Highlighted here are recent disclosures that would seem to warrant further investigation by both journalists and federal law enforcement.
It has recently been reported by Bob Woodward and the Wall St. Journal that Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been in regular communication with Vladimir Putin over the past few years. However, there has been little subsequent reporting on these contacts, though they pose considerable cause for speculation. The fundamental question, considering their outsize wealth and power, is what are these three men up to together? Obviously, the immediate answer is getting Trump elected as the next US president. All three stand to gain economically and politically from that achievement – Putin in Ukraine, Trump by becoming a virtual dictator and Musk by wielding power within that dictatorship to benefit his far-flung enterprises.
But I think something else might be afoot, more in keeping with the narcissistic grandiosity of all three men. It has long been Putin’s aim to weaken the West, most especially the US, as a global adversary. Trump is his latest tool for achieving that goal, sowing chaos and discord in American politics. Trump has been a willing pawn in that game. But what’s in it for Musk? Being already the world’s richest man, perhaps Putin’s equal on the score, what does Musk hope to gain at any scale significant enough to warrant playing the game?
One answer in plain view would seem to be Trump’s announced economic plans – namely high universal tariffs, lower taxes on high earners and corporations, and expulsion of a significant portion of the American labor force. Bloomberg Economics projects that the ensuing chaos of these and other announced measures - such as curtailing the independence of the Federal Reserve, repudiating the national debt, and sharply reducing government investment in civil society - would shrink US GDP by 8.9%, twice the impact of the 2008 financial meltdown. Trump recently starting a bit-coin company with his sons would seem to anticipate such an outcome, as the value of the US dollar will plummet. More to the point, Musk is quoted recently in the New Republic agreeing that crashing the economy is part of their plan.
Should something of this sort be engineered, sectors of the US economy would be for sale at pennies on the dollar – the final act of “disaster capitalism”, to borrow Naomi Klein’s term. Musk, in partnership with the Russian central bank, would be first in line at this fire sale. You can bet his fellow billionaires would not be far behind. Meanwhile, the American public, locked down under a militarized dictatorship would have no political recourse, despite widespread poverty and anguish. Putin would have won the final battle of the cold war between Russia and the US, his crowning achievement, as the economies and politics of both countries assumed striking similarities under oligarchic authoritarianism.
Trump, Musk & Putin: What are they up to?
Highlighted here are recent disclosures that would seem to warrant further investigation by both journalists and federal law enforcement.
It has recently been reported by Bob Woodward and the Wall St. Journal that Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been in regular communication with Vladimir Putin over the past few years. However, there has been little subsequent reporting on these contacts, though they pose considerable cause for speculation. The fundamental question, considering their outsize wealth and power, is what are these three men up to together? Obviously, the immediate answer is getting Trump elected as the next US president. All three stand to gain economically and politically from that achievement – Putin in Ukraine, Trump by becoming a virtual dictator and Musk by wielding power within that dictatorship to benefit his far-flung enterprises.
But I think something else might be afoot, more in keeping with the narcissistic grandiosity of all three men. It has long been Putin’s aim to weaken the West, most especially the US, as a global adversary. Trump is his latest tool for achieving that goal, sowing chaos and discord in American politics. Trump has been a willing pawn in that game. But what’s in it for Musk? Being already the world’s richest man, perhaps Putin’s equal on the score, what does Musk hope to gain at any scale significant enough to warrant playing the game?
One answer in plain view would seem to be Trump’s announced economic plans – namely high universal tariffs, lower taxes on high earners and corporations, and expulsion of a significant portion of the American labor force. Bloomberg Economics projects that the ensuing chaos of these and other announced measures - such as curtailing the independence of the Federal Reserve, repudiating the national debt, and sharply reducing government investment in civil society - would shrink US GDP by 8.9%, twice the impact of the 2008 financial meltdown. Trump recently starting a bit-coin company with his sons would seem to anticipate such an outcome, as the value of the US dollar will plummet. More to the point, Musk is quoted recently in the New Republic agreeing that crashing the economy is part of their plan.
Should something of this sort be engineered, sectors of the US economy would be for sale at pennies on the dollar – the final act of “disaster capitalism”, to borrow Naomi Klein’s term. Musk, in partnership with the Russian central bank, would be first in line at this fire sale. You can bet his fellow billionaires would not be far behind. Meanwhile, the American public, locked down under a militarized dictatorship would have no political recourse, despite widespread poverty and anguish. Putin would have won the final battle of the cold war between Russia and the US, his crowning achievement, as the economies and politics of both countries assumed striking similarities under oligarchic authoritarianism.
I'm in for another year.