Occupy Mars-a-Lago
In the dying embers of the Biden presidency, the laws of entropy seem to be channeling all of the energy toward the incoming administration. Trump has already promised a flurry of up to 100 executive orders on day 1, but some heat is still emanating from the not-so-friendly fire between the two factions of the MAGA base. Trump ought to be careful with the pact he’s made with Musk — a Rocket Man whose leverage on him is much greater than that of the one in North Korea. The clash with the nationalist Bannon faction is but a flicker of things to come, and, together with the bevy of other perplexing appointments, reminds us that Trump is a chaos junky who prefers a schizoid soap opera in the White House to help guide his decision-making. Ann Coulter famously said that Trump sides with whoever’s opinion he heard last – which puts populist MAGA on the backfoot considering Musk and Vance have had his ear almost daily in the crucial formative weeks that will define the whole administration.
Musk has been residing in a plush cabin at Mar-a-Lago since early November, only briefly departing for his Texas Orania around Christmas before circling back to Orangia to plot his exploits in what Steve Bannon calls the “broligarchy.“ Bannon has had some choice words for “truly evil guy“ Musk, also castigating Vance, Thiel, Sacks and Ramaswamy as “technofeudal overlords.“ It all came to a boil thanks to the Silicon Valley clique’s fanatic insistence on the Hindu-1B visa, which replaces American workers, mostly with Indians, in an arrangement of indentured servitude that even Trump once excoriated. Indian cultural supremacist Vivek Ramaswamy cited American sitcoms in his claim that there is a shortage of native tech workers, while the issue really touched a nerve with Musk, whose Neuralink pager exploded in a fit of woke rage against the “hateful, unrepentant racists” to whom he declared: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.“
For now, Trump has sided more with his cabinet than the base, but America First activists Nick Fuentes, Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon caused enough of a stink that the H-1B program is slated for reform. Bannon’s critique of the American financial elite, whom he likes to syllogize as “privatizing the profits and socializing the risks“ indicates that he remains a crucial voice in Trump’s orbit. Regrettably, even he recently stooped to the level of anti-racism credentializing with a ridiculous smear of Musk, Thiel and Sacks: “Why do we have the most racist people on Earth, white South Africans, making any comments at all on what goes on in the US?” The only adult in the room proved to be STEM expert Eric Weinstein, who has written extensively on the proficiency of the American science and tech labor force. He invited Musk and Vivek to a debate but both promptly left the chat, with Musk rebooting the Tommy Robinson saga as a distraction.
In my highly unpopular piece on JD Vance, I made the same argument about johnny-come-latelys to MAGA that Bannon articulates: “They’re recent converts. … But the converts sit in the back and study for years. … Don’t come up and go to the pulpit in your first week here and start lecturing people about the way things are going to be.” Political ship jumper and campaign rally leaper Musk supported Joe Biden in 2020 and only saw the light in 2022, which is rather late for a genius who is now so assured in his political acuity that he openly involves himself in the political affairs of other countries.
Under the guise of wanting America to “win at everything,” Musk has developed an essentially neocon foreign policy, with some describing him as George Soros on amphetamines. He’s supported both the anti-Maduro coup in Venezuela and the US acquisition of Greenland — places that are conveniently abundant in minerals perfect for use in Tesla’s batteries. Musk has gotten cozy with Argentina’s mass privatizer and Zio gremlin Javier Milei, but it’s not all bad; the nationalist-populist parties of Europe are getting a big push, while in Canada he and Trump managed to send the rainbow socks and blackface of Justin Trudeau packing.
For the heritage MAGA faction, the question still remains as to whether the Trump administration may have been better off without the neophyte broligarchs. Musk’s $250 million in campaign donations did not change the election outcome. It represents about 0.06% of his current net worth, which went up a lot post-election. The American public are rightly concerned about extreme wealth inequality and the influence this has on politics. Conceived another way: Musk has $3 million for every hair on his head. Suffice it to say, his follicular portfolio has come a long way since his twenties. And this is what bothers so many on the left and right with respect to the H-1B fracas — it’s obviously a greed-driven enterprise to maximize profits, being led by folks who are already fabulously wealthy.
Renewed attention on Vivek Ramaswamy by embittered MAGA hardliners is also turning up some damning evidence on how he managed to accrue $960 million. Vivek bought a failed Alzheimer’s drug from GlaxoSmithKline, then employed his mother (psychiatry PhD) to perform unscientific post-hoc reinterpretation of results, after which he hawked the bogus efficacy with a media blitz all the while collaborating with former hedge fund colleagues who were in on the scam early.
It was a classic pump and dump — which sounds a bit like Elon Musk’s conjugal habits but is actually a common collusion scheme on Wall Street among high-IQ low-trust psychopaths. Instead of being imprisoned for securities fraud he’s become a vivacious boardroom bed-hopper much like Vance. Perhaps this was the complexion Musk was referring to when he donned the black hat of Dark MAGA and going on to link up with Ramaswamy for the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE). Vivek has been gaming the system in America quite literally from Day 1, being the beneficiary of birthright citizenship. Nevertheless, he’s been welcomed into the Trump fold because he is valued foremost as a salesman with high energy and over-polished enunciation. In Trump world, wealth and success carry their own legitimacy and the overriding ethos is that money talks and bullshit stalks for another opportunity.
