"President Musk"

No doubt you heard the ridiculous and effective GOP talking point about $50 million sent to Hamas for condoms.  Nearly every lie has an expiration date, however, and this one transitioned nicely from one terrorist group to another. Thus, while questioned on Thursday by CNN's Rick Sanchez about the Agency for International Development, Republican US Representative Buddy Sanchez of Georgia stated

.... I mean, $15 million for condoms for the Taliban,” Carter declared.“Sir! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! $15 million for condoms for the Taliban?” Sanchez fired back.

“That’s what we’re hearing! That’s what they discovered,” the congressman maintained.

“Are you conflating things? Are you talking about the $50 million that was supposedly meant for condoms in Gaza? Are you conflating those two things, sir?” Sanchez retorted, offering Carter an opportunity to back away from his claim.

Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asserted in her debut press briefing that DOGE had “found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza.”

Trump would later repeat this claim during the Laken Riley Act signing ceremony, saying his administration had “identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.” Later on, he would double this total to $100 million.

Confronted by seemingly unhinged but actually willful and calculated disinformation, Democrats have largely responded as Democrats do. Institutionalists to the end, legislators have introduced several bills.  As noted in Salon, they include the Nobody Elected Elon Musk Act;  the Taxpayer Data Protection Act; and the Eliminate Looting of Our National Security Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy (ELON MUSK} Act. 

All three target Elon Musk, and none will be passed in a GOP-controlled Congress in thrall with Donald Trump and with President Musk. Obviously, the primary sponsors (respectively, New Mexico's Melanie Stansbury and Maryland's Jamie Raskin; California's Nancy Pelosi; Wisconsin's Mark Pocan), all U.S. Representatives, understand that.

As the cliche goes, it's all good- but inadequate to the task of alerting the public of the danger of an unelected chief executive. The nearly incomparable blogger Steve M. believes individuals should place the TIME magazine cover (below) into an envelope and mail it either to "President Donald J. Trump, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500" or to "President Elon Musk, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500."

Even better: "I'd give a sizable contribution to anyone willing to erect billboards in all fifty states that say ELON MUSK IS PRESIDENT. That would piss Trump off."

Oh, it would. Donald Trump hates sharing the spotlight with anyone. And it would undermine his image of being the strongman, the guy in charge, the macho, macho man, another hit by Trump's new fave.

It also would undercut the very basis of Donald Trump's popularity. In a post in which he cites a poll indicating that the President is more popular than are his policies, S.M. notes

.... there's a lesson here for Democrats who think they can watch all the madness and just shout, "What about egg prices?" Trump isn't addressing voters' #1 issue in the 2024 election, and the respondents in this poll know that -- and yet his job approval is positive. That tells me that voters are pleased to have a president who's taking some kind of decisive action and making sure we know he's taking decisive action -- unlike Joe Biden.

President Bill Clinton once said that in appealing to the public which feels insecure, "strong and wrong beats weak and right." Democrats may not be able to convince the public that they're wrong. But they must begin the task of convincing Americans that the actor playing the tough guy in Washington is the weakling who has turned much of his presidency over to an unelected multi-billionaire.

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