F**king Mondays: Move Fast and Break Democracy

Also: the FBI coup, Trump tanks the economy, and Elon Musk owns your data.

Welcome to another edition of “F**king Mondays”! In the roundup today:

The FBI coup

The worry over 2020 election conspiracy theorist Kash Patel’s nomination to head the F.B.I. has always been that he would take retribution on Trump’s “enemies” within the organization. Patel assured the Senate last week that “all FBI employees will be protected from political retribution.”

But while Patel was saying one thing, the Trump administration was doing another. From the Bulwark:

Emil Bove, Trump’s former defense lawyer, who is now acting deputy attorney general and in charge of the Justice Department, ordered the removal of at least six top FBI career executives. Bove also requested the names of all FBI agents who worked on January 6th cases.

All seemed on track for Trump’s efforts to purge the agency and remake it in his own image.

But FBI officials may not permit their agency to go gentle into the dictatorial night.

Over the weekend, in a blizzard of activity (helpful reporting can be found here, and here, and here), FBI officials moved to resist the attempted coup.

Though he had carried out the order to decapitate the bureau’s top executives the day before, on Friday acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll reportedly refused to agree to fire certain agents involved with January 6th cases, and was trying to block a mass purge of such agents. In a message to staff Saturday, Driscoll reminded FBI agents of their rights to “due process and review in accordance with existing policy and law,” and emphasized “That process and our intent to follow it have not changed.”

The FBI Agents Association sent a memo to employees over the weekend to remind them of their civil service protections. The memo urged them not to resign or to offer to resign, and recommended that agents respond to one question in the survey they’ve been instructed to answer: “I have been told I am ‘required to respond’ to this survey, without being afforded appropriate time to research my answers, speak with others, speak with counsel or other representation.”

It is hard to underscore just how dangerous a moment this is, not just because the institution is being politicized, but the prospect of a fight between Trump and the agency. Trump is not going to tolerate dissent so he will double down on his efforts to force the agency into submission — especially if Patel gets confirmed. If the agency pushes back hard we’ll be in unchartered territory where a sitting president is at war with one of the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country.

Purging good agents from the FBI because they worked on the Jan. 6th investigations is also remarkable stupid. As Chris Christie said during an interview with ABC News this weekend:

“Understand how long it takes to get a new FBI agent on board,” he said. “If you fire hundreds — if not thousands, and it would be thousands on this list of FBI agents — it takes 12 to 18 months to get them on board. By the time you go through the interviewing process, the vetting process, then they go to Quantico for their training, and then become onboarded as a brand new FBI agent.”

“In the threat assessment we have right now across the world, to lose that many agents, and then take a year to a year-and-a-half to try to replace them, is incredibly dangerous for our national security. And for what? Because they did their jobs.”

It is important to understand that Trump has no real strategy for the agency other than bending it to his will. He does not care about about the ability of the agency to function, he does not care about threats to America’s national security, and he does not care whether it is fulfilling its duty to enforce federal laws. Trump primary concern is ensuring the apparatus of government is loyal to him, and him only.

Trump tanks the economy

As try as I might I have yet to find anyone outside of hard right bros on Twitter who think slapping enormous tariffs on our trading partners is a major win for the economy. As Trump’s tariffs went into effect, fears of inflation set in and the stock market reeled. Reported the NY Times:

Major U.S. stock indexes fell at the start of trading this morning, with the S&P 500 down roughly 1.5 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq about 1.8 percent lower. President Trump’s tariffs are sending shock waves through markets around the world.

Mexico has done a last minute deal with the Trump administration to pause the 25% tariffs in exchange for sending 10,000 troops to the US-Mexico border but they are set to go into effect next month. Canada has retaliated with their own 25% tariff on a number of US exports much to Trump’s displeasure, and Trump is now threatening Europe with tariffs too. The right of course thinks this is wonderful:

Shapiro’s use of the word “leverage” is interesting. More appropriate would be the word “bullying” given Trump’s “leverage” is based on America’s economy being roughly 15 times the size of Mexico’s.

Funnily enough most people don’t respond well to bullying, and the gains Trump is making over America’s trusted allies are sure to be short-lived. His ranting and raving about other nations “taking advantage” of America plays well with his base, but it doesn’t play well with the countries he is extorting. If the US is going to act like a gangster state, then new political alliances and economic agreements will start to emerge that do not include America.

There’s a very good reason why Trump has a long history of bankrupting businesses he was involved in — and it wasn’t because Deep State agents were out to get him. Trump has almost no ability to think long term or strategize coherently. He operates on a “what can I get out of you today” basis and then wonders why his businesses fail and almost everyone he works with turns against him. His only real super power is marketing, and while that has been enough to keep him political relevant for almost decade, it won’t help him run the country or keep the economy afloat.

Elon Musk now owns your government data

Elon Musk’s influence over the US government is now a genuine national security threat. From Politico:

The Trump administration has approved plans to grant Treasury officials affiliated with Elon Musk’s team access to the federal system that handles trillions of dollars in payments, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has signed off on a plan to give access to the payment system to a team led by Tom Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group, who is now working for the Treasury Department and serves as a liaison to Musk’s DOGE group that operates out of the United States Digital Service. One person familiar with the effort said Krause’s role will be subject to safeguards that would not allow any ability to make changes to the system and that no one outside Treasury would have access.

According to new reports Musk also has access to highly sensitive data systems “containing personal information on millions of federal employees”:

A bombshell report from Reuters has revealed that Elon Musk has locked U.S. government officials out of key data systems containing personal information on millions of federal employees.

According to the report, which cites two anonymous federal agents, senior officials at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) suddenly lost access to crucial department databases. The move reportedly stems from Musk’s leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a role assigned to him by former President Donald Trump to "curb government spending."

Granting Musk control over sensitive government databases and federal payment systems without congressional oversight is an unprecedented breach of security. Having access to a system that processes trillions of dollars in transactions could expose it to potential manipulation or insider influence, increases the risk of cyber threats, hacking, or leaks, and seriously undermines trust in U.S. financial systems. In normal times such actions would face immense legal and bureaucratic challenges, but we are not in normal times.

The Trump administration is breaking so many laws, norms and conventions, that it is almost impossible to keep up with them all — and that is precisely the point. The radicals in charge know that they key to carving up the government and handing off control to the new tech oligarchs is speed. The faster they move the less opposition they will face.

We are watching the US government being ransacked in real time and with no organized opposition, no one can stop it.

DNC against the billionaires?

While all of this sounds terrible, the newly elected DNC chair Ken Martin did say this over the weekend during his acceptance speech:

“We have one fight. The fight's not in here. The fight's out there, right? The fight's not in here. The fight is for our values. The fight is for working people. The fight right now is against Donald Trump and the billionaires who bought this country.”

The Democratic Party will need to move beyond speeches to build a concrete strategy for protecting democratic institutions, but Martin is certainly making the right noises. Democrats appear to understand the task at hand so there is at least some cause for hope.

Have a great week!

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