The word is coup. An unelected centa-billionare is re-shaping the federal government to suit his whims. No amount of Executive Orders actually allow this. The Supreme Court has been clear that the only means we have to stop this is impeachment which no one sees as a option because the Republican Party has been captured by the same special interests that led to this.
It feels strange seeing this kind of talk in Lemmy and Reddit, while the mainstream media of my country (not-usa) speaks surprizingly little about it. It's not that I believe them to be MAGA-minded, maybe they are just not sure what to make of it. This just makes me wonder how real it is, when I don't see anyone "reputable" speaking of it.
I think people outside the bubble of the two "parties" can more clearly recognize that this is not a major break but rather a continuation of an already evil empire that is largely supported.
Musk is said to have control over a payment system which is not something that elected, let alone unelected billionaires have ever had access to previously. However it's for USAID, so are they gonna just stiff every third world country that doesn't allow exploiting their natural resources until everything is gone? Or will places where US funding saves lives with malaria vaccines and treatments suddenly just start seeing more people die... I've been upset the US is funding so much on their own, Just look at how much places reduce their budget as trump pulls out, we're bankrolling their hourlys, if we have to go into debt to pay for it, then other countries need to go proportionally into debt based of their size(population and GDP), but under no circumstances has most Americans ever wanted life saving support to stop like what it looks like is gonna happen with musky and trumpo only wanting to support violence.
An even bigger deal than Musk being able to choose who gets paid, is Musk access to SS numbers and government data. If AI is good at anything yet, it is as a super query language able to crosslink data. Voter manipulation/suppression that is much more targetted than the records in recent election is one application. Sicking the gestapo on opponents is maybe not AI related, but still/more disturbing.