Joining Ramaswamy are Kash Patel, Sriram Krishnan, Jay Bhattacharya and Tulsi Gabbard — making Hindus the most overrepresented ethno-religious group in the Trump administration. They say variety is the spice of life, but thus far the whiff of curry must be overpowering. Some on the right may argue Indian overrepresentation is preferable to the Mayorkas and Blinken crowd who dominated Biden’s cabinet. However what Trump lacks in Jews he’s replaced with Christian Zionists. Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth, Doug Collins and JD Vance come to mind — even Assad-friendly Tulsi Gabbard avows standing with strongest ally Israel. These last four have done tours in the Middle East; meanwhile Elon Musk has toured Auschwitz so the pro-Palestine cause will not have much of a voice in the White House. The new Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, is so infatuated with Zionist irredentism that he has traveled to Israel annually since the 1980s, toiling in settler vineyards during grape harvest. Even Vivek proclaimed Israel “a divine nation.“
Jared Kushner will not be part of the administration, although his close associate Howard Lutnick will be there to conflict interests and confirm stereotypes as Secretary of the Department of Commerce. Lutnick hasn’t explained why he was a big donor for Hillary Clinton in 2016, however at the Madison Square Garden rally he did reminisce about his miraculous survival on the day of 9-11, saying he wasn’t in the World Trade Center because he had to take his son to his first day of school. Perhaps he shared a cab with Larry Silverstein.
Trump is no doubt aware of the outsized Jewish influence when referring to the enemies of the people (media) or the traitors responsible for the border invasion and lawfare campaign against him (Mayorkas, Garland respectively). He’s also come to learn that he was unable to trust some of his longtime associates and inner circle (Kushner, Cohen, Netanyahu). Trump was insulted with polling in 2024 that suggested he could win a post-Reagan record of 40% of the Jewish vote: “That means 60% are voting for Kamala … [they should] have their head examined.“ Naturally, Jews ended up voting the way they always do, 63-71% casting their ballot for Kabbalah Harris.
Nevertheless, Trump relishes the role of being a champion of the Israeli cause and is immensely proud of the embassy move to Jerusalem and officializing the Golan’s annexation. Either the ghost of Sheldon Adelson haunts Trump from the non-existent Jewish afterlife or it’s his widow’s money that Trump can’t say no to. Commentators like Steve Sailer and David Peyman believe Trump is the most Jewish president ever, on account of both style and policy. It’s certainly easy to see Trump’s expansionist streak as a sister ideology to Zionism: a belief in Eretz Yamerica. This is the inevitability of a lifetime fraternalizing and commercializing with Jews in New York and, increasingly, Southern Florida. The unofficial heartland of MAGA has attracted such subversives as Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin and even Yair Netanyahu, whose sincerity cannot be expected to go much beyond Make America Goyische Again.
The real unknown of the second Trump term is how Project Ukraine will proceed. Early indications suggest that the faucets would be shut off and Ukraine would be forced to negotiate without expecting any return of lost land. However, incoming National Security Advisor Waltz gave hope to the neocons that the war would continue: “We are hand in glove. We are one team with the United States in this transition.” Indeed, Trump’s saloon-style diplomacy and commitment to winning may necessitate such a continuity. In 2022, pundits were arguing that Putin needed to be provided an “off-ramp to end the war.“ Now they are scrambling to ensure there are as few off-cuts from the Ukrainian rump state that remains.
Volodymyr Zelensky remains widely loathed and ridiculed, especially in Eastern Europe where he is the subject of several local jokes. The surname Zelensky is actually the Slavonic equivalent of Greenstein which, combined with his fondness for green muscle shirts is said to offer camouflage for all of the money he’s taking. In his former life, Zelensky was even a host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The Ukrainian version offered a top prize of just $23,500, which was about what Hunter Biden was earning weekly. It’s now Zelensky who’s going to need a lifeline for his political career to last much longer.
On the battlelines, the Russians are on the verge of conquering Chasiv Yar, after which they will go onward to fight for the honor of Stinky. Interestingly, west of the town of Lysychansk there is an ostrich farm that has changed hands twice since the start of the war. It’s currently held by the Ukrainians and time will eventually prove that it was they who had their heads in the sand regarding the reality of the conflict. As for the sardonic Western commentary about fighting over Soviet concrete apartment blocks, these are not exactly fair considering that the terms of negotiation will decide NATO membership and legal provisions for the Russian minority, among other things.
