A star is born. Elon. For now he is. You know, he's an amazing guy. We were sitting together tonight. You know, he spent two weeks in Philadelphia and different parts [00:00:15] of Pennsylvania campaigning. Well, Elon Musk's $130 million contribution to Donald Trump's presidential race seems very likely to pay off, as the now president elect promises to reward Musk for the support [00:00:32] by essentially including him in some role in the federal government. Now, there's been some reporting on it. Some of the reporting was spurred by one excerpt in an Axios column titled Behind the Curtain The Most Powerful Unelected Man Ever. [00:00:50] And in it, the two columnists write that Musk is helping staff the top ranks of the incoming white House and will run an unregulated entity to recommend ways to cut and reorganize government. - That sounds great. - Okay. [00:01:05] They didn't cite anything for that. I was curious, what are they specifically referring to? They talk about, you know, an unregulated entity. What is that entity? I have to do a lot more digging since Axios reports in bullet points. And here's what I found. So Musk is, in fact looking to cut regulations specifically to benefit [00:01:25] his own businesses, which is the least shocking thing on the planet. In a CNBC piece, they report that Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick said that he and Musk were co-founders of the envisioned Department [00:01:41] of Government Efficiency, and he asked Musk how much he could, he thought could be cut from the federal budget. Musk answered at least $2 trillion, which is more than the federal government's discretionary budget of $1.7 trillion. [00:01:57] Now, Musk didn't specify specifically what he sought to cut, but he did complain about specific government agencies for what he feels is their regulatory overreach. And he specifically mentioned the Securities and Exchange Commission's, [00:02:13] the Environmental Protection Agency and the FAA. Now, Musk intends to use this role to do away with the regulations that he finds too burdensome or inconvenient for his businesses. Musk also said during a Tesla earnings call on October 23rd that he [00:02:30] intended to use his sway with Trump to establish a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles. Currently, those approval processes happen at the state level, and he complained that there are too many IRS agents. And so of course he did. [00:02:45] That's obviously something that annoys him, considering the fact that IRS agents ensure that everyone is paying their fair share in taxes, and so unclear if he is going to target the IRS. But I wouldn't be surprised if he is given a role and free rein to cut, you know, [00:03:02] funding to various or cut various jobs within the federal government. And then the final thing I want to just quickly mention is, you know, let's go to the last graphic here. CNBC reports that given the executive branch's outsized control [00:03:17] over federal regulatory bodies, Musk can look forward to regulators and intelligence agencies winding down some or all of the 19 known ongoing federal investigations and lawsuits against Tesla space X and X, [00:03:33] formerly known as Twitter. So it seems, based on the reporting that we have so far and based on his public statements, the things that he seems to be targeting are regulations and potential government agencies that are cumbersome or regulatory [00:03:51] or inconvenient for his own bottom line and his own businesses. Yeah. So first, Anna, you said it's the least surprising thing. That's true for rational people who've been following this. But, the right wing doesn't realize any of this. They think that Elon Musk is just looking out for them. [00:04:11] Look, I don't know if they'll ever come to a rude awakening on that. Or Elon Musk and Donald Trump will rob us blind for four years, take trillions of dollars from us, and then MAGA will be like, oh yeah, I love it. I love it, man. Here, Elon, take more money. [00:04:28] You only have 250 billion. I need you to have 350 billion. Please take my money. Take my money. My kids shouldn't have it. ET cetera. Look, I'm not saying they're going to do that. Maybe at some point in the four years, they realize, oh, these guys are robbing us, too, right? Oh, he deregulated every single agency [00:04:47] that regulates his companies, He took money away from the IRS so they couldn't audit him so he could cheat on his taxes. And we have to pay more taxes. So he pays less, even though he's the richest man in the world and has over $200 billion. Is that thought ever going to occur to them? [00:05:03] I was on a right wing show and they were like, oh, aren't you in favor of Department of Government Efficiency? That's like doge. Like his like the doge coin, like the Bitcoin thing that he was doing. Isn't that amazing? I'm like, no, it's not amazing. When the largest donor to a presidential candidate says, yeah, [00:05:21] I will end all criminal investigations of me, all regulatory investigations of me, I will then defund anyone who could regulate me or any of my incredibly rich friends, so they can break any law and rule and regulation that they like. [00:05:38] And then on top of that, we're not even going to pay taxes, you schmucks. We're going to make you pay the taxes. Right. And so are they going to find that out? Are they ever going to know that? I don't know, probably because Tucker Carlson and all the other guys will tell them, oh, no, when Elon doesn't pay any