Trump tariffs" 😬 pic.twitter.com/nofdk3IrEZ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 2, 2025

Throughout the campaign Trump never admitted that his tariffs would cause prices to go up. He evaded it at every turn, saying that energy costs were the only cause of inflation and he was going to “drill, baby, drill.” He now admits that it may very well happen but says “it will be worth the price that must be paid.” Paid by average Americans, not him of course. And possibly some of his erstwhile supporters in the business community who really didn’t think he’d be dumb enough to kill the golden goose.

This is a person suffering from severe grandiose delusions and they’re getting worse. But I’m afraid this is just the tip of the iceberg. His co-president Elon Musk is suffering from the same malady and they’ve banded together to take America and the rest of the world on their wild, psychotic ride-along. Fasten your seatbelts.

Here we go

JV Last at the Bulwark provides a handy guide to what’s happening this morning in the financial markets. The question is will the drop stay below 7 percent? The Dow plunged over 600 points right out of the gate.

Donald Trump just launched the “dumbest trade war in history.” Thus saith the Wall Street Journal. While people are screaming for more affordable housing, Trump dramatically increased the price of lumber out of Canada just ahead of the spring building season.

That’s on top of the “five-alarm fire” Trump started in firing inspectors general and FBI agensts from coast to coast. Oh, and Mr. America First allowing Elon Musk to shut down USAID:

In Washington, USAID’s headquarters was closed for the day, with employees told in an email to remain at home.

Logos and photos of its aid work have been stripped from building walls. And its website and social media accounts have gone dark, replaced with a reduced version of its webpage on the State Department’s website.

There is security information in USAID files now in the hands of Musk’s junior firestarters between the ages of 19 and 24 (Wired):

On Sunday, CNN reported that DOGE personnel attempted to improperly access classified information and security systems at the US Agency for International Development and that top USAID security officials who thwarted the attempt were subsequently put on leave. The Associated Press reported that DOGE personnel had indeed accessed classified material.

“What we’re seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what’s going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what’s happening because these aren’t really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”

Don’t be intimidated into inaction

Washington Post:

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) wrote on X on Friday that any move to dissolve USAID would be illegal. In a joint letter Friday, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Reps. Gregory W. Meeks (D-New York) and Lois Frankel (D-Florida) wrote that the freeze jeopardized energy assistance for Ukraine and helped American adversaries like Russia and China.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced an exemption for “life-saving” programs like PEPFAR, but aid officials said other projects remain in limbo and are at risk of shuttering if the funding freeze continues, The Post reported Saturday.

That day, USAID’s website was taken down.

Listen. If there’s no pushback, they will keep going.

Here’s a recommendation worth pursuing. Let your members of Congress know what you think of Musk closing USAID and handing security information to, in one case at least, a kid just out of high school.

UPDATE: I just hit up both my senators both by social media and Tillis by e-fax. Go and do likewise.