Federal prosecutors would be filing multiple criminal indictments against Musk and his team at any other time in the last 125 years of our history. Former US attorney Joyce Vance has called Musk’s operation a coup and I think she is right. Heather Cox Richardson, writing in her February 5th column, outlined all the moves the Musk administration has made to take over the federal government through its computer systems and linking networks. The blatant illegality of it is obvious to everyone who pays attention. The problem is, so few of the American public are paying attention.
There will be no US attorney filing indictments against Musk because the Department of Justice has been taken over by loyalists who have pledged their allegiance to Trump and not to the Constitution. If any one of them should try, they would be immediately fired anyway. Some part of the United States Senate is utterly complicit with the Trump-Musk coup. Republicans who are not complicit are complacent. They are sitting around, mumbling something incoherent, and appear to be hoping that somehow everything will work out if they are just quiet and do nothing. Democrats in the minority are speaking out here and there, but on the whole, have not united with one firm, strong voice of opposition.
Even if indictments were filed against Musk and other administration criminals, it would be to little avail since Trump, who is immune from prosecution for anything he does as president, could pardon them all. It is a perfect setup for a takeover and we can thank the Supreme Court for making it possible.
I hope that the midterms will turn over the legislature in such a resounding way that there will be a veto-proof majority of representatives and senators willing to take action and see that it is enforced with impartiality. But two years is a long way off and we’re only a few weeks into an administration that has proven its ability to destroy American democracy quickly. In the meantime, we might hope for various state attorneys general to file criminal indictments under state law. I’m not sure how that can happen but suspect that much of what Musk and Trump are doing is illegal under a variety of state laws as well as federal laws. It would take courage. Trump would immediately cut off all federal support for any state that dared to oppose him. It would be a high cost and one very much worth paying.
It was only a few months ago when attendees at Trump rallies were whipped into a frenzy over his accusations that the federal government had been weaponized against him. Everyone agreed that weaponizing the federal government against a political opponent would be wrong. Trump did not bother telling the crowds that he was being investigated for criminal behavior for which there was abundant evidence. Moreover, he had been convicted in criminal court and found functionally guilty of rape in civil court. That is not weaponization. It is the proper working of the justice system. Now those same rally attendees are getting a taste of what political weaponization really looks like and what it can do to them and their families.
I suspect Trump voters will not discover the danger they have put themselves into until it happens. In the meantime, they are likely to be living in bubbles and pretending that none of this is actually happening. It reminds me of characters featured in Herman Wouk’s book, “The Winds of War,” in which otherwise good and gentle people refused to believe that the evil confronting them was real. They were sure it was a passing thing. They would be safe. They were not.
As for those who assert that Trump was sent by God to do God’s will, I have it on good authority that God had nothing to do with Trump or what he is doing, and that you have been terribly misled and false in your prophecies. More shame on you for claiming otherwise. The proper role for Christians during these difficult days is to be as resistant and noncompliant as possible to every move of the current administration that violates godly justice. We must, in every case and despite any provocation, be nonviolent. When early Christians proclaimed that Jesus is Lord, they were telling Caesar that Caesar was not Lord. It cost some of them their lives and others much oppression. Today, when we proclaim that Jesus is Lord, we are proclaiming that Trump is not Lord. For any one of us to say that and live into it will make very little difference. If everyone says it and lives into it, it will make all the difference in the world.