taxes, that's good for you. [00:05:53] It'll trickle on you at some point. So okay, this is the Sheldon Adelson model. But to be fair, it's actually the originally the Koch brothers model. Okay. Yep. Koch brothers. When they were stealing oil from Native American lands, they got caught [00:06:09] and they were in serious criminal trouble. And they realized after the 1978 Supreme Court decision had legalized bribery. Oh, wait a minute. What if we just try to buy one of the senators, or a couple of the senators, and one of the senators that they bought was from their home state of Kansas? [00:06:25] His name was Bob Dole. And so Bob Dole made that criminal investigation go away for them. And that was the beginning of the era of massive corruption, where billionaires would just buy our government. So then Sheldon Adelson had a giant problem because he'd bribed some people in China. [00:06:40] And he and that's actually what's hilarious is bribing people here through campaign contributions is not illegal, but it is illegal here to bribe foreign governments. So Adelson had apparently done that in China. So he gave Trump $100 million. [00:06:55] And when Trump got in, he's like, oh, this thing where you paid a $61 million bribe for a contract that must have been in the billions. Now we're estimating here. And based on the fine that he was set to pay in China, he made all of that go away [00:07:11] for a tiny little $9 million fine for a multi-billion dollar project. So Sheldon Adelson could have gone to jail instead. Little tiny, little fine takes care of it. And. And we know where Sheldon Adelson makes most of his money and where most of his businesses are. [00:07:27] China. So a guy who makes most of his money in China got a giant gift from Donald Trump because he gave him a campaign contribution. A lot of campaign contributions. Now his top donor, he's like Sheldon Adelson. Oh, you got away with criminality. Yeah, I'm going to do the same. You got all these goodies I can list you, but it's in my book. [00:07:43] Justice is Coming. It's like half a chapter of all the things that Sheldon Adelson got for his bribes to Donald Trump legalized bribes now. So Elon's like, why don't I get it? I already get tons of subsidies from the government. Maybe I could steal a trillion from these guys. And besides which, I've manipulated half the country into thinking I'm the good guy [00:08:02] and that I'm the multi-billionaire looking out for their best interest. Ha ha ha ha ha! Right wing. He's laughing his ass off at you. The robbery has begun. I mean, the robbery has been happening, and there's, like, government corruption just gets worse and worse and worse. [00:08:18] And, you know. Sheldon. Sheldon Adelson's dead now, right? But his wife isn't. Miriam Adelson bribed Donald Trump during his presidential campaign to the tune of $90 million. And that money talks. That money will certainly inform his decisions [00:08:34] in regard to foreign policy in Israel. The only thing with Trump, though, is he seems to listen to his supporters way more than Democratic presidents do. So if he does have some faction of his base that pushes back against funding [00:08:50] Israel, maybe he'll listen to them. That's literally the only possible good outcome. But overall, I mean, whether you're talking about Trump, whether you're talking about Biden, whether you're talking about the vast majority of politicians in America, they take the money and they do as they're told. How exactly is that a democracy? [00:09:07] When you ignore your base and what your base wants, and instead carry out the best interests of the moneyed interests that have funded your campaigns? Yeah, 100%. So, look, the whole system is corrupt. So when Trump gets in office, the last thing on this, he will do all these things and yeah, he'll rob us blind, etc. [00:09:23] And then people on TV will pretend that the robbery began when Trump came into office. No, the robbery has been going on since 1978, when the Supreme Court and activist judges on the Supreme Court legalized bribery. The minute they said you can give unlimited campaign contributions, [00:09:40] we were toast. The Democrats have been allowing this the entire time. The Republicans have been allowing this the entire time. Why do you think the Democrats were willing to lose Michigan and the entire election and fund Israel's war and genocide anyway? Because they are 100% controlled by the donors. [00:09:57] But if you think Trump isn't. Well, that's hilarious. And look, last thing on this, Anna. There's only, as Anna pointed out, there's only 1.7 trillion in all discretionary spending. So the most you could possibly cut if you cut the entire federal government, [00:10:14] including defense, is 1.7 trillion. And and Ellen's like, I'm going to cut 2 trillion. Does anybody care about facts anymore? Or we're just in a fact free world where everybody makes up something and then gets their cheerleaders to rush out there and go, yay, yay, Ellen, Ellen, Donald Trump, woo hoo! Okay. [00:10:33] Try to. We expect better of our politicians. We demand better. We do accountability here. And the Democrats get super pissed at us when we do accountability with Democrats is I'm so curious if in these next four years, a single person in right wing media is going to do accountability for their side? [00:10:52] If you enjoyed this video, that's because of our members. They make us independent, they make us strong and they make us honest. Become a member today by hitting the join button below.