Two Views of the Holiday


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What do you get the guy who has everything? Better still, what does the guy who has everything buy for himself? Elon Musk bought himself a president.
Musk spent about $277 million to back Donald Trump in his successful campaign to win a second term. In return, Trump apppointed Musk, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and former candidate turned rabid Trump supporter, to run the grandiosely named “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)“. This sounds official but in fact is a sort of advisory panel with no legal authority, charged by Trump to focus on regulating government spending and to cut regulations. How much influence Musk has is a function of how much attention Trump pays to him. It appears $277 million buys you a lot of attention.
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For most of us Thanksgiving was a respite from the turmoil of politics. It was a time to spend with family and friends. To eat well. And, even if it meant a deliberate avoidance of election discussion, to enjoy some peace, quiet, and perhaps football.
Unless of course you are Donald Trump. Trump found time, while enjoying the parade of syncopates who sojourned to Mar-a-Lago to grovel at his feet, to air his usual grievances. His “Happy Thanksgiving” post on social media says it all:
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It was about 3:00am the day after the election in 2016 when I came to the conclusion that Donald Trump would win, beating Hillary Clinton. This time, I knew it at midnight.
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It is hard to believe we’ve gotten to the eve of the election, and we still have a toss-up. Social media, especially the mess named “X” that has evolved from Twitter since Elon Musk bought it, is full of reports claiming that Donald Trump has a commanding lead. These are fake. The posts often point to polls which have no attribution or to polls which are unknown or clearly partisan. These deceptive posts sow the seeds for what will be Trump’s end game strategy, to claim victory based on alleged “cheating”. Don’t be fooled.
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The lack of support in this election for Donald Trump among the people who worked for him or with him during his first term is astounding. Their vote of no confidence and even fear for a second Trump term should make anyone still thinking of voting for him reconsider their choice.
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The closer we get to the election, the clearer a picture we get of Donald Trump’s plans for a second term as President. It is enough to scare anyone who cares about the nation. And it has proven to be enough to get people who served in the first Trump administration to come forward and express their fears. As this is being written more than a dozen people who worked for Trump endorsed Trump’s longest serving chief of staff, Marine General John Kelly’s assessment that he is a “fascist” threat to the constitutional order.
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