this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
497 points (98.6% liked)

News

24744 readers
4282 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

The White House confirmed that Elon Musk is working as a "special government employee" under Trump, granting him significant authority to cut federal spending.

Musk has a government email, office space, and access to sensitive Treasury systems. His team abruptly shut down USAID headquarters on Monday.

Musk is consolidating unchecked power, raising legal and ethical concerns, particularly given his federal contracts.

Musk is unpaid and may not be required to disclose financial interests.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 144 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Does that mean his communications will be subject to FOIA?

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Fat chance. I read he brought in his own server and connected it to the network at the OMB to spam emails to federal employees. That seems highly illegal.

[–] Tyfud 48 points 1 week ago

Legality is just words on a piece of paper if nobody is going to enforce it.

[–] CharlesDarwin 33 points 1 week ago

Gosh, I remember a quaint time in the olden times when having your OWN EMAIL SERVER was something worthy of being lined up against a wall and shot for.

Guess that only applies to Democratic candidates for President named Hillary.

Also, and it bears repeating - I guess this would have been jUsTaSbAd under Kamala, because something something neoliberal argle bargle status quo genocide....

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I tend to agree, but we should at least try. Pull every lever of governance we have for as long as we have it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Cort 17 points 1 week ago

Doubt it. I bet they'll try to classify any of his communications as presidential advice, which would make them privileged communications not subject to foia

[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 week ago

He failed background check.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

Not good enough.

Just because Trump declares him special doesn't mean he is, or that he should have special privileges, anymore than his moronic cabinet picks can start moving their shit into their offices before being confirmed by the Senate.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago (5 children)

And being special doesn't excuse him from being a nazi.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] CosmoNova 54 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The richest man on the planet who once joked about ending world hunger is cutting federal spending of the richest and most powerful nation on the planet. Let that sink in for a moment.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And they were in an awful hurry to kill USAID.

[–] CharlesDarwin 17 points 1 week ago

That's probably just a trial run. They are floating the idea of killing the Department of Education now.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 week ago (5 children)

So is there no conflict of interest with the companies he runs getting federal contracts? Don't politicians need to put their companies into some type of trust where they can't run it and make decisions that would be in their favour? I mean I know it doesn't work like that with stick trading (cough cough Pelosi).

[–] hydroxycotton 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I brought up the conflict of interest to a trump coworker and he deadass said, "I get the conflict of interest, but I just don't care." The mask is fully off.

Edit: not that I'm surprised, just depressed and somewhat bewildered

[–] T00l_shed 19 points 1 week ago

Trump did away with the trust thing. And they let him because it wasn't a law, it was just something that was understood to be done. No talk of him doing it this time either.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 week ago (1 children)

“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.

Any bets on how long it will be until Elon does something so unpopular that there's blowback on Trump and it becomes "Elon acted on this alone and I had nothing to do with it."

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I insist on only calling him President Musk because I know when he takes enough attention and credit from Trump, Trump will get mad and tell Elon to fuck off.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It will be glorious if it blows back so hard that Musk ends up in prison.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

We can only hope. This morning, I saw multiple news articles with “President Musk” in the title. I suspect it’s intentional for that reason. But at minimum, I hope it’s starting.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 week ago

Like... Like a super special employee? An S.S.?

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No no, not a coup, a special government operation )))))l

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago

But he's autistic guys! We're all misunderstanding, there is no Nazi coup going on.

[–] SoftestSapphic 26 points 1 week ago

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

[–] xc2215x 25 points 1 week ago

Elon is special. Not in a good way though.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have to admit, president musk was not on my bingo card.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago

It's been on my Bingo card since I realized that he basically bankrolled Trump's campaign by himself. He set up a PAC just to win the election.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Trump hires immigrant on welfare.

[–] ZILtoid1991 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also "special" sometimes used as a slur for the neurodivergent, so he's also a DEI hire.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But not an actual employee??

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

Well, he’s an illegal immigrant, so no not an actual employee.

[–] foggy 15 points 1 week ago

He is public enemy #1

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

It's legal because I said so

[–] Norgoroth 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I heard the second amendment was made for special situations

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] CharlesDarwin 11 points 1 week ago

He's special, alright.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I hope Musk is going to his office every day, because how could he possibly work remotely?

[–] Nastybutler 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I know you are joking, but he's literally brought in sofa beds to his offices so he and his young minions can live there while they dismantle the government

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Employees get paid. He's a special government intern. Violating internship guidelines to prevent abuse of power using unpaid interns in a 'special' way. Also these asshats were up in arms about 'Special Counsel' investigations being illegal like 2 weeks ago. We good with those again, or no?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

And yet the security in federal offices listen to him as if he was their commander. Those guards should be investigated and charged. Its their literal duty to disobey unlawful orders.

load more comments
view more: next ›