I suppose if the Gold Key was some rare and elusive object like Edgar Allan Poe's The Gold Bug, then Leon might have valued it, but judging from the quality of the key and its wood box, this is the kind of service award you would give someone who has been in your real estate company for 5 years. Leon took it with as much magnanimity as he could muster, which wasn't much, and the very next day let loose on X all the petty and not so petty grievances he held against Trump.
What is odd is that Trump is not really the cause of his woes. If anyone was still defending Leon in the White House it was Donald. Leon's gripes were more with those around Trump that were steering the president away from him, as his brand had severely tarnished ever since he became "The Dogefather," which he proudly boasted on his black t-shirt underneath his black jacket. Scott Bessent was pissed Leon didn't take a bigger chainsaw to department cuts. Petey Navarro had been nursing a huge grudge ever since Leon singled him out for not knowing a tariff from a hole in the ground. Leon also admonished Rubio during a cabinet meeting for not going far enough with state department cuts. As we know, there is no room for "empathy" in the DOGE or MAGA world. It's kill or be killed, like the new KILLBILL crypto that Leon is now peddling.
Leon's short stay as Dogefather was marked by massive upheaval and confusion rather than any major cuts in spending. This is probably what Sec. of Treasury Bessent was alluding to. DOGE was never about efficiency but rather "owning the Libs" by cutting their favorite programs. This included gutting PBS and NPR. Trump even signed an executive order to eliminate Radio Free Europe, with its paltry $75 million annual budget, which still has nearly 50 million unique users throughout the continent.
More broadly, Leon took his chainsaw to key departments, including USAID, leaving them in such disarray that it will take months if not the rest of Trump's term to restore any kind of order. He stuffed DOGE with incels, average age 22, whose prime mission was to harass government officials into quitting, knowing that it would be more difficult to fire these employees. A strategy all too reminiscent of his takeover of Tesla and Twitter.
However, the game plan wasn't to clean house, but according to Project 2025 to transplant these federal agencies with government employees loyal to Trump, stacking the deck so to speak, as Republicans believe Democrats had previously done, which is why Trump was unable to accomplish anything of note the first time around. By doing so, the "architects" of this pernicious plan felt they could affect government policy long after Trump is gone, much like Louis DeJoy remained a holdover of the previous Trump administration as head of the US Postal Service throughout Biden's term, only recently stepping down so that Trump can appoint another Magite in his place.
The temperature has since died down after the firestorm Leon created in his initial weeks on the job, but many of these agencies find themselves significantly undermanned and underfunded so that they can't carry out their basic duties. This includes FEMA, the agency Republicans hate until a category 5 hurricane cuts a broad path through their red states.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, Leon had to make a tough choice - save America or save Tesla, whose stock has been in freefall since the start of the year. It seems he has chosen Tesla but not without voicing his bitter resentment at how unfairly he believed himself to be treated after so freely "giving" his time to the federal government. He got nowhere casting aspersions at cabinet members, so Leon went after the Big Guy and his Big Beautiful Bill, which he believed would add trillions to the national debt over the succeeding years of his tenure, just as Republican tax cuts had the first time around. Nothing new here other than Leon believed some of the proposed cuts were expressly aimed at him.
The problem Leon faces isn't so much the loss of EV federal tax credits as it is fewer people want to buy his cars in the wake of all the negative publicity surrounding his prominent role in the Trump White House. He took hits from both sides, losing car sales on the one hand and earning the ire of the MAGA faithful on the other hand. Gifting Donald a red Tesla didn't boost sales or endear him to Magites. He made enemies out of popular MAGA spokespersons Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer, who loved nothing more than seeing Tesla fail. A sentiment felt across the MAGA spectrum, which has never embraced Leon.
Donald literally chose MAGA over Tesla. He now plans to sell "his" Tesla, echoing Shaq who recently traded his two custom-built Cybertrucks for Cadillac EV Escalades, which was a big blow to the EV truck's prestige. As a result, there are an estimated billion dollars' worth of Cybertrucks literally rusting in abandoned shopping malls thanks to the cheap Chinese steel underneath the shiny stainless steel panels. Since Leon hasn't shut up, Donald threatened to cut $22 billion worth of government contracts that directly benefit Leon's flagship companies.
It wasn't that long ago that Leon was being hailed as the "Leonardo Da Vinci of our time." I kid you not. Now, he will be lucky if he escapes with a shirt on his back. Casting aspersions and threats at Trump hasn't worked in the past. As Donald so profoundly put it, Leon is suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome." FTR, 90% of Trump's first administration spoke out against him, yet he was re-elected in 2024. The Big Guy has a hold on the American psyche that seems impervious to any criticism, even as his approval ratings continue to sink.
One of Leon's tweets did catch my eye, "Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate." It will be interesting to see if the mainstream media picks up on this incredible admission of election fraud as quickly as they have stories like Joe getting lost in the closet long before he opted out of the presidential race in July. Election tampering is the "Original Sin," to borrow the title from Jake Tapper's scandalous book, although it seems more like a sin of omission.
Whatever the case, that gold key seemed to really rankle Leon, sending him over the top. He may crawl back to Donald saying that Asperger's syndrome got the best of him. He conveniently uses this syndrome anytime he becomes unhinged, claiming he has no filters. But, Donald has shown no interest in taking him back, especially with the MAGA world calling for Leon's deportation and the president to seize all his assets. Leon may have to take Russia up on its offer of political asylum. He can't very well go back to South Africa after all the nasty things he said about Cyril Ramaphosa leading to a contentious visit at the White House in May with Leon smiling in the background. This guy has burnt almost all his bridges with only a cheap glittering key to show for his invaluable service to the celebrity real estate mogul.
Comments
Post a Comment