The Christmas spirit faded quickly in MAGA-world, as the following day was marked by an explosion of infighting among its factions and biggest names.
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A week of of social media debate about tech companies hiring large numbers of employees from other nations, via HB-1 visas, exploded when DOGE co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy attempted to explain the trend. American culture is broken, he tweeted, marked
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by too many “Friends” reruns and prom queens and not enough admiration of characters like Screech.
That cultural broadside launched a predictable backlash of both rational responses along with fierce anti-immigrant invective.
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Always happy to argue with Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley jumped into the fray:
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Know that these are among the more polite responses.
As one commentator warned, Ramaswamy committed a mortal sin:
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Elon Musk sided with Ramaswamy in the dispute. (“DKE” is referring to the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a not so subtle way to tell those who don’t agree with you that they are too stupid to even weigh in):
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This insult sparked its own backlash…
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including a series of rants by right-wing extremist Laura Loomer that Musk is a “stage 5 clinger” who is overstaying his welcome. She also aims her fire at tech bros:
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She even questions why Musk and Ramaswamy are running this bizarre new entity called DOGE:
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According to Loomer, Musk responded to this criticism by suppressing the Tweets and accounts of those criticizing him and his views.
The perfect solution to a “DKE situation.”
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Folks, this is just the beginning of years of infighting, as different parts of the Trump coalition figure out that the extremism of each of their visions directly threatens one another.
For example:
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1) those offended by Ramaswamy’s criticism might try reading JD Vance’s book, a relentless assault an Appalachian culture
2) those offended by Vivek’s criticism should really read some of the thinking behind the leading tech bros’ (and Vance’s) political philosophy.
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Their favorite thinker may be Curtis Yarvin, whose vision of the future doesn’t even include the United States at all: governments like the United States “should be replaced by a global spiderweb of tens, even hundreds,
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of thousands of sovereign and independent mini-countries, each governed by its own joint-stock corporation without regard to the residents’ opinions”
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3) As for Ramaswamy, he might take a hard look at some of his allies in MAGA world. If he did, as he learned yesterday, he’d see that large parts of that world are not interested in immigration of any sort; and that the ethnicity and complexion of those…
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immigrating triggers the fierce reaction them entering America, not the reason or type of visa they used to immigrate here.
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This is a sneak preview, folks.
Just tweets, in the end.
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Wait until this motley band of extremists takes charge—making actual decisions on all these issues.
Then wait until all these same egos & extremist visions play out in deciding who emerges as the heir to Trump himself. (Haley jumping in shows how quickly that will happen)
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So, it’s going to be a shit show.
And each time these fissures open, a reminder of how unfit they are to lead this nation.
Still a private citizen, Trump staked claims on the territory of two sovereign nations. After the President of Panama rebuffed Trump’s suggestion that the US should reclaim the Panama Canal from Panama, Trump replied: “we’ll see about that!”
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Early this morning, Trump staked another claim—this time declaring that the United States should seize Greenland from Denmark:
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In a different context, from a different source, such saber-rattling would spark international crises.
But it’s Trump, so most of the nation and world—his own allies included—dismiss these comments.
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While it’s unclear what will happen in the coming days, Musk’s chaos machine has clarified a number of realities even before the Trump term begins:
WATCH, RT and
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1) with his billions, willingness to invest it in primaries, and huge digital/disinformation megaphone via Twitter/X, Musk has more power/sway than Trump and is not afraid to show that to the world (past fat cats hid this fact better);
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2) just a few tweets from Musk can launch a battle royale within the Republican Party; given their thin margins in the House, and fear of primaries, that is a guarantee of chaos and perpetual leadership uncertainty;
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Re what happened yesterday re Cheney….remember what Trump demanded of Zelensky in that phone call—an announcement of an investigation.
That’s the Putin tactic.
And for Trump, the big win. Does most of the damage whatever the law is, and whatever the ultimate result…
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I explained this in “2025”:
“Remember, the president’s top priority is publicly announced investigations. Right-wing TV repeating the words ‘treason’ and ‘abuse of power’ in every segment. That’s the victory. Everything that follows is the gravy.
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The old notion that you only brought cases you were sure to win was so 20th century.
So institutionalist….
Investigations, charges and leaked tidbits of evidence dominated the airwaves of friendly media, destroying and bankrupting the enemy before a trial ever started.
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Arguably the most successful part of Trump’s first term was Operation Warp Speed—the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines that Trump happily took great credit for late in his fist term.
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More broadly, humans did few things more effectively over the past century than develop and disseminate vaccines for a wide variety of ailments and diseases:
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A World Health Organization study released this year found that not only have global immunization efforts “saved an estimated 154 million lives over the past 50 years,” but that
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After J. Edgar Hoover towered over the FBI and Washington for 48 years, Congress passed a law to create a single, ten-year term for all future FBI directors.
A Committee report at the time made clear
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that the goal was to strike a balance: the ten year-term ensured that no director would accumulate too much power or overstay his or her welcome.
But that set term—longer than the tenure of any single president and separate from the four-year presidential cycle—
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ensured that an FBI director was not simply the subject or agent of a single president: : “[t]he position is not an ordinary Cabinet appointment which is usually considered a politically oriented member of the President’s ‘team.’“
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