Makes no sense. But again, what does these days?

[luzribeiro]

If Trump wants the US to compete with the world, why would he eviscerate the U.S. Agency for International Development, an essential tool of American soft power influence around the world? Or fire thousands of the scientists needed to keep the United States competitive? Or attack the institutions of higher education that Americans need to stay ahead? Or refer to half of his own population as the enemy within? Or threaten good neighbors while making nice with China’s no-limits friend? Or hand over so much power to Mr Musk, who has deep business interests in China?"

All actions that make little to no sense, among many others.

Short answer? He doesn't. I'm not sure how much is him, and how much is Musk and other billionaires.

But it does seem to be one of those set-ups which in sci-fi books leads to the rise of the merchant princes. (Two words manage to be part of the chapter title of a book I'm re-reading). The goal seems to be to first incapacitate the federal government, and then I presume to use its incapacitaiton as a dishonest justification for getting rid of it. A great example of why Big-L Libertarianism can't work. Get rid of the government and you have a power vacuum. Humanity abhors a vacuum even more than nature does. Someone is gonna be the government, and it isn't going to be one merely influenced and partially bought by monied interests. It could easily end up being whatever the monied interests want.

Comments

[dewline]

Wrecking everything in the US - and everywhere that's ever trusted the US as well - is itself the goal, I fear.

[alphistia]

trump has (syphilitic) dementia. During his cabinet meeting a few days ago, he fell asleep soundly while his sycophants sang his praises. This happens a lot. His many Truth Social posts are the rantings of a lunatic, written in the middle of the night. It's obvious he is just isn't all there. Musk is cogent but due to his ketamine addiction often makes no sense (the lollygagging and wild eye movements are why he wear sunglasses indoors even at night), and his twitter/x rants are filled with cruelpunk bullying nonstop. These are the two most powerful men in the world. Much of their acting out of their congenital defects, poor socialisation, and sociopathic narcissism defies logic. There IS an ideology behind the madness, but it's not being implemented in a coherent way. Google Curtis Yarvin, Thiel, Vance together in a search, and some very good analyis of the techbro gameplan comes up. These are the "brains" behind this chaos. It's sobering and scary, and we (in the US) are in early days of its implementation. All imho of course ;)