The reckless abandonment of America's allies and global role in promoting peace and security has got to have people within America's national security apparatus freaking right the hell out. As I said this morning, we are in the grips of a culture war jihad that is taking a scorched earth approach to all of our institutions. The idea being that they can recreate America along their largely theological lines - with theology mixed in with oligarchy and white supremacy. It's all one big stew.
If Hollywood was writing this script, there would be a cabal of CIA, FBI and military figures plotting to overthrow Trump. The precedent would be the middle to late Roman Empire, when the Praetorian Guards would periodically kill the empire and replace him with someone else (who they might later kill). The fundamental check on the emperor's power were the swords of his personal bodyguards.
I should stop to say that this is really, really unhealthy for a Republic (not that Rome was a republic at that point).
However, Elon Musk is not elected to anything, and as Josh Marshall has been explaining, Musk has historical parallels with the "overmighty subjects" of the late medieval, early modern period in Europe. These were nobles whose power and wealth rivaled the monarchs, the sovereign. The rise of the modern state in Europe was partly the eradication of these overly powerful challenges to the sovereign.
Musk's control of Starlink, of SpaceX, of Twitter and his attempts to buy elections outright have put him beyond the reach of laws. Trump, too, has largely exceeded the reach of laws at this point, but Trump - inexplicably - is still in the mid to high 40s in job approval. Musk, however, is increasingly unpopular, and he lacks the cultish hold over tens of millions of Americans.
What's more, we have a situation where Musk (apparently) went to the Pentagon for a briefing on US war plans for China - all while having meetings with people like Putin and Xi.
The Signal scandal would pale in comparison to the revelation that Musk is trading American secrets for access to Chinese goods and markets. The Signal scandal also makes clear that normal means of holding people accountable are defunct for the moment. At what point would the so-called Deep State feel compelled to move against this "overmighty subject?"
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