Petty Grift vs The Main Chance

Trump and Musk are playing two different games

Reader John sent me something I missed. I’m posting it as a typical example of Trumpian grift. It’s small bore, pretty unimaginative and, though disgusting and illegal, probably won’t make a huge difference in the future of the country. Most importantly, it will likely be forgotten in a few days:

President Trump said he is planning to introduce a new visa to attract rich foreigners to America — something he is calling a "gold card."

For $5 million, people will be able to apply to become lawful permanent residents. Trump said the program would be rolled out in two weeks, would bring in "very high-level people," and said the proceeds from the program could help pay down the deficit.

(NPR)

If you bother to read the piece, John says to be sure to note the last part about Trump being “tongue-in-cheek”. That’s a nice touch from the DC-poisioned media brain of the Nice Polite Republicans.

Now let’s look at someone who is not small-bore corrupt, has an imagination about how vastly he can fuck the country, and has some follow through.

I mercifully didn’t include the video here, but when I was at the gym this morning, I noted that Elon seemed a lot more buttoned down, probably thanks to Xanax, I’m guessing. He was running the meeting when I saw it. He apparently was happy to share his many opinions about how many people should be in government.

Breaking A federal judge will NOT pause his order giving the Trump admin a deadline of 11:59 p.m. tonight to pay all invoices for foreign development funds for contracts completed before Feb. 13. Doc https://buff.ly/3EWALvP

Adam Klasfeld (@klasfeldreports.com)2025-02-26T16:59:05.744Z

This is the second way in which Elon’s grift is a whole lot worse than Trump. When Trump goes to court, he delays and delays, a trick he learned from Roy Cohn. It’s pretty effective. Elon just ignores court orders. His DOGErs were supposed to release the USAID money they were trying to steal to fund King Musk’s tax break, but they simply didn’t do it. And, prediction, they won’t do it again. Then, what? “How many armies does Judge Ali have” is probably the considered position of our new King.

Everyone, including me, thought we would be dealing with the small-bore Trumpian grift. Instead, we got a main chancer.

(If I’m wrong and anyone out there predicted Musks’ role prior to Trump’s election, let me know. I want to follow this Nostradamus.)

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