But in a way, he does though right? Even under Trump, the US is not a dictatorship. Those "resources and money" are to some extent, democratically controlled. Elon's wealth is controlled by just one person.
The Dems may be able to subpoena Elon, but even then, Republicans will be on that committee. And you've seen that the Dems definitely do not all think with one mind.
Individual judges are effectively dictators over their own rulings, so anything that goes to trial will ultimately be ruled on by just one person. But that can be appealed. All the way up to SCOTUS for anything Federal and you know where SCOTUS stands for now.. maybe the Dems will stack it, but even then.. there will STILL be people on SCOTUS who will rule in Elon's favor.
Not that delirious I will take this piece by piece:
1) I'm unclear enough on the law to not know if there is a law that allows the President to arrest someone. I believe not. And there aren't any good examples. But there is a VERY good counter-example - Trump. He's clearly not following the law in many ways with zero consequences. And yet - who among his targets/enemies has he arrested and thrown in an oubliette? Yes - plenty of powerless poors have had that treatment INDIRECTLY by ICE, empowered by Trump. But Hilary? Biden? Anyone who he has even called for his own DOJ head to arrest? Comey is the closest and rather critically that is grinding through the process rather than resulting in what you're saying. So yes - we do still have SOME functioning, democratic-ish checks and balances. Compare this to true, final-stage dictatorships instead - not only do they make the law as they want it, they execute exactly what you said. Putin for example rather famously arrests and Siberias anyone he feels like, even if sometimes there is a formal cover. And defenestrations and novichoks. Each of these is simply done in the matter that sends the message he wants to his enemies, not in any way constrained by law or other forces of power. He definitely has to fight for power and alliances with various oligarchs that is true - if he got on the wrong side of too many of them at once he would not win. But that is it.
2) A court order could nationalize his holdings yes. But what court in this administration, or the next would do it? How much precedent does the USA have for doing this in ALL of USA history. And I'm not talking about nationalizing the property of some individual to build a railway for example. Show me an example of a true American oligarch - maybe one of the top 10 wealthiest individuals in the USA at the time getting their property nationalized. Just one example please.
All of those democratic checks and balances etc have in the USA so far worked very well to protecting private property rights of already-wealthy individuals and wealthier the individual, the better they work.
Same for US residency and for citizenship.
3) I don't doubt that a different administration could have effect on Musk. A strong one even. But I think you're running on pure hopium.
What exactly are they doing right now? It isn't like he's personally pushing all the buttons to censor & boost stuff on Twitter? He didn't personally push the button to downgrade Starlink for Ukraine defense.
Rumor has it many of his companies have "handler" teams so they can limit the damage he does.. to the company. Like when he says "oh fire that guy" they are like "yeah, he's fired" but then.. don't actually fire the guy. But these damage control teams are clearly not managing everything, including things the company does that is Lex Luthor adjacent.
But I think Twitter is an example of what goes on when he really gets unleashed. Very early on he fired many/most of the engineering staff - the people that control "the algorithm" and required those who remain to work crazy hours, sleep in the office etc. You think that people who go along with all that instead of quitting are going to push back when he says to censor someone with a left opinion or boost some Nazis?
I've been surprised on the specifics, but not surprised in general. The real benefit to a lifetime term for SCOTUS is they can really do what they want. It was clear from early on that Barrett said exactly what she needed and then immediately started going against the agenda.. a bit. Trump wants to think "they owe him" and has said so, but in reality they really really don't have to think that way. Which, in a way is why term limits are so important too.
Because they don't have to truly consider the law of the land in order to make it and as is now clear they can lie as much as they like to get appointed with zero consequences.
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u/tallpaul00 7h ago
But in a way, he does though right? Even under Trump, the US is not a dictatorship. Those "resources and money" are to some extent, democratically controlled. Elon's wealth is controlled by just one person.
The Dems may be able to subpoena Elon, but even then, Republicans will be on that committee. And you've seen that the Dems definitely do not all think with one mind.
Individual judges are effectively dictators over their own rulings, so anything that goes to trial will ultimately be ruled on by just one person. But that can be appealed. All the way up to SCOTUS for anything Federal and you know where SCOTUS stands for now.. maybe the Dems will stack it, but even then.. there will STILL be people on SCOTUS who will rule in Elon's favor.