The Real Power? Time Features Elon Musk Behind Oval Office Desk
India-West News Desk
WASHINGTON, DC – A new Time magazine cover features billionaire Elon Musk seated behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, mirroring the authority of a U.S. president. The cover accompanies a story titled “Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington,” which details his aggressive push for sweeping government reforms.
Musk, now leading Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has placed thousands of employees on administrative leave, initiated buyout without being clear where the money is going to come from and had employees sleep in at least one government building, according to reports.
The imagery on Time’s cover is striking, author and producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Steve Benen wrote in MSNBC, drawing comparisons to a similar moment in 2017 when the magazine featured Steve Bannon, then Trump’s chief strategist. The headline in the magazine then was, “Is Steve Bannon the Second Most Powerful Man in the World?”—a portrayal that reportedly irked Trump.
According to The New York Times, Trump “quietly expressed annoyance” at Bannon’s growing influence and the media’s “President Bannon” narrative. “His frustration was particularly fueled by the Time cover, as he has long valued the magazine’s cover images. (At one point, Trump even displayed a fake Time magazine cover featuring himself in at least five of his properties.),” Benen wrote pointing out that Steve Banon was soon ousted from his role.
The latest Time cover, depicting Musk in a similar position of power, is anything but subtle. It reinforces Musk’s growing presence in the Trump administration and fuels speculation about how much influence he truly wields in Washington.
Jon Hochschartner, CT
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Socialize Trump and Musk’s assets
Eventually, the current fascist moment will pass. Perhaps it will take two years. Perhaps it will take twenty. How long the moment lasts will be determined by the ferocity with which liberty-loving Americans fight the ongoing Republican power grab. But, at some point, this phony right-wing populism will exhaust itself.
When that day comes, Democrats must replace this vile outlook with a genuine, left-wing populism. We need a populism which doesn’t blame the weak and the marginalized for society’s ills. Because it’s not transgender people or immigrants who are causing the public economic pain. It’s the ultra rich.
After returning to power, in a demonstration of this new populist approach, Democrats should socialize the assets of President Donald Trump and his oligarch accomplice, Elon Musk. Maybe one or both of them will have died by then. That’s not a problem. The property can be recovered from the fascists’ heirs.
I’ll be honest. I’m fundamentally an egalitarian. The existence of billionaires in a country where people are struggling and in a world where people are starving is a moral affront to me. That said, there is a non-socialist case for confiscating the wealth of these right-wing gangsters who presently control the government.
I shudder to imagine the damage Trump and Musk will have done to our country and democratic system by the time they are finished. Some kind of punishment will be necessary. Taking away their grotesque fortunes is the very least Democrats could do. And just consider how that cash might benefit so many others.
Trump is reportedly worth almost $6 billion. Meanwhile, Musk, the richest man on Earth, is believed to be hoarding more than $421 billion. The amount of good those riches could do in this nation and around the globe is hard to overestimate. We could build new hospitals, schools, libraries, roads and bridges.
We could expand our social-safety net to better care for children, the disabled and elderly. We could provide free college tuition, forgive medical debts, or send out large stimulus checks. We could expand foreign aid to save countless lives amongst the poorest of the poor. We could invest in scientific development.
Animal welfare is a priority for me, so I’d love to see a portion of such funds go to cultivated-meat research. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from livestock cells, without slaughter. The revolutionary protein offers a number of environmental and public-health benefits as well.
The only limit to the variety of productive purposes — which we, as a society, could put Trump and Musk’s wealth — is our imagination. Socializing the assets of this pair would be the right course of action, regardless of their behavior. However, the duo’s fascist criminality should make it an easy call for Democrats.
In the here and now, we must stop Trump and Musk. But, in the aftermath, Democrats have to impose consequences of some sort. At the very minimum, these should include confiscation of the pair’s outrageous fortunes. We can build a better future. Money taken from fascist billionaires will help with this.
Jon Hochschartner, CT
February 12, 2025—