An Australian’s Take on ‘President’ Musk

It has been said that it may be difficult for someone too close to a particular event or issue to objectively assess the situation.

About a year ago, I wrote about a witty English writer, Nate White, who penned “the best description of Trump I’ve read.”

Answering the question, “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” White wrote a great “analysis.”

He begins with “[Trump] has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace…”

It only gets more objective, and better, after that.

I concluded the review of White’s accurate piece with the comment that “the British have a great sense of humor and are exceptional judges of character.”

Australians are not far behind.

Today, in the wake of the GOP “fiasco” in – thus far — passing a Continuing Resolution to fund the government, Australian correspondent for News.com.au, Samuel Clench, has an equally sharp-witted assessment of the man who on Wednesday “set to work killing [a bipartisan funding bill.]… threatening to ensure any Republican who voted in favour of the bill would be turfed out of office at the next election.”

Clench’s “short version”

[A]n unelected billionaire from South Africa, who has never held public office and is, in fact, ineligible to be the American president, appears to have seized effective control of the US government. And he’s done it under the very nose of the guy the American people actually chose, quite recently, to lead that government.

Musk gloated over his victory by tweeting “Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed!”

According to Clench, Musk used the Latin phrase “VOX POPULI, VOX DEI,” meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” Clench adds that the phrase appeared first in an eighth-century letter written by the Saxon scholar Alcuin to the emperor Charlemagne, in which Alcuin wrote: “Those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always close to insanity.”

Referring to Musk having “more money than a lone man could ever spend,” Clench writes:

If the government shuts down over Christmas, he’ll be fine. He can hop on his private plane, fly off to some delightful hotspot and enjoy a holiday while workers are not being paid their salaries, and millions of people can’t visit their families because the public airports have stopped functioning.

He adds:

• The sheer callousness of Elon’s attitude, regarding this nightmare scenario, is galling to an extent almost beyond words.

• This is a person who seems to care more about adulation from the sewers of the internet than how his actions affect people in their real lives.

• He’s a guy who ignores information from official sources, but believes whatever patently nonsensical crap shameless rage-baiters and engagement farmers like LibsofTikTok, Catturd, or EndWokeness tweet at him.

• And all of a sudden he is the guy dictating government policy, and dictating to Congress, and overriding the person he spent more than $US200 billion to get elected as president.

How does Trump feel about Musk being his “co-president”?

Clench writes, “It’s hard to imagine Mr. Trump putting up with this interference, from Elon, for long. In his mind, he’s already rewarded the man for his financial support, by appointing him to co-lead a new government department aimed at cutting waste.”

Yet, “[w]hat actually happened was this: Elon lobbied Republicans to ditch the bill, while Mr. Trump said nothing. Once it became apparent that Elon had succeeded in killing it, Mr. Trump belatedly came out to echo his position.” Clench adds, “That is not authority. It’s a last-minute scramble to save face.”

Clench concludes:

[Trump] surrounds himself with loyalists, and those loyalists do believe vehemently in what they say, and they are going to try to use the power that comes with his office to achieve their aims. So we end up with people like Elon, and Stephen Miller, running the government while Mr. Trump watches cable television until 11am every morning.

That is the style of government Americans elected. Now they get to enjoy the consequences.

And that is the view from Australia, from a website owned by News Corp Australia, owned by…Rupert Murdoch.

The post An Australian’s Take on ‘President’ Musk appeared first on The Moderate Voice.