LOL...
A picture really does speak louder than words, and yesterday’s Oval Office briefing by President Elon Musk proved it in spades. There he was, in the most exclusive office in D.C., simultaneously manhandling the press while having one of his 11 spawn babysat by some poor subordinate. If Michelangelo were around, this tableau would be on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel—commissioned by a Medici who wanted to show off his power over the Pope.
Meanwhile, a slumped Donald Trump sat nearby, wearing the bored, empty stare of a man who wants nothing more than his afternoon pudding. You don’t need a body-language guru to see he’s thoroughly checked out: drooping shoulders, slack jaw, glazed eyes. His single moment of real engagement was with Musk’s kid, Glorbax_Rocketchild42069.
Musk—who has apparently given up even the faintest nod toward business casual—rocked a MAGA trucker hat, jeans, boots, and a T-shirt.
Imagine the howls of fury from Fox if an Obama (remember Tan Suitgate?) or Biden advisor tried that look in the Oval. I can say from personal experience that any self-respecting political hack of yesteryear would rather die than step foot in that room without a jacket and tie. In my day, you marched to Brooks Brothers and bought a dark suit, crisp shirt, and red tie. That was the uniform.
Musk, however, treats the office—and the man whose name is still on the door—with a sartorial contempt that fairly crackles.
But it’s not just contempt for Trump that Musk is serving up.
By extension, it’s a giant middle finger to the Presidency itself. Musk’s destructive spree across agencies and programs and his roving disregard for the law, Constitution, institutional knowledge, and history—everything but “shareholder value”—are Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” mentality taken to its final, hellish conclusion.
So there sat Trump, reduced to a prop in Elon’s alpha preening. It was a public notice to every White House staffer and every Trump factotum—Stephen Miller, Susie Wiles, and the rest of the bootlicking coterie — that Musk is running the show. Speaking of Susie Wiles, she’s been leaking stories for weeks now that she’s got Elon on a leash, that she’s in control, and that the White House knows everything DOGE and Elon are doing. Her Chief of Staff chops were a comfort to many Wall Street types, and now its revealed that she too is one of the NPCs in Elon’s virtual insanity.
The media was on notice, too. Trump won’t call Elon to account for any of it; he’s too busy enjoying the illusions and distractions dangled by his staff, like a map of the “Gulf of America.”…
RICK WILSON (ABOVE & BELOW) MINCES NO WORDS
Who works for the government and why does their work matter? An urgent and absorbing civics lesson from an all-star team of writers and storytellers.Timely, in light of the Musk/Trump hypervelocity brute force effort to eviscerate the federal government.
The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It’s also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it’s made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone.
Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers to find someone doing an interesting job for the government and write about them in a special in-depth series for the Washington Post. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees.
Whether they’re digitizing archives, chasing down cybercriminals, or discovering new planets, these public servants are committed to their work and universally reluctant to take credit. Expanding on the Washington Post series, the vivid profiles in Who Is Government? blow up the stereotype of the irrelevant bureaucrat. They show how the essential business of government makes our lives possible, and how much it matters.
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