Over the past weekend, the richest man in the world waged a coup over the national treasury. 
As of Feb. 3, the response is still unfolding.

The outcome of this assault on our collective prosperity and stability remains to be seen, but no good can come of it. 

Nobody voted for Elon Musk. Yet here he is, applying his infamous “move fast and break things” attitude toward the very lifeblood of the U.S. economy.

Unless there can be some check on Musk’s ignorance, arroganc, and recklessness, we stand to have our national credit degraded, with or without a default from failure to raise the debt ceiling. Potentially millions of people, women and children, who benefit from USAID programs will suffer and die. A recession seems highly likely, or worse. Musk has no loyalty to the United States and no concern for our well-being.

This is an extraordinarily frightening move, and the president’s social media response has been to assure us that Americans will suffer as a result of it. 

I am, undoubtedly, at odds with many of my neighbors who voted for a second Trump presidency when it comes to policy. But I am sure that those neighbors did not vote to have their Social Security numbers and personal financial information handed over to a South African billionaire.

They should be equally outraged to learn of these developments. Nobody voted for Elon Musk, and nobody voted to have the economy intentionally driven over a cliff. 


Benjamin Miner

Greenfield