KEY WEST, Fla. — While searching for an analogy for Donald Trump 1.0 during his 2016 campaign, I landed on a juxtaposition of “Mad Max” and Paddy Chayefsky’s brilliant movie “Network.” I envisioned Mel Gibson’s Mad Max Rockatansky, a police officer turned vigilante in a dystopian societal collapse, alongside Peter Finch’s Howard Beale, summoning frustrated folks to their windows to yell, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
When it all ended in January 2021, Howey Politics Indiana’s Jan. 14 edition had this headline: “Trump presidency collapses: Sedition, acrimony, fallout with Pence and his impeachment mark his 11th hour.”
As for today’s fledgling Co-Presidents Trump and Elon Musk, I turn to two legendary authors. There is futurist Alvin Toffler, who described in his 1970 landmark book “Future Shock” how he came to the title: “I coined the term ‘future shock’ to describe the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short of time.”
And there is gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who cunningly delivered a series of “Fear and Loathing” books and columns that aptly captured the corrupt Nixon era. “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro,” Thompson wrote. “Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why. In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”
Today, we are watching the oligarchs take over America. Hoosier farmers and autoworkers turned out in the 65%-75% range in November to return Trump to the White House. The new cabinet features 13 billionaires.
Musk and his band of 20-something coding engineers at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are marauding through the federal government to ostensibly root out waste and fraud. They got through the U.S. Treasury in what was purported to be read-only access in less than a week before alighting to other sprawling departments.
Musk and company are now seeking individuals’ data from the IRS. (What could go wrong with that?)
Trump/Musk allies are exultant. Democrats are despondent and on their heels. Wall Street is waiting and seeing. Congress is supplicant.
Congressional Republicans are giddy that Musk is in a position to slash $2 trillion out of the $6 trillion U.S. budget. In the Oval Office earlier this month, Musk called the $35 trillion U.S. debt “terrifying,” adding, “If we don’t do something about this deficit, the country is going bankrupt. Interest payments alone on the national debt exceed the Defense Department budget, which is shocking.”
He’s right. Forensic audits of the federal government? Hell, yes! But this appears to be a data scrape and capture.
Trump has identified Canada as an enemy territory to be taken over as America’s 51st state. Is he proposing a “Canschluss” that mimics Nazi Germany’s 1938 annexation of Austria
Let’s unwrap this one: Indiana’s largest trade partner is Canada. Indiana exported $14.9 billion worth of goods to Canada in 2023, representing 27% of the state’s total goods exports, according to data from the U.S. Trade Representative. Canada was followed by Mexico ($7.5 billion), China ($5 billion) and Germany ($3.9 billion).
Trump is aiming steep tariffs at our neighbors, prompting U.S. automakers to shudder. “Let’s be real honest long-term: A 25% tariff across the Mexico and Canadian border will blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen,” Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley declared. He observed at a Wolfe Research conference earlier this month that U.S.-made vehicles rely on parts that cross North American borders multiple times during assembly. Indiana is home to more than 200 auto parts manufacturers.
Co-Presidents Trump and Musk are aiming at other parts of Indiana’s economy. The state’s 24,000 federal employees were offered buyouts.
Musk is slashing away at National Institutes of Health funding after a few days of review by his coders. According to NIH data, Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis will lose $43 million of the $245 million it receives in 2024 funding, Purdue will lose $12 million of its $65 million, Indiana University’s Board of Trustees will be down $9 million of $48 million in grants and Notre Dame will be down $4 million out of $28 million in grants.
These NIH grants came with congressional authority, which is disappearing into the imperially expanding Trump/Musk presidency. Congress had what the U.S. Constitution describes as the “power of the purse.”
Trump and Musk are slashing hordes of Federal Aviation Administration employees, despite deadly air crashes during Trump’s short second tenure as president. Revamp the FAA’s flight safety system? Give ’em a couple of weeks!
They fired hundreds of National Nuclear Security Administration officials on Friday before realizing they kept guard over the nation’s nuclear arsenal. They were struggling to contact them to come back.
U.S. Sen. Jim Banks posted this on social media on Saturday: “President Trump is saving the American Dream and he’s got a Senate majority that stands with him.”
Meanwhile, Trump quoted Napolean Bonaparte (by way of the 1970 Rod Steiger film “Waterloo”