Trump and Elon Musk: Policy at Home and Abroad

By Jeralyn, Section Trump Administration
Posted on Sun Feb 16, 2025 at 07:04:43 PM EST
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This is an open thread for all things related to Donald Trump's second administration, including Elon Musk, his non-elected co-leader, and Stephen Miller, who holds the keys to the non-governmental lawyers he hired to write all the memoranda and policy .

I think everyone's head is spinning from the speed at which his (often bizarre) announcements come. Every time I've started writing one up, he's done something else that warrants public awareness and all go unfinished. But everyone who reads this site is well aware of Trump's actions, from announcing his intent for the U.S. to take over Gaza and opening a tent area at Gitmo to house undocumented immigrants with criminal records and orders of removal, to his cabinet, agency and Ambassador appointments, and his pardons. I really don't need to spell them out.

Shorter version: The U.S. is now being run by a bunch of billionaires with no political experience.

This is an open thread on all Trump 2 related topics.

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Trump and Elon Musk: Policy at Home and Abroad | 12 comments (12 topical)

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Zelenskyy is in a bad place.. (5.00 / 2) (#5)
by desertswine on Mon Feb 17, 2025 at 09:49:24 PM EST

Trump and Putin are about to carve up Ukraine like a stuffed turkey. As Putin stabs him in the front, the US is about to stab him in the back.

Today the orange menace is falsely blaming (5.00 / 2) (#8)
by desertswine on Wed Feb 19, 2025 at 10:22:36 AM EST

Ukraine for "starting" its war with Russia. He is still, above all, a Russian operative.


: By his logic, (none / 0) (#10)
by Chuck0 on Wed Feb 19, 2025 at 05:04:56 PM EST

the US started the war with Japan because FDR wouldn't make a deal and give Hawaii to the Japanese.

I am (none / 0) (#6)
by Ga6thDem on Tue Feb 18, 2025 at 08:52:36 AM EST

hoping that Europe will step up. Macron has called an emergency meeting of NATO leaving Trump out of the loop.


: NATO should expel the US (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by Chuck0 on Tue Feb 18, 2025 at 12:17:36 PM EST

Beat the orange felon to the punch. Makes it easier to declare a state of war.

Major (to me) issue before the Supreme Court (none / 0) (#1)
by jmacWA on Mon Feb 17, 2025 at 07:35:34 AM EST

See Lyle Denniston's post for details.

I'd appreciate hearing the views of some of the lawyers on this site. If the court finds in Trump's favor on this it seems to me like game over, and I do not trust the Roberts court to go against Trump; IMO such a ruling would crown him king (in his own mind at least).

I agree it's a major issue, but (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by Peter G on Mon Feb 17, 2025 at 11:52:37 AM EST

for the reasons explained by Lyle and by Georgetown Law Prof. Steve Vladeck, the Supreme Court is (a) not especially likely to rule on the merits of the case (since the government appealed prematurely); and (b) if they do reach the merits, the legal argument in support of Tr*mp's authority to summarily fire this particular official is much stronger than the argument for most of his other recent actions that have been challenged in court, so even if the Administration wins this particular case it does not set much of a precedent in support of his other autocratic actions.


Thanks (none / 0) (#3)
by jmacWA on Mon Feb 17, 2025 at 03:39:23 PM EST

I worry that if Trump prevails in this he will be proclaiming victory and that he cannot be stopped by the courts. My fear is that he will get his supporters so riled up that it will be hard to get anyone to go against him... Expecting the Republican congress to do anything is foolhardy IMO, and it wont take much to get the 4 biggest toadies on the court to say they can't step in.

Hopefully you're right and Roberts will reject this because the appeal was too quick.


Precedent may not be a concern... (none / 0) (#9)
by Jack E Lope on Wed Feb 19, 2025 at 01:59:49 PM EST

...for someone whose base does not understand precedent. (And whose base is suspicious of anything they don't understand.)

He only has to play to the headline description of the case. Most of the public thinks that the 34 convictions were for paying a prawn star, and has no recall of anything about falsifying records.


: Misdemeanors elevated to felonies (none / 0) (#12)
by MSimon on Thu Feb 20, 2025 at 02:21:39 AM EST

Misdemeanors (book keeping errors) elevated to felonies smacks of lawfare. On top of that the predicate crime turning those errors into felonies was not specified at trial (pick anyone of three, don't specify which) is a huge error. It will be overturned on appeal.

Thanks for (none / 0) (#4)
by Coral on Mon Feb 17, 2025 at 06:33:14 PM EST

the link. I am having trouble keeping up with gorgon's head of catastrophes that have been set off since Jan 20.

This one had escaped my notice -- not the name, but the import.


Trump Is Continuing the Drug War (none / 0) (#11)
by MSimon on Thu Feb 20, 2025 at 02:12:04 AM EST

There is an iron clad case against the Drug War - presented below. Why doesn't the left use it?

The main cause of addiction in America is abused child PTSD with military service PTSD coming in second. Dr. Lonny Shavelson in his book "Hooked" said that 70% of female heroin addicts had been sexually abused in childhood. We are making war on abused children and disabled vets. And then there is science. Addiction is a symptom of PTSD says Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine Eric Kandel in his book, "The Disordered Mind." Receptor science (100+ years old) says there are NO addictive drugs. Drugs fill receptors. What empties receptors (injury, PTSD) causes a desire for pain relieving drugs. Drugs CAN'T cause addiction. People take pain relievers to relieve pain. So, the Trump Strategy is to make war on people in pain to make them give up pain relief. Is that gonna work? For over 100 years - it hasn't.

https://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2025/02/in-over-100-years-nobody-said-thing.html