This is an adapted excerpt from the December 12 episode of ‘Deadline: White House’.
As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, his favorite billionaire, Elon Musk, is sending a warning to Republicans: support the president-elect’s Cabinet picks, or else. Musk is now threatening to financially support a primary challenge to any Republican senator who opposes Trump’s nominees.
We already know that Musk considers himself the master of the universe. This week, he cemented his title as the world’s richest man by becoming the first person to reach a net worth of $400 billion, according to a new estimate from Bloomberg News. This week, Tesla shares closed at an all-time high, rising 69% since Trump’s election victory. Musk uses that wealth and his close relationship with Trump to wield the power of the presidency and intimidate and bully members of the U.S. Senate.
This is the moment we are in now. We have this combination of enormous wealth and enormous political power with the absence of accountability. There are words in our language that describe what we are dealing with here, words like oligarchy, kleptocracy and kakistocracy.
Ethics used to be something people cared about, but not anymore. Eight years ago, people were concerned about whether or not Trump would divest from his businesses once he was elected president. Now he’s not even going through the motions. Just weeks before he returns to the White House, he launches a new perfume product.
At some point, Republican senators will have to ask themselves, publicly or privately, do they want to be reduced to potted plants in this particular system? Will someone stand up and say, “Stop”? This is what the Constitution is intended to do: to provide checks and balances that could prevent exactly these kinds of things. This is the big question facing Trump’s second administration.
It’s a test — not just for Republicans in Washington, but for the entire country. We’re still a long way from any confirmation hearings for Trump’s nominees, but these hearings will exceptional. Regardless of what Republican senators think right now, if the country sees some of this testimony, if they see some of the people coming forward and telling stories about the alleged behavior of Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth or Kash Patel, it will be a gut feeling is that Republicans have failed time and time again.
Allison Detzel contributed.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
