2d ago

White House claims Elon Musk isn’t running DOGE after all

www.thedailybeast.com White House Claims Elon Musk Isn’t Running DOGE After All

The filing appeared to contradict President Trump’s own words.

Summary

The White House now claims Elon Musk is not leading DOGE, despite Trump previously stating Musk was in charge of the task force cutting $2 trillion in federal spending.

A court filing says Musk is only a senior adviser without formal decision-making authority. However, Musk’s tweets and Trump’s remarks suggest he has been directing DOGE’s activities.

The revelation raises legal concerns, as lawsuits argue DOGE violates the Appointments Clause by bypassing Senate confirmation.

A federal judge is set to rule on an emergency motion against Musk’s involvement.

92 comments

You are doublethinking that DOGE is run by Musk. This will be rectified by Minitrue.
This thoughtcrime is doubleplusungood. Thotpol will be notified, the guilty will visit a joycamp, and then the guilty will be unpersoned.

Reminder: this guy could be impeached and out of office in under 24 hours, but every single Republican is actively choosing to be a Nazi instead.
- He was impeached multiple times the last time he was in office, why would doing it again magically dethrown him?
  Let's be honest we all know what needs to be done to remove them from power.
  
  Impeachment is what the House does, and it is basically a formal accusation. It then goes to the Senate for conviction, which if successful results in removal.
  Given that the Rs in both chambers are complicit in Trump's actions, neither of his impeachments resulted in a conviction, and he is equally unlikely to be impeached under the current Congress.
  
  Player 2 has entered the chat
- Impeachment is only the first step, Orange Hamburglar has already been impeached multiple times, but the DoJ has never levied actual charges against him, so the act of impeachment itself is just a badge of dishonor until the government chooses to enforce its own laws. Asinine setup from beginning to end to protect criminals in power.

I've never had faith in politics, this isn't helping.
- That's what this ghouls want, it's their wholr purpose and their whole deal. If you don't have political institutions to protect you, they can eat you whole. And the best way to destroy political institutions is to errode public support for them.
  
  No, I've never had faith in politics... this whole mess just convinces me I've been right not to.

"I'm not the head of the department, it's just an empty shell company with a puppethead that follows my every whim."
- ~ President of the United States, 2025
  
  I wonder if it's possible to play to their egos and sow discord by continuing to call them President Musk and Mr. Trump.
- This is unironically functionally the same as how 'Sovereign Citizens' attempt to escape legal liability.
  You see, you're suing a legal entity that isn't me.
  But also, I can act with, as, and through my legal entity.
  But also also, I'm not actually responsible for anything bad I do, because my legal entity did that, not me.
  
  The sad state of our laws are such that they could set up a S-Corp or C-Corp and act in official capacity of that corporation literally get away with murder.

You lost me at "White House claims." Gonna need a reputable source, please.
- Or you know, impeach and remove the president who lied to the population about what was going on. He's a public servant as well.
  
  Ok, maybe I will!
- There you go, Chief.
  https://www.reuters.com/legal/white-house-says-musk-is-not-doge-employee-has-no-authority-make-decisions-2025-02-18/
  
  Lol a source who's source is what the commenter is looking for an external source for.
  Source-circles are great lol.

Well well
- Wow I can't believe Trump would just lie like that.
  
  Another day in Trump’s life.
  
  It wasn't a lie. Just an alternative fact.
- To be fair, he's a very unreliable source.
  
  Sometimes I worry about that strategy. He spouts so many lies it's hard to wade through the bullshit and see what he actually plans to do.
  It normalizes his rhetoric in a way that makes people say, "That's just Trump talking shit." When we don't take him seriously we put ourselves at a disadvantage.
  Also, look at his accusations about almost anything. Such projection. It seems like every time he chastises someone it's for something he regularly does (or will do soon).
- "It will become, potentially, the Manhattan Project of our time"
  In that hundreds of thousands will die and millions more will have their lives shortened and worsened as a result.
- Another day in the minefield, another lie is sold
- Could you edit that with a link or text for the accessibility of it all?

A federal judge is set to rule on an emergency motion against Musk’s involvement.
Best we will get is a superficial ruling that says he can't do it while he continues to do it and there will be absolutely zero consequences nor will all of the people who he fucked receive any form of justice.
- Depends on how far Judge Tanya Chutkan is willing to go see her order(s) enforced. She famously has no love for Trump and his law breaking. Even so any ruling negative to Trump will probably get appealed to the Supremely Corrupt Court and get overturned.
  
  It's actually not very fun watching a country fall to fascism.
  
  Well the key here would be to get a state to press the charges based on her ruling and then put out a warrant for Musks arrest, that way Trump can't pardon the arrest nor can Musk freely travel the country as extradition laws would take hold.

Good leaders dont sow chaos and confusion

The ultimate game. Get into a position of power, work for free, your work is to guarantee you come out richer. Hire employees for "your" agency that is just a rebranded agency that already exists so no paperwork need be filed. Then, sound like a person of authority while "advising" said agency. Command those gullible 18-21-year-old kids to do unspeakable acts they're too young and immature to comprehend.
Kids end up being charged with the actionable crime, free "advisor" dude parachutes out the window to collect his solidified tax breaks.
- Oh, no, no, no. We're too old for this. If any action is to happen it needs to be done to Elon. We're not stupid. We know where these orders descend from.
  
  Oh sure, let us actually have choice in action. I'm speaking about how the Old Laws worked in the Long Long Ago. Now that there is no law, the hilarious part is that these old codgers that made this world domination plan forgot that law doesn't matter when it comes down to it. Program a Tesla to explode while driving, why not? Random snipers on the way to work? Why not? McDonalds burger full of cyanide, why not? I'm not suggesting any evil action here, I just find it supremely funny that these idiots made a football play on America and the one thing they missed, which is the one thing the Republinazis always miss, is that rules are for all. When rules for thee vs me tease out, shit goes south real fast. They think the very laws they are dismantling will somehow let them be safe at the same time.
  The supreme hypocrisy of the under-educated is what it boils down to. America's Golden Shower Age.
  
  Perhaps in a more rational timeline. We're fucked.
  I hate to be so pessimistic but I'm feeling overwhelmed lately.

Man, scratching his head like that? That's a mf meme.

I suspect one of two things are happening, or maybe a mix of both:
Trump doesn't like the insinutations that he himself isn't in control.
Musk's public image issues are now affecting the bottom lines of his companies.
These things are direct results of both men being complete imbeciles. Nothing more to see here.
- They are purposefully sowing more confusion. All the chaos being a smokescreen to hide the obvious fact that they have both hands in the public coffers and are grabbing what they can.
  
  Yeah, that's it, they're flooding the zone with horseshit.
- It's Schrödinger's control: for the purpose of having executive authority over the project 2025 policy agenda he is in control, except when doing so is illegal in which case he isn't. The status depends on who's looking, as it is always exactly the status that evades accountability.
- They aren't imbeciles. They are pursuing their objectives in ways that are inconsistent with US Law and tradition and when they run into trouble they obfuscate as much as possible to forestall the consequences.
  As an example read the court filing from Joshua Fisher (pdf warning). If you read 3 & 4 carefully you'll come to the understanding that Musk is a SGE of the WHO with the Job Title "Senior Advisor".
  Then you run into #6 where the text turns itself inside out trying to explain that the US DOGE Service Temporary Organization is under the umbrella of the US DOGE Service which is separate from the White House Office (that employs Musk) but the US DOGE Service is still a component of the Executive...which Musk works for.
  Once you are done bending your noggin' around all of that you are probably too tired and confused to ask the most important question. If Musk isn't in charge of DOGE then who is?
  We all know it's Musk but they can't say that nor can answer the question with someone else's name because then the jig would be up and they'd be hosed. They need it to be Musk for popularity reasons but they also need it to not be anyone at all so that no one can be held responsible.
  They know what they're doing. Don't assume for a single second that they don't. You aren't seeing stupidity, at least not on this, you are seeing methodical, planned, and deliberate attempts to confuse the issue in order to escape consequences and oversight.

"Musk leads DOGE"
"...that's illegal."
"No, no, no musk doesn't lead DOGE, he advises. Someone else leads it."
"...so you bypassed the Senate, also illegal..."
"No, no, you don't get it. Jesus takes the wheel here. It's God that runs it! You don't hate God do you!?"

If he isn't running DOGE then why the fuck is he in the white house with his booger eater all the damn time? And why did he get access to those documents? And why is anyone listening to anything that falls out of his incel mouth?
- Greed and corruption. That's usually the answer to those types of questions.

All right, who's making the decisions then?
- Elon, they're lying.
- I like the answer that grue@lemmy.world gave.
  It’s Schrödinger’s control: for the purpose of having executive authority over the project 2025 policy agenda he is in control, except when doing so is illegal in which case he isn’t. The status depends on who’s looking, as it is always exactly the status that evades accountability.

Tell all of your wealthy friends that Musk/Trump has all of their social security, address, work history, salaray history, etc. in their hands, right now.
- Done. Whew, that took NaN time out of my day!
  
  Yeah, I live in Seattle. You can't throw a rock without hitting one. I sometimes forget what a bubble it is.
- The current argument is "you give your SSN, address, salary etc to the bank, your employer, the DMV, etc. They all want something from you. The world's richest man doesn't need your money, so why are you afraid of giving him all your information?"
  It's basically "if you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to hide" but with your identity and life savings and social security.
  
  Billionaires don't become billionaires by being good people, but they would respond to that idea with some horse crap about the American Dream™
- Wealthy friends lol
- The boomers on Facebook are acknowledging this and giving excuses already.
  "He's rich so he doesn't need to steal your money."
  "He needs this to audit the IRS. He doesn't care about your information"
  "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."
  "All your information is already out there from other government leaks so this doesn't make any difference"

"Don't look at the man behind the curtains!"
- Precisely the first reference that popped into my head 🤣

I would say that usually the courts see through thinly veiled attempts to put up a fake separation between decision makers and their positions. But lately I'm not sure of anything.

We'll find out on paper, it's the little kid musk is carrying around to humanize himself that's listed as the director.
- Bratty little shit. Elon's kid seems like a snot, too.
- Lol musk is carrying around a little standee of himself wearing a wig and mustache