Dear MoveOn member,
Elon Musk is the unelected incoming president of the United States of America.
Even though no one voted for him, it is clear Musk is calling the shots for the incoming Trump administration.
Musk has even moved into Mar-a-Lago and is reportedly spending $2,000 a night to sleep just a hundred feet away from Trump.1
But why would Trump—who is notoriously intimidated by anyone who threatens his power—hand over the reins to Musk? It’s simple: because Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump elected.2
Musk is intimately involved in vetting candidates for senior administration jobs, has derailed a bipartisan budget deal, and is making plans to slash Social Security and Medicare.3
It is despicable that the richest man on Earth wields this much power over our government and our lives.
Kendall, Musk’s obsession with “government efficiency” is the peak of hypocrisy.
Almost every single dollar of Musk’s net worth can be pinned to government subsidies, contracts, and tax breaks—but Musk is planning on making sure the rest of us pay the price.4
Here’s Musk’s plan:
- Cut Social Security
- Privatize Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service
- Slash Medicare and Medicaid
- Deregulate child care
- And so much more5
No wonder Trump calls the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) the “Manhattan Project of our time.”6 The plan is to basically nuke our economy and well-being.
But the progressive movement already has an advantage.
We don’t have to convince the average American that DOGE is terrible for our country—the majority already believes that. The vast majority of us also believe that Trump should choose qualified people over people who support his policies to run the government and that the wealthy should pay more in taxes, not less.7,8
Thanks for all you do.
–David, Evelyn, Mia, Allie, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “How Elon Musk Has Planted Himself Almost Literally at Trump’s Doorstep,” The New York Times, December 30, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-mar-a-lago.html
2. “Musk spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to elect Trump, including funding a mysterious super PAC, new filings show,” CNN, December 6, 2024
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/05/politics/elon-musk-trump-campaign-finance-filings/index.html
3. “How Elon Musk Has Planted Himself Almost Literally at Trump’s Doorstep,” The New York Times, December 30, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-mar-a-lago.html
4. “How much of Musk’s wealth comes from tax dollars and government help?” CNN, November 20, 2024
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/11/20/business/elon-musk-wealth-government-help
5. “Elon Musk Wants to Pay for His Tax Cuts With Your Social Security and Medicare,” Rolling Stone, December 20, 2024
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/elon-musk-vivek-trump-tax-cuts-social-security-medicare-1235212608/
6. Ibid.
7. “CNN Poll on Trump-Transition,” SSRS, December 11, 2024
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25452471/cnn-poll-on-trump-transition.pdf
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