Who Will Win the Power Struggle?

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are the two most powerful men in the world. They are joining forces, but for how long?

You can listen to me read this report here:

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Before anyone gets mad at me, I remind you all that I am glad Trump won the election. I am really pleased at the team he is building. More on that later.

As for Elon Musk, you know the old saying, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

I’m not saying Musk is Trump’s enemy, but Trump would be a fool if he didn’t recognize he has to navigate this relationship carefully. Elon Musk will no doubt become a bigger part of all of our lives over the next four years.

Does anyone else find it an odd coincidence that Elon Musk’s favorite coin is DOGE, and he will now be in charge of a new government department called the DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY, nicknamed DOGE?

I mean, why isn’t anyone commenting on this? If this were about the Biden administration creating such a department, based on some other big wig’s coin, you can be sure the protestors on the right would be out in full force.

Please note that the 10 richest people in the world gained a record $63.5 billion after the election. That probably would have happened either way. But no one put all his eggs in one basket the way Elon Musk did. Already the wealthiest person on the planet, Musk saw his net worth jump 10 percent to $300 billion.

Think back to those seemingly long-gone days when conservatives were so very concerned about the introduction of CBDCs and the control the government would have over all of our lives. I don’t a hear peep about that now, everyone is applauding the transition that is likely to come and that will most assuredly be initiated by Elon Musk.

Musk has warned that hard times are ahead for the American people as he “fixes the budget”. Of one thing you can be sure, Musk and his billionaire buddies will not suffer. I just hope it doesn’t hurt all those millions of hardworking Americans who put their trust in Donald Trump, and by default, Elon Musk.

Now, as questions swirl around whether Trump could use bitcoin to "wipe out" U.S. debt, Musk has called U.S. debt growth "unsustainable."

According to Forbes:

Musk was replying to bitcoin-backing Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who called the "status quo of $2 trillion annual deficits unsustainable."

Paul made headlines in 2015 when he began accepting bitcoin campaign donations to support his Republican White House bid—with Donald Trump and many other 2024 candidates following suit—and in 2021 said in an interview he believed crypto could replace the U.S. dollar due to a lack of confidence in the currency and increased government surveillance.

U.S. national debt has skyrocketed in recent years, crossing the $34 trillion mark at the beginning of 2024, largely due to Covid and lockdown stimulus measures that sent inflation spiraling out of control and forced the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates at a historical clip.

Earlier this year, Trump floated the idea he could use bitcoin to "pay off our $35 trillion—hand them a little crypto check, right? We'll hand them a little bitcoin and wipe out our $35 trillion," he said.

In July, Trump promised to create a "strategic national bitcoin reserve" and predicted bitcoin could eclipse gold's $16 trillion market capitalization during an appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 conference.

A big question is whether or not bitcoin will be exempt from capital gains as “bitcoin becomes ‘money’ in the U.S”.

In a recent post on X, Microstrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor posted a quote from a purported conversation with Donald Trump where he discussed his evolving views on bitcoin. According to Saylor’s post, Trump made several statements that are significant for the possibility of bitcoin becoming deeply intertwined in the U.S. economy in the coming years.

"They have them paying tax on crypto and I don't think that's right. #Bitcoin is money and you have to pay capital gains tax if you use it to buy a coffee? I was talking with a friend he said 'it really shouldn't be taxed' and I agree.”

If he really used the phrase “bitcoin is money,” the implications are massive.

Is this going to solve all of our problems? Remember when so many of the bitcoin companies fell from grace, like Sam Bankman-Fried and his FTX; they were weeded out.

Back in December 2022, I wrote THE FINAL SOLUTION: Central Bank Digital Currency. I talked about the history of money, and how we got to where we are today. Here is an excerpt:

FTX claimed to give generously through a method called “effective altruism.” Ukraine was said to benefit from it. Money has been pouring into Ukraine without any oversite. Ukraine will never get out from under the control of the powers that own it. It is being used as a testing ground for CBDCs. Ukraine is on a course to issue a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the e-hryvnia, after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the 'On Payment Services' law.