Meanwhile in Europe, resolve is growing incredibly weary. Only Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, imagining themselves to be Churchill and De Gaulle, continue to talk a tough game. Starmer’s 100-year pledge of loyalty is almost as delusional as believing his term will last much beyond the next 100 days. Macron’s humiliation was recently delivered with the debacle of the 153rd brigade that was trained in France and ran for the hills not long after being deployed in Ukraine. Some stereotypes die hard. Though Ukraine is not quite Vichy France, perhaps the parallel ought to be raised by the always solid Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. President Putin in recent times has been especially acerbic to Western leaders, heralding an end to what he calls the “vampires’ ball.“ And this is coming from someone who bathes in deer antler blood. When the smoke finally clears in Europe — this year or the next — there will be little doubt about the state of affairs: Donbas will be in Russia, Finland will be in NATO and France will be in the Maghreb.
Nowadays in Europe, democratic elections are annulled when the public votes the wrong way, as seen in Romania’s presidential election where bogus claims of Russian interference were made. Former commissioner Thierry Breton even admitted as much: “We did it in Romania and we will obviously do it in Germany if necessary.” This raised the ire of many, including Elon Musk, who began heavily promoting AfD in the leadup to next month’s elections.
Musk interviewed AfD co-chairwoman Alice Weidel last week, and they found plenty of common ground (anti-woke, pro-Israel), however Weidel dropped the ball throughout with a few blonde moments. The first was that she claimed Adolf Hitler was a communist. Weidel should know better than to fudge standard terminologies, and ought to perhaps revisit pre-Nazi history and learn why, precisely a century ago, Germany was printing bank notes in the denomination of 5 trillion Rentenmarks.
When the topic of Germany’s energy crisis was broached, the usual talking points mentioned Merkel’s nuclear shut-down and wind energy flop, although the obvious elephant in the room was ignored: it’s been America’s foreign policy to thwart German access to cheap Russian gas. It was America who orchestrated the Ukraine conflict, ordered Nordstream destroyed and who is now supplying expensive LNG. Weidal did not even mention that she wants to restart Nordstream. When Trump was in office, he continued the policy of resource racketeering and Musk will likely be fully on board as an American imperialist.
For all the cultural camaraderie that exists between America and Europe, the economic antagonism has remained a staple of the modern era — predicted by such intellectuals as Guillaume Faye. A mere 16 years ago, the United States and EU economies were equal in size. Now the US economy is almost twice as big and all that the EU has to show for progress is that its parliament has a record 39% women MEPs — women who know how to give a good rendition of anti-fascist hymn Bella Ciao. Germany, as with the EU, has long passed its Ode to Joy era and has a future that looks and sounds a lot more like the Ride of the Valkyries.
Antagonizing Trump and Musk would be a foolish move for Europeans, given their relatively weak position and confused leadership. Both men have at times demonstrated the sort of calculated aggression and petty vindictiveness that can lead to double standards and complete policy U-turns. It’s worth remembering that Musk relocated an entire company — SpaceX — because a Latinx assemblywoman disrespected him. Musk couches everything that he does as a sort of noble principle of universal benefit to humanity. He’s pioneering super intelligent AI, so that it happens safely and is in the right hands. He’s developing brain implants, to help disabled people. He’s having 12 children with multiple women, because of a fertility crisis in some countries. He’s founding a Mars colony, as a safeguard against extinction. Saint Elon promised to be a free speech absolutist but has since introduced Talmudic qualifications like exempting pro-Palestine views, banning groypers and changing the algorithm to “reduce the visibility of negative content.“ When Musk says he is “aspirationally Jewish“ perhaps we should believe him.
The ancestry of Elon Musk, beyond his official biography, has become the topic of some discussion on the internet. For one, Musk does not resemble his two siblings, while his most famous doppelganger is Chinese TikToker Yilong Ma. An unconfirmed data leak from the 23andMe account of Sergey Brin (Musk’s friend) allegedly show Musk’s Y-DNA haplogroup to be O2b1, which would mean a paternal East Asian ancestor. Those who like to post bible verses in the comments section may like to chime in on whether this makes Musk Shemitic or Japhethic, according to Noahide law.
Having such eccentric figures in office at this point in history may prove to be the necessary risk that Westerners should welcome. Besides the Bannons and Carlsons in Trump’s orbit, there is another important figure connected to Musk who espouses some unconventional views: Joe Rogan. The podcaster has pushed a number of big conspiracy theories from the moon landing to pizzagate, only to walk them back. It is up to viewers to make their own interpretation of the sense of irony or sincerity that Rogan employs when dealing with such themes. Such views may be an indication of some of the privately held views in Trump’s circle and of some of the potential bombshells that could be dropped, like the JFK files or AIDS hoax.
As for Musk and Trump — who resemble a sort of Dr Strangelove and mercurial general — they may indeed inspire enough confidence post-Biden to tell the masses to Stop Worrying and Love AI. 2025 is the year that the sun will finally set on the British Empire. Perhaps the American Empire will pick up this torch and acquire some of the real estate that it has set its sights on. For now, we can only speculate that the closing minutes at the Endeavor Room of Mar-a-Lago went something like this: gain Greenland, maintain the greenback and offload Mr. Green Shirt.