What Trump and Musk are doing is illegal, but federal law enforcement has been neutered
Musk’s forces allegedly have access to the Treasury’s federal payments system
Follow the Money
The financial markets are the only thing that can stop Trump’s reign of chaos.
Feb 02, 2025
"The real danger is what we saw at the FBI and Treasury this weekend—because those actions strike at the heart of the economic order.
Some concerns:
The FBI. The Trump administration’s decapitation of the FBI cannot be read as anything other than a declaration that federal law enforcement is now entirely a political operation.
Musk’s takeover of the Treasury payment system. Elon Musk allegedly has control of the system the U.S. government uses to disburse congressionally mandated payments. Further, Musk claims that he, personally, is putting a stop to payments that he does not like.
First: This obviously could not happen unless the FBI had been neutered, because these actions are badly illegal. Of course, if the DoJ and FBI refuse to investigate the crimes, then are they really crimes at all?2
Second: If Musk is personally deciding what money comes out of the Treasury, then it is impossible to predict where economic disruptions will hit. Will Musk stop payments to social services vendors in South Dakota? Or to aerospace contractors in New Jersey? Will he refuse to make interest payments on government debt? Will he ratchet back Social Security disbursements? If you cannot predict government disbursements after laws have mandated them then you cannot predict the future economic environment.
The future of banking. If you wanted a real doomsday scenario, you’d start worrying about the future of the FDIC and ACH systems.
The FDIC is the program that guarantees the bank deposits of ordinary consumers. It was one of the most important New Deal reforms enacted to prevent another Great Depression—and it has been in the Musk/Trump crosshairs. If the FDIC is neutered, the rules surrounding capital requirements for banks would shift in ways that are impossible to anticipate, and could reshuffle the American banking system itself.
Even more concerning is the country’s ACH system.
The Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) is the utility system that routes and transfers most electronic funds in the United States. There is a federal component (the Federal ACH) and a smaller component run by a consortium of banks.
What if Musk is looking to disrupt the ACH system? Or more to the point: Replace it with his own, private system?
Here are some things we know:
Musk recently declared that his company X will, in a year, be such a complete financial services hub that “you won’t need a bank account.”
Over the weekend X.com became the exclusive platform used for external communication by the NTSB.
Also over the weekend, Musk launched a series of lawsuits against private corporations for not advertising on X. His position seems to be that private companies should be compelled to buy advertising services from him.
Musk’s forces allegedly have access to the Treasury’s federal payments system.
Does this sound to you like a situation that could potentially end with Musk attempting to disintermediate the ACH system and route all electronic transfers—including all transfers made by the federal government—through his private company?
Because that’s what it sounds like to me."
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