The United States and other western nations are now doing the same thing to their own citizens that they did to weaker nations.

Imagine if everyone’s debt could be wiped out, everyone could get their housing for free, an allowance for basic needs.

In surveys conducted by Currency.com,

86% of central banks are actively looking into a CBDC

Nearly two-thirds of European, Asian and US adults said they would be likely to use a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

33% said they would even be willing to convert their savings into CBDC within a month of a successful launch.

Guardtime believes that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of all aspects of society and that the first major CBDC could be launched within three years.  

And now it’s all coming together. It’s just been announced that Banking giants and the New York Fed will start a 12-week digital dollar pilot program.

Just like the United States swept in to aid poorer countries suffering from wars and economic disasters, “the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and the worldwide outcry over the billions of dollars wiped off the platform, are likely to trigger a massive regulatory reaction that would further erode citizens’ economic freedoms without addressing the issues that fostered demand for an alternative to the fiat dollar,” economists have told The Epoch Times.

Charles Steele, chair of the department of economics, business, and accounting at Hillsdale College in Michigan, states that:

“I think a CBDC is very dangerous, because it would enable a central bank or government to monitor, control, and record every exchange made with the currency. If, for example, a government decided it did not want citizens buying, say, firearms, or perhaps donating funds to a political candidate, the central bank could prevent the transaction. Alternatively, it could have a permanent record of a citizen’s purchases and use these to establish a social credit score for the person. In this way, a CBDC could become the ultimate tool of social engineering and tyranny.”

Once upon a time people bartered for real things in the real world. Then, they started using coins and paper and called it “money.”

After that, they started using “tokens” to buy and sell in a fake world. And then, “poof!" Money disappeared. But don’t worry. The Money Masters will take care of you. Just like they always have.

They will especially take care of your grandchildren.

Your grandchildren will never know what it means to hold a dollar bill in their hands. They will never know the pride of earning that dollar by washing a car or selling some homemade lemonade. They will never know the pleasure of spending that dollar on a Saturday matinee, or a favorite novel, or a big scoop of ice cream.

Instead, they will earn tokens in a virtual world to buy things that don’t exist. In the real world, they will own nothing and be happy.

Maybe I’m all wrong and it will work out beautifully. Maybe it’s better for everyone to have a universal basic income and a benevolent government taking care of you. How does that sound? The rebel in me rebels against every part of that. All my instincts say no.

Nobody is talking about “You will own nothing and be happy” now. It’s as if that worry never existed.

We may have two sides, the left and the right, politically pitted against one another. But it’s possible that Americans will be united with this government initiative that “bitcoin is money”. If the government miraculously “wipes out the debt”, will that be your debt, too? How about if the government announces your debt will be wiped out and all you have to do is sign on to the government universal basic income and the tracking and surveillance that goes along with it. And if you don’t agree, you will not be able to survive. You will not be able to buy or sell or work or travel or do anything. It’s really not a choice, is it? It’s one of those “mandates”.

Yes, I’m glad Trump won, but that doesn’t mean suddenly everything is perfect. The power struggle is on.

It will be a dance of give and take. For example, Tesla’s value has shot up to $2 trillion. It’s quite possible it will see a monopoly on electric cars (and other products?) while rival EV companies will be heavily regulated. This would be good news for those of us who want to keep driving our gas guzzling cars and don’t buy into the fake hype that EVs present “clean energy”. But it also means Elon’s power grows yet again. Ditto with his space program.

The perception is that we got to this victory for conservatives because of a resurgence of free speech and that’s all thanks to Elon Musk.

Please note that if I try to post this on X, I will be heavily censored. Sure, I am free to post it. I can post anything. But no one will see it. That’s because X is not a free speech platform. Musk bought Twitter to promote himself and his agenda to conservatives and it paid off big time.

