Judson Brown: Musk and his ‘criminal enterprise’

Elon Musk arrives to speak at a presidential inauguration parade event in Washington on Jan. 20. AP

Published: 02-09-2025 10:59 AM

If we were living in an era when newspapers had sufficient resources and considerable clout, every paper in the country this week would be running a banner headline in bold: “EXTRA! EXTRA! BILLIONAIRE MUSK STAGES COUP.”

Granted, there are a scores of outrages being perpetrated by the Trump administration daily, all intended to overwhelm the press and us, each one a distraction from and smokescreen for the other. But it appears the coup is the key event, and the singular fact that brings the rolling and confusing catastrophe to a point.

The word was used this week by the estimable liberal historian and commentator Heather Cox Richardson in describing the fact that Musk has been given by the secretary of the treasury — Scott Bessent, a new name to add to the rolls of infamy — access to the master computer program at the Treasury where all government payment accounts are processed.

With his hands on the codes, Musk’s henchmen are able to rummage through the intimate financial details of all Americans and businesses, along with the finances of the whole of government. Similarly, he has taken free rein to highly sensitive files at USAID, the U.S foreign aid program that supports thousands of humanitarian initiatives worldwide, the largest such program in the world, the difference between life and death for millions — and in foreign aid-speak, the engine of American “soft power” intended to win hearts and minds to American ideals.

Musk, in a perfect demonstration of his perversity and of projecting what he himself is up to, calls USAID “a criminal enterprise.”

White is black and black is white in Trump’s world, which is actually becoming a misnomer, as it appears that Trump has been bought and paid for (to the tune of $290 million to his campaign and related projects), and it is now actually Musk’s world.

Please look up Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American” if — whether you are running a newspaper or not — you want to get the real scoop.

Judson Brown

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