lmaaaaooooo
It's happening!!— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Per the NYTimes (adjust your expectations accordingly), journamalistic botfly Tara Palmeri has decided to rebrand “After a few years of writing what she called a “niche newsletter for Washington insiders,” [Puck]… Palmeri decided she wanted to reach a wider audience. A much wider audience. She’s taking her reporting to YouTube.” And, of course, she also has a Substack! As a Puck subscriber (I’m guessing), I got her teaser post, chosen (I’m sure) for maximum meme-ability: “Fear and Loathing in the West Wing: Inside the revolt against Elon Musk“:
… The tolerance for Elon Musk inside of the White House is wearing thin, as they deal with the fallout of his calamitous interview with Larry Kudlow when he touched the third rail – entitlements. Even though Trump’s staffers are terrified of Musk, they know that if you try to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, you die, politically speaking.
“It’s no longer simmering resistance, people are fucking furious,” said a source with knowledge of the situation.
“Medicaid is not just for Black people in the ghetto, these are our voters,” said a Republican operative close to the White House.
Even before the interview, I’m told that the White House communications team was adamantly against letting Musk do the interview with Kudlow, even though he’s a former administration official and ally. They know that FOX News is a network that their older, white working-class voters watch closely and this was a rare televised interview for Musk, not the same as getting high with Joe Rogan.
Now they’re playing cleanup. Sure, they sent out a “Fact Check” memo from the White House highlighting that his words were garbled when he said he’s looking at the “waste and fraud in entitlement spending,” not entitlements all together. But then Musk went further, falsely claiming in the interview that Democrats use entitlement programs to attract illegal immigrants into the country so that they can add them to their voter rolls. It doesn’t help that earlier this month, Musk referred to Social Security as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”…Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung denied that there was an issue. “We love [Musk] doing media,” he said, pointing to his joint interview with Trump on Sean Hannity.
As promised, I want to share the ins and outs of my reporting process with you, so I first reached out to Trump’s personal pollster John McLaughlin after I learned about the meltdown over Musk’s interview to ask if he’s been polling Musk’s response in the interview. And I was shocked to learn that McLaughlin has not polled Musk at all, even though he’s clearly a political liability to the President. McLaughlin has been polling Trump for decades and was one of the main pollsters alongside Tony Fabrizio on the campaign. He said the last poll that he conducted that even remotely touched on Musk was about DOGE in November 2024 and it did not mention Musk by name.
“No one has asked us to do that poll,” McLaughlin told me.
Well, the public polling shows that the numbers for Musk – what some would call Trump’s heat shield – have been in free fall since Trump took office, with more than 53 percent of people having an unfavorable opinion of Musk, according to a new CNN poll. But surely Trump’s political operation, which to be fair is an impressive one, would want to know if Musk was starting to become a liability. No political consultant in Washington trusts public polling. They’d probably trust the opposition party’s polling over public polling. So that leaves me to believe that they are afraid of Trump’s appendage or it’s because Musk just donated $100 million to Trump’s political arm, which just so happens to be run by Trump’s other pollster Fabrizio. When I asked Fabrizio if he’s conducting polls on Musk favorables, he didn’t get back to me.
Regardless, I’ve heard that the White House is aware that Musk’s numbers are “dog shit,” according to a source…
I’ve been reporting for months that Musk has been disrespectful to Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. As Axios’s Marc Caputo said in the video above, she’s survived because she knows when to push back and when to just show up. She knows the “MAGA serenity prayer,” as he calls it.
“He treats [Wiles] like a secretary in front of people,” the source with knowledge of the matter said. “The second most powerful person in Washington, the first woman and someone who has done a good job of keeping the trains running on time.”
But I’ve heard that it’s even become too much for Wiles, who for the most part has been delivering on what matters most to Trump—producing the Presidency with a daily event featuring co-star Musk and a cast of cabinet members for the press. She’s a professional and a survivor, but she’s being bombarded with calls from cabinet secretaries furious over cuts and members worried about state programs…
Administration officials have a myriad of feelings toward Musk: they hate him, they’re afraid of him and they think he’s creepy for doing things like sleeping on a cot in his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where five guards stand outside of his door.
“The [staff] hates him,” said the source with knowledge of the matter. “Part of it is policy and part is that he’s not human. He treats Susie like a fucking secretary. But they’re petrified of him.”…
For now, Trump likes having Musk around, even though Musk is extremely clingy and Trump likes his space. (It’s clearly a quality he appreciates in his wife Melania.) So their love affair seems to be lasting. Perhaps the only thing that might break them up is Musk’s clinginess…
Of course, there are many sound arguments for why Trump is not gonna dump Elon — ranging from ‘Putin will never permit it’ to ‘No way Donnie can resist sucking up to the world’s (theoretically) richest man.’ But it’s interesting that we’re being assured the Good Republicans hate this soutpiel as much as the rest of us do, at this particular point in time!
Trump's need to be dominant is really kind of one of the most important things about him as a person. It's what destroys all of his political relationships.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Saving no money and breaking everything! The Elon Musk way.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Nukular Biskits
Good evenin’, y’all.
Frustrated … trying to figure out Ms. Biskits taxes. Mine are easy. Hers are … special.
mrmoshpotato
Sadly it’s not literally speaking
Oh really? Ya don’t say!
Baud
That’s beautiful.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
It’d be more beautiful if said Republican said this on the record.
Suzanne
If I had to guess, Susie Wiles has Elon’s FBI file and is waiting for the perfect moment to spread some dirt.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
They’re really not stupid.
They’re racist as hell, but not that stupid.
James Powell
@mrmoshpotato:
Trump has said & done so many things that everyone believed would end his political career & he only got more popular. I will wait until he’s in his grave.
jowriter
@Baud: Also completely repulsive.
Baud
@James Powell:
Correct. No point anticipating anything anymore.
Doesn’t mean we don’t project our views, however.
Ohio Mom
I am cheered to hear about all the backstabbing. May it increase.
Timill
Musk is Trump’s Bel Riose. He’s gonna go, sooner or later.
Baud
@jowriter:
Absolutely. That’s the beauty of it, though. The honesty of it.
mrmoshpotato
“You’re my bitch!” screamed the Kremlin’s orange bitch as he threw a burnt steak drowned in ketchup against the wall.
“No, you’re my bitch! I own you! And I bought your fat, orange, traitorous ass for much less than Twitter!” yelled the South African Nazi shitstain.
different-church-lady
In the words of Michael Palin…
Interesting Name Goes Here
Jesus Christ, they can’t even find a nut without being racist.
Baud
Reposted from below
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@James Powell:
Long time no see.
Gotta disagree though. I’ve encountered people who believe he’d never touch things like SS and Medicare/Medicaid, that nothing would happen to it with him in charge protecting it. He actually ran on NOT doing that, at least in 2016. If Elon fucks things up, I think these people will notice
mrmoshpotato
@Ohio Mom:
And may they murder the rest of Putin’s GrOPers in the process.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Pretty sure he ran on not touching those benefits in 2024. Harris tried to tell people he was lying, but people believe what they want to believe.
mrmoshpotato
It’s been a pile of shit party since at least their racist St. Ronnie.
different-church-lady
@Baud: I would love to see them sue Musk personally.
CaseyL
Look, the GOP has hated Social Security since it was created (Einsenhower was an outlier; only ran as a GOP because he didn’t like the Democrats).
The GOP’s financial sponsors want to see Social Security dismantled in favor of a sort of national 401(k) so brokerages can make bank – particularly since there is no longer any legal fiduciary duty to the account holders. And now that Trump wants to set up a “national crypto reserve,” it’ll be even easier to steal every cent.
So I do not believe for one nanosecond the GOP wants to keep Social Security. They make mouth noises about it, because they’re right about one thing: it would be a towering betrayal of the 70 million people who rely on Social Security, enough that even normies might notice.
That won’t stop the GOP from destroying the program: they just don’t want their fingerprints at the crime scene.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: That would be great, and to see the South African Nazi shitstain lose spectacularly.
Baud
@CaseyL:
100%
JoyceH
@Baud:
And it’s not just that they’re implicitly admitting that black people aren’t THEIR people, but that knee-jerk assumption that black=ghetto. I honestly think that Trump and a lot of his closest advisers don’t even recognize that there IS a substantial black middle class, and that they don’t all live in the ghetto.
mrmoshpotato
@CaseyL: The Social Security Act was signed into law by FDR in 1935. These greedy piles of shit have hated it since then.
Baud
@JoyceH:
I think they realize it. All the DOGE stuff will disproportionately harm the black middle class.
JetsamPool
While I am happy to hear of Elmo’s travails, I worry that his control of the government computer systems would allow him to really break things, should he be so inclined. Beginning with “sudo rm -r /”.
bbleh
All confusion (and backbiting, and knifing, and cannibalism) to our enemies, but imho the Orange Fool is not gonna dump Elon until and unless he thinks Elon is “making HIM look bad” personally, and that ain’t gonna happen because of Teh Deficit, which signifies to the MAGAts only insofar as it suggests “spendin’ mah money on welfare for those inner-city types.”
Elon isn’t just The Richest Guy Evarrrr; he’s also a useful cut-out. He finds and destroys Waste, Fraud and Abuse (translation: see above re deficit), which the MAGAts love, until and unless it bites THEM. If and when THAT happens, we may see Elon cut loose and sent to Mars or something, but I don’t think we’re there yet.
bbleh
@Baud: It will disproportionately harm the White working- and middle- classes too, but of course at this point, having got their votes, the Trumpsters don’t really care about them either.
JoyceH
@CaseyL:
BTW, one thing we all need to do on the Social Security front is to stop talking about it as an entitlement, or just say ‘entitlements’ when you mean Social Security. Yes, in a way it’s accurate, but the language has moved on. It used to be when you said that someone was entitled to something, it was clear that’s something they were owed.
But these days, ‘entitled’ has become sort of a sneer word, referring to someone as ‘entitled’ indicates they THINK they’re owed something they’re not. Like when the bitch on the plane is mad at the person who won’t swap seats with them when they picked their seat ahead of time and maybe paid extra for it. The bitch making the demands is called ‘entitled’.
So let’s get used to calling Social Security an earned benefit, and normalize that usage. It becomes more problematic to cut something that someone EARNED rather than being merely (sniff) ‘entitled’ to it.
Tim C
So much of Orange Man 2.0 is the way he’s just playing out the fever dreams that Republicans have been spouting for decades, but the country club set knew were bullshit. The lies were always there of course, but the controlling interests in the GOP understood they were lies before. Bush, Boehner, Ryan, and yes, Cheney, all were in on the lies when they were useful.
FAFO
narya
@JoyceH: oh I like that: “earned benefit” FTW!
cain
@bbleh:
Except that crowd is going to grow violent. They’ve been told all this time that they are the true Americans and that they are being disrespected. They walk around standing tall and proud.
This will not sit well with them. Not at all. Eventually, it’s going to come out. Fun part will be when they all get re-labeled as “liberals” or paid agitators.
No Nym
@JoyceH: “So let’s get used to calling Social Security an earned benefit, and normalize that usage.”
Excellent idea. Language shapes how people think about things just as much as it reflects how they think.
TBone
Color me skeptical for this chum in the water. There’s a big, sharp hook nearby.
No Nym
Apropos of no specific thing, I have spent the last couple of days reading Doppelgänger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein, which was recommended by Elle Reeves when she came to BJ to chat with us about her book, Black Pill. Highly recommend both books as deep dives into where we are as a society at this moment in history.
TBone
@JoyceH: there are many such useful talking points contained in this Toolkit distributed by an activism group (Indivisible affiliated) I joined recently. Highly recommend – the Project 2025 section is great – well, the whole thing is great. It’s all about the language we should use to stay cohesive and effective!
docs.google.com/document/d/1s0JbXhND7-1iqABNcUNL031NQLxkLfr-USkCKGZTidI/edit?usp=drivesdk
The Table of Contents can be used to jump to a topic. There’s a ton of information here.
Citizen Alan
@James Powell: Honestly, at this point, Elon Musk could disappear mysteriously and then, 4 years from now after declaring himself King Donald the First, he could rip off the Trump mask he was wearing and scream “IT WAS ME THE WHOLE TIME! BWAHAHA!” and it wouldn’t surprise. Nothing surprises me. Lots of things enrage me, but nothing about the Trump Administration surprises me.
Citizen Alan
@Timill: I got that! I got that reference! (/waves hand excitedly like Steve Rogers)
Ohio Mom
Republicans have already cut Social Security once and they tried privatizing once too.
The cuts were signed into law by Reagan, and included, among other reductions, raising the retirement age, raising the FICA tax rate, and reducing the length of time orphans could recieve survivors benefits. Another cut, where people receiving public pensions could not also receive Social Security benefits, was just reversed in the last days of the Biden Administration.
The attempt to privatize Social Security was a GW effort that fortunately failed.
This is a pet peeve of mine, every time I hear someone say, “They’ll never cut Socia Security,” I say, Oh yeah? and give them a short lecture.
TBone
@TBone:
Research:
Below are the agenda items in Project 2025 that voters consistently identified as most concerning in our research during the 2024 election cycle. Voters see these policies as an attempt to control our lives, decide our futures for us and take us backwards.
Removing checks on presidential power, allowing Trump to rule over us completely unrestrained
Taking away our freedom to decide when, whether and how to have children:
Allowing state governments to monitor people’s periods and pregnancies to possibly prosecute them if they miscarry
Restricting or banning access to abortion, fertility services, and contraception nationally
Taking away our freedom to thrive by making massive cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare and giving corporations more control over our families
Talking Points
MAGA Republicans want to rule over us, not represent us. Trump’s Project 2025 promises to remove checks on presidential power, paving the way for a MAGA dictatorship that will take away our freedoms.
From taking away our freedom to make decisions about how to care for our bodies to stripping away our freedom to thrive with cuts to Social Security and Medicare, Trump’s Project 2025 is the MAGA movement’s plan to control our lives and imperil our livelihoods.
By eliminating programs like Social Security and Medicare, MAGA’s Project 2025 takes away our freedom to thrive.
Project 2025 is MAGA’s plan to take away our freedom to make decisions about what happens to our bodies. From banning contraception and abortion to monitoring people’s pregnancies, MAGA Republicans are determined to strip us of our reproductive freedoms and decide our futures for us.
Trump’s Project 2025 confirms what we already know: MAGA Republicans want to control us and decide our futures for us, taking away our freedom to get the care we need, vote in fair elections and decide whether and when we grow our families.
Trump’s Project 2025 is MAGA’s plan to control our families and decide our futures for us. By joining together as we have in the past, we can reject Trump’s plan and protect our freedoms.
Suggested Do’s and Don’ts for talking points follow…
sab
@JoyceH: Absolutely. I am so old that I remember when St Ronnie doubled the Social Security tax so that we baby boomers would have paid in enough that we could afford to retire. I paid in twice what my father paid in, and he lived to be almost 100.
different-church-lady
@JoyceH:
"Not by the time we're through!SW
Musk is the best thing that could have happened to the democrats. He is the archetypal comic book villain and making him the poster boy for this administration gives the entire farce bold clear lines that the MAGAts have been trying to blur since 2015.
bjacques
@Timill: I’m thinking more like Trump’s Thomas Cromwell.
If Tesla stock tanks and Musk’s unpopularity rockets to the stratosphere and he acquires that loser stink, Trump’s palace courtiers may make their move even if Trump won’t, yet.
Jay
Keep in mind, that despite the threats to US Democracy,
36% of the eligible voters couldn’t be arssed enough to vote,
and 33% voted to end American Democracy.
Jay
@SW:
Tesla’s stocks won’t tank anywhere near enough. Their entire “real” value is hype, Political Foreign investments and Major Institutional Investments.
On Friday it traded at $249.98, when based on similar Car Companies it should be between $0.19 a share to a max of $68 a share.
JoyceH
@SW:
It’s been a while since I’ve read comic books, but I seem to recall that comic book villains tend to be competent. Musk and his crowd are incompetent, far beyond what a comic book would allow. I mean seriously – canceling the funding for dog food for the TSA bomb detection dogs?!
Matt McIrvin
@JoyceH:
I don’t generally hear regular people using that term in that way–it’s either journalists, policy pundits or politicians. And the politicians are usually using it with malice aforethought, as a way to talk about cutting Social Security and Medicare without letting on that they’re doing it. “We have to do something about entitlements!” It sounds very smart and prudent.
Matt McIrvin
@JoyceH: I think that was intentional. They’d kind of like a bomb attack to happen; might as well defund the efforts to prevent one. I’d kind of expect TSA to get defunded in favor of CBP and ICE.
Noskilz
I expect there will be a hard falling out, but I wouldn’t care to predicts when.
My assumption is sooner or later – probably sooner – Musk’s DOGE goons are going to break something really, really important in ways that can’t be glossed over to the general public, and Trump will need someone to blame important enough to cool things off, at least briefly. I don’t think “bring me the head of Big Balls!” is going to cut it if SSI payments not showing up starts to be a regular thing.
I’m not saying they haven’t already destroyed things of vital importance that may never be replaced – DOGE definitely has – but I don’t think that has really registered yet for the hoi polloi, and I expect them to be really unhappy when it finally sinks in.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Ohio Mom: Let’s not forget we have Medicare Advantage thanks to W. I consider Medicare Advantage to be a cut as it is more likely to deny treatment and because the insurance companies that run the plans skim money. Money out of seniors’ pockets with lesser service.
Matt McIrvin
@SW: Musk is still not that unpopular. His approval/disapproval numbers are something like 35/53, worse than Trump’s but there’s a lot of “not sure” in there. Most Democrats are less popular than he is.
zhena gogolia
Just read this in the NYT obituary for Kevin Drum:
We’re prehistoric!
Jay
@JoyceH:
Like the $1 limit on Federal Credit Cards, the goal is harassment of Government workers and contractors.
sab
@Noskilz: Like destroying America’s place in medical research?
Jay
@sab:
Normies haven’t noticed and probably won’t ever notice.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Trump sold America to the highest bidder and it’s the only deal that he’s going to honor. Why? Because it doesn’t cost him a penny, it’s all profit for Trump. Musk is the heat shield and is being allowed to do what he is for one simple reason: the Republican party has ceased to exist and is now MAGA, fully owned and controlled by Trump and his minions. Musk is the Head Minion because he paid for it.
Who knew that America was for sale to the highest bidder? I sure didn’t. Elon is no expert at anything except being an asshole to everyone he thinks is beneath him and taking advantage of those who successfully suck up to him. He’s a NAZI supporting white supremacist South African immigrant who clearly hates this hellhole that he immigrated to, so he has set out to make it into a place nobody would want to live.
Except in fear.
Jay
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Cough, cough,………….
Citizens United, 2010.
What nobody knew was it could be bought so cheaply and that there would be so many owners, Putin, Bone Saw, Crypto Bros, Felon Husk, Silicon Oligarchs, MOU’s, etc.
SW
@Matt McIrvin: It’s only been a matter of weeks!
cain
@Jay:
What’s their to notice. Most of the young people are just as struggling now as it was before the election. In a city, I don’t think you’ll see much difference.
It changes though for those who depend on the federal govt for services or money.
It’s not going to hit normies between ages of 21-35 IMHO. Everyone over the age of 65 though who receive budgets, need healthcare, or what not are going to feel it fast.
(not including those who are minorities eg disabled, lbgtq+, etc)
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Baud: I doubt all of this
you know who else votes red? Farmers getting stiffed by DOGE permanently thru the closer of USAID. Rural areas dependent on federal employment — heck, the entire states of Oklahoma and Alabama could be counted here. Looks to me like maga enjoys gutting its own voters. This feels like more of this administration’s UFC-type drama to lull the rubes.
Jeffro
@mrmoshpotato: the idea that trumpov was or is going to somehow abandon Musk – the guy who rescued him and bought him the WH to the tune of $250M, the guy who’s been talking with Putin for a few years now – is laughable beyond belief.
All Musk has to do is flex, or find someone to put some ground glass in trumpov’s breakfast Big Mac, and suddenly it’s hello President Vance.
trumpov likes to talk about other folks having no cards. You know who hasn’t even been dealt a card, at this point? trumpov.
(I know you know all this)
lame-duck, dementia-addled, well-past-his-sell-date trumpov.
brantl
@JetsamPool: I know how to look that up, but I’ll bet very few people here do. That’s too much of an inside joke to be very funny..
Jeffro
@CaseyL: so much truth
what was it George Carlin said? “They want your Social Security, and they’re gonna get it, too”
let’s prove George wrong on the last part (he won’t mind ;)
Jeffro
@No Nym: I have that in my reading pile and will now move it up – thanks!
kindness
I don’t believe Trump is pissed at Musk. I believe everyone else hates Musk but Trump loves him because Musk is cutting everything and taking all the heat and Donnie little hands knows it. Trump isn’t against any of the cuts Musk’s boys have made.
sab
@HopefullyNotcassandra: That is what I think. Hope I am right. Muskrats are morons.
A Ghost to Most
As the greatest man I ever knew told me, “Marriages may be made in heaven, but they are lived in Cleveland.”
Jay
@cain:
Sadly, it will be an actual example of “trickle down economics”.
$2.5 trillion out of the US Economy is going to leave a mark.
So will TariFFS.
cain
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
Because they now believe they don’t need their votes anymore or they can be convinced otherwise. But yes, the days of rural voters having any power are probably coming to an end.
Another Scott
@CaseyL:
IANAHistorian, but I’ve read that he was courted by both Democrats and Republicans and ran as a Republican because he was afraid of what the Taft Wing of the GOP (the proto-MAGAts) would do to the country and felt he had to defeat them.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
u
@Baud: Ha. But, unfortunately, an awful lot of white people think that black people get some kinds of top-secret welfare that keeps them in Cadillacs and T-bone steaks. Saint Reagan said so.
Another Scott
@JoyceH: It looks like the TSA dog food is one of many things caught up in the DOGE freeze on government credit cards.
(Federal government purchase regulations – the FAR – are insanely detailed and complex. Of course, it makes no sense to apply the FAR to simple routine purchases of things like dog food for K-9 dogs, so there are also rules now that small purchases (e.g. up to $10k) must be paid for with government credit cards.)
Guess what happens when know-nothing brainiacs decide to freeze government credit cards or reduce their credit lines to $1…
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@Cheryl from Maryland: Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers lots more as well. I’m too tired to put in a link though.
Matt McIrvin
@u: White Americans persistently believe that every Black kid who achieves decent grades gets a free four-year scholarship ride through college. (Even today, when affirmative action in admissions has been explicitly banned.)
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: Trump, though, has a level of popularity among the Republican base that basically nobody else has. Even now. Certainly not Musk. That’s Trump’s card.
gene108
@cain:
Truth.
They sure as hell won’t ever vote for Democrats.
I think they’ll be considered martyrs like the J6 insurrectionists.
Jay
@gene108:
I though those were peaceful tourists//
Matt McIrvin
@kindness: Every conservative true believer loves what Musk is doing, because it’s what they’ve been dreaming of for decades–just eliminating most of the federal government and especially the parts that directly provide services to people, because it’s morally wrong for our tax dollars to go to that instead of somebody charging a fee and making a profit off of it. I don’t think there is any daylight between the various wings of the party here.
Even the ones who are directly hurt by it generally still believe that all the other stuff being slashed is genuine waste–they just made one little mistake and cut the one good part, the part I need! And Musk is actually playing on that, with his talk of “we’re going to make some mistakes; we can always put back the parts we really need”.
He’s asking for forgiveness in advance, with the hope that people won’t get completely fed up until it’s too late to fix anything. And that may be so.
Paul in KY
@Timill: I hope he’s Fredo…
Paul in KY
@Baud: It’s hard to make a man believe something when his fee fees depend on him not voting for the sane black female…