Here’s a thought. Do you think Elon Musk would ever allow anyone to have more than his 204.2 million followers on X? What if Donald Trump’s followers inched too close for comfort? At 94.21 million, Donald Trump has a way to go yet. Nobody is ever going to get close, are they? I mean, that’s assuming that all Musk’s followers are even real, but that’s a whole other topic that I’ve dealt with elsewhere.

Research has found that Musk tweaks the algorithms to boost his own posts, particularly to boost his posts on X since January to promote pro-Trump content.

Euro News:

Many of the posts either supported the Republican candidate or undermined Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. The increase in views occurred at a much higher rate than other prominent political accounts on the app.

“These findings underscore a distinct pattern that may indicate an algorithmic shift that disproportionately favoured Musk’s account, contributing to a considerable engagement advantage,” the researchers wrote. 

“Musk’s actions have torpedoed the fantasy that social media platforms such as X are neutral,” they added. 

“Given he has previously tweaked X’s algorithm to amplify the reach of his posts, it would be surprising if he were not tilting the platform in favour of Trump, whom he believes is “the path to prosperity”.

Musk, who purchased Twitter in 2022, mobilized a team last year to algorithmically boost his posts, according to a report by The Verge.

Now, of course, Elon Musk has every right to do what he wants. He owns X. But he shouldn’t lie about his real intentions, claiming to be a “free speech absolutist.” He is only an absolutist when it comes to himself.

Conservatives were up in arms when Twitter favored the Democrats’ wokeism agenda. They cried foul when under Biden, the DHS announced the Department of Homeland Security’s “Disinformation Governance Board,” dubbed 1984’s “Ministry of Truth.” Below, Jen Psaki defended it, claiming the DGB was actually protecting first amendment rights.

What the Biden administration did in attempting to silence opposing voices, weaponizing social media as well, was unconscionable. I hope the Trump administration doesn’t turn around and do the same thing, perhaps even worse, to dissenting voices. As we have so often seen, crises are used to clamp down further on Americans’ freedoms, while claiming they are doing the opposite. Just think the Patriot Act.

In a speech, Trump has vowed to reclaim the right to Free Speech for all Americans.

FIRST, within hours of my inauguration, I will sign an executive order banning any federal department or agency from colluding with any organization, business, or person, to censor, limit, categorize, or impede the lawful speech of American citizens. I will then ban federal money from being used to label domestic speech as “mis-” or “dis-information”. And I will begin the process of identifying and firing every federal bureaucrat who has engaged in domestic censorship—directly or indirectly—whether they are the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, the DOJ, no matter who they are.

That’s his first promise and you can read the other ones at the link above. Or you can listen to it here:

Don’t get me wrong. Once again, I reiterate, I’m glad Trump won, and I like the team he’s building. Trump is shrewd. I’m sure he realized that if he wanted to win, he couldn’t do it without Elon Musk. He had to keep Musk close.

Trump and Musk are now the two most powerful men in the world. Unimaginable power. The question remains, who will come out on top. Neither one will want to give in to the other. And since when have two such competitive people been content with sharing that power? If Trump can manage to control Musk over the next four years, he will indeed be a genius at the power game.

The thing is this is Trump’s swan song and Musk is just beginning. Again, that’s why the team Trump builds is so important. Some of that team includes Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, as U.N. ambassador—a strong supporter of Israel—and Thomas D. Homan as border “czar”, a fighter in the spirit of Donald Trump.

Remember Homan’s epic comeback as he faced questioning by the arrogant and ignorant Jayapal: “I’m a taxpayer. You work for me!”

Trump is going to Washington DC with allies this time, not alone as he did the first time. He knows what he is up against, and his enemies are quaking in their boots, as well they should be.

Let’s just pray Trump and his team can with withstand the pressure of Elon Musk, not to mention a host of other greedy billionaires. Yes, Trump can’t govern without Musk, but he needs to use him, not the other way around.

It will be interesting to watch the power struggle unfold over the next four years.