Summary
Elon Musk announced that he and Trump are shutting down USAID, bypassing Congress’s authority over federal spending.
Musk claimed Trump fully supports the move, though Trump has only criticized USAID without explicitly confirming its closure.
The White House has not commented. The administration has already placed USAID officials on leave and reviewed its funding.
Critics argue the move violates federal law, setting up a potential legal battle.
How blatantly they are killing people and emptying coffers. This is a coup and a robbery.
I believe the word for that is kleptocracy.
Elon thinks he’s pulling a Julius Caesar on us (crossing the Rubicon), but he’s actually pulling a Crassus campaigning in Parthia. I pray he ends the exact same way. There is no more fitting end…
And for anyone who isn’t aware of how Crassus died go watch Viserys’ death in Game of Throne. It was inspired by Crassus’ death.
Seems somehow…. I don’t know, illegal? to have non-elected officials making decisions to shut down government agencies?
If only there were another part of our government designed to somehow… maybe, keep things like this from happening?
Not necessarily but almost certainly in this case. Congress created USAID. Only Congress can shut it down.
Is there a reason congress is not taking legal action?
Congress is neutered without a democratic majority in the house and 67 seats in the senate. Congress is basically useless. Right now, the only check on the president is the judiciary. And, shall we say, measures at the fringes.
Congress has been ceding power to the President for decades, this is actually not too far off where they were headed anyway
Investigations would start in the house, and have to be signed off on by Mike Johnson. He was elected with over a 70% margin and his voters love what’s happening. The other option would be John Thune, who has about a 20% margin in South Dakota, and his people love what’s happening too.
Unless you can change those facts, America will become a fascist authoritarian nation.
Also even if his voters hate what’s happening there’s nothing they can do about it now. All the power was handed over and the damage is done, no amount of regret will change anything now that the GOP feels capable of doing literally whatever they want and have all these majorities.
The writing was on the wall but that country is largely illiterate so it didn’t much matter.
Nah, even with the lack of accountability, if they saw real movement in their own polling, it would change their behavior quickly. Even without an election coming up, mass plummeting of opinion polls is their warning that first their funding will dry up, they might not care, and second people will start building gallows outside their office. While the cops hide from the crowd. The police can really only control a minority of the population. If a real majority shows up, they back down out of self preservation. As happened in multiple towns the past few days, or back in 2020 when they took over areas of Portland.
We say that but it only goes so far/it needs to go very far if we want to see what they’re doing right now actually stop or, if we dare to dream, be reversed. And the more they do right now the less actual support they need, come election time. Remember that conservatives are so terrified of some made-up “leftist” that they will even admit, if they have any self-awareness at all, to voting against their own interests in order to avoid that scenario. It’ll take a lot to convince to them to simply not show up, let alone hold their representatives accountable. And even if the Democrats get any sort of power, will they actually do anything with it or continue to sit on their hands while criminals run around?
I’m still hopeful because I have to be, but we can’t just “nah” away the very real chance that the country is fucking toast for at least the next four years and that outrage will only propel them to work harder towards making sure they don’t face consequences, not to doing the right thing. It’s how it’s always happened, and it’s way more aggressive than it’s ever been.
Because the republicans have the majority in both the house and the senate.
Dumb question: why are they targeting USAID?
I assume:
- “wasted” money not spent to directly benefit us citizens
- there always seems to be racism at the core
- they think they can get away with it - who will speak for the suffering millions in developing countries
- Trump doesnt understand concepts like influence, soft power, long term thinking, morality
This is “free money” where they can claim their “$2T” in savings
The funny thing is most foreign aid projects are implemented by American contracting companies. A very large percentage of the money stays in the US and employs Americans. Look up DAI, Chemonics, Abt Associates, Creative Associates, TetraTech, etc. Most of these companies will go bankrupt because of these actions. In the case of Chemonics, they run a project to distribute HIV and malaria medication to millions around the world. These people will lose their medication. They also run a program to detect famine in Africa, South America, and parts of Asia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_Early_Warning_Systems_Network
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Unfortunate but not shocking.
