Charting presidential actions 2/4-7
Feb 4-7
The news today is twofold: Trump is denying that Elon Musk actually has any power, AND Elon Musk’s DOGE team has now gained access to all of our Social Security information. Can both those things be true?
Oh yes, and Musk, the tech genius, believes 150-year-olds are receiving SS cash because his teenage team doesn’t understand legacy COBOL computer coding.
Two weeks ago already seems like ancient history, but it’s worth paying attention to which groups Trump and Musk have been assaulting, and which groups they’re treating with kid gloves. Two weeks ago most of the targets were international or out-groups — Palestinians, trans women, the International Criminal Court—furriners or queers. The protected groups were the Israeli-American government, American shoppers (small packages worth less than $800, like what shoppers get every day from Temu, are suddenly not subject to tariffs on China), cisgender American girls (because Trump has declared these are the only kinds of girls), and evangelical American Christians.
But with Musk’s access to Medicaid and Social Security, the targets are now Americans—and our bank accounts.
A stroll down the period from Feb 4-Feb 7, and a reminder: Under “Purpose Scores,” there are four scores:
1) performative sops that he throws to his base like hush-puppy morsels; he performs these actions so that he can be seen performing them by crucial constituencies of his voters or other allies.
2) stilettos of personal spite; personal obsessions or acts of revenge against people or institutions that have defied or frustrated him in the past.
3) actions for the personal gain of himself, his peers, or favorites like Elon Musk.
4) long games—actions aimed at other eventual results. These may be thought of as opening bids, head-fakes, or preparations for subsequent actions. Americans—and our bank accounts.
