By Jay H. Ell
Jay H. Ell is the pseudonym of a friend of Maeder Osler’s from university days who has lived and worked in the US for decades. He writes a blog called ‘I Write What I Like’ – the name of a column he wrote in a university magazine at that time. He provides valuable insights into the advent of Donald Trump and the dynamics surrounding his presidency. A recent post follows.
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WITH he omnipotent Trump and the genius Musk there is plenty to write about, but it is deja vu all over again – every day everything just gets unimaginably worse. The two are hogging the headlines with politically, morally and economically outrageous, ill thought out destructive actions. Trump seems to be following the Bannon anarchist dictum “flood the zone and crash the world”. Musk is literally going at it with a chainsaw, smashing the bureaucracy that runs the country. In case he wasn’t aware, America works.
Musk/Trump and the judiciary
The problem with Trump’s approach, which is to create a revolution by fiat, is that none of his “policies” have been enacted by his narrow legislative majorities in Congress. Rather there are reams of Executive Orders which are immediately challengeable in court.
The terrible twins have had more litigation thrown at them within two months then all the familles in the mob had in a lifetime. Most of their initiatives have come unstuck not before causing destruction and human tragedy in the wake. They are ready to take on the third equal partner of government, the judiciary. So far they are losing. (They have already conquered the legislature who are now card-carrying members of the cult). The judiciary to date have held firm with Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs), one after another, thereby hobbling the moves in their tracks. One issue already hit the Supreme Court, resulting in a 5 – 4 loss for Trump.
Trump was ordered to turn back planes as he was deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members. The latter had received no due process. His rationale was an eighteenth century law which was enacted for war time situations. He publicly abused the Judge arguing that he, Trump, was President and who the hell did he, The Judge that is, think he was. Trump ended by calling for his impeachment. This precipitated a rare public dressing down from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. This case is turning ugly. Trump’s Department of Justice has virtually told the Judge to go jump in the lake. Elon, bless him, has contributed to the campaigns of any Republican legislator who votes for his impeachment.
Musk lost the first case conclusively, after endless TRO’S, when a Judge ruled that he had acted unconstitutionally by closing the US AID Agency. He was instructed to reinstate the department. In the unkindest cut of all, another Judge has also moved to examine the constitutionality of his dummy organization, DOGE, and the legitimacy of his appointment. And so it goes….
All this is gearing up for a major clash between the executive and judicial branches of the Government.
More about Trump
Trump has literally turned America and the world on its head. Trump promised a million activities on Day One. So far he has delivered big time on one pledge, namely that he would be a dictator on day one. When challenged that he promised to bring down food prices on Day One he simply shrugged his shoulders musing unapologetically that America could go into recession. Another commitment was to enforce tariffs, he “loves the word”. He then went manic with his madcap slapping 25 percent on long time neighbors Mexico and Canada and threatening two hundred percent tariffs on European wine and champagne.
The outcome of his changing his mind every other day was precipitating the America stock market into a ten percent “correction” in record time. All this rapidly altered the consumers” perception of the economy resulting in a sharp drop in spending adding to the gloom. As he cannot expel the eleven million “illegals” that he promised – he has not the money or manpower – there are high profile expulsions and arrests of individuals.
Internationally he has changed the ball game. Russia has become our “noble ally” and Europe is on the outs. His bizarre totalitarian associations have sent the South Asian and Australasian partners questioning the reliability of their long time ally. America has abandoned its role as leader of the free world to assume the headship of the autocracies. The Middle East is caught up in Trump’s domestic politics, a promise to a high stakes donor to get the hostages out and axe Netanyahu. For the rest he has abandoned his commitment never to get involved in a war by going full tilt at the Houthis. While he is about it he has set his eyes on taking over Gaza together with, Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. His real allies in the Middle East are the Saudis and they have a joint enemy Iran. As to how this all pans out keep an eye on “Truth Social”.
Trump is ignoring the polls. The disconnect on issues the surveys show that he has with even his own electorate who are disillusioned at the nonchalance that he has abandoned the promises he made to get elected including passing legislation to dispense with taxation on tips and social security. His largest disconnect has been on the issue of Putin and Russia both of who have single digit approval numbers. Apparently even his base can recognize totalitarians outside America. However, he has left real heavy lifting of dismantling America to his newest and richest best friend, Elon Musk.
More about Musk
Elon Musk has lost an estimated 25 percent of his 400 billion dollar fortune while simultaneously decimating America’s fortune in the past few months. His daddy, Errol, whose guts he hates, cautioned him to give up his gig with Trump, as his companies were going to hell in a hand basket. His Spacex company is not without major detractors. The argument is that he is creating chaos in the stratosphere with his indiscriminate shooting rockets that disintegrate and create calamity in space and on the ground which has occurred in the Caribbean. Without a doubt, the richest and the second most powerful man in the world, still controls the skies but no longer the ground. In advancing the MAGA cause in and out of America he has made possessing a Tesla akin to owning a Mercedes in England in 1942. While axing every government contract and subsidy he forgets that Tesla and Spacex would not have happened without heavy administration subsidy.
Just in case collapsing the American Institutions doesn’t keep him busy enough he verbally harasses the two hundred million people world wide on his social media feed x.
Besides his made for media campaign for Trump in 2020 he has also intervened in the German and UK, elections happy to help them support a right wing government. He also persuaded Trump to offer swift entry to South Africans whom he perceived to have been supporters of apartheid. Presumably the one thing America is short of, is fascists. Musk is now intervening in a state election for a judge, in Wisconsin, so far spending 13 million dollars. No election is too small to show them who is the boss around here.
Americans soon will feel the impact of his “chain sawing” approach to it’s infrastructure. The country is already reeling from him and his newest best friend’s attempts at restructuring the economy. He has fired indiscriminately tens of thousands of Federal Employees. Every other day the courts reinstate them. However even if he fired all three million Federal workers, the total workforce, his aim to decrease the budget by two trillion would fail as that would only bring in 271 billion dollars, less than he is even worth at the moment.
The most valuable contribution Musk has made is that he has become the obvious focus of the anti regime protests.Musk’s approval rate is in between 40 and 29 percent. You can also purchase a second hand Tesla for next to nothing,
At the end of the day
So far, the judiciary has held up its side of the deal, but ultimately it will be up to the wobbly Supreme Court.The big unknown is whether the regime will actually defy the courts causing a real constitutional crisis. The judiciary cannot stop this juggernaut. Encouraging is the anger the Republican Legislators are facing at the town hall and the widespread protests in the streets,
So with Musk/Trump there is nothing new. Tomorrow will be worse, as it has been every day since January 20 … the education department will be shut … and watch out for when they take on the Federal Reserve ….
Jay H. Ell supposes the Haitians are still “eating the dogs and cats”.
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FEATURED IMAGE: Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-Xii with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, 11 February 2025. Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok on Wikimedia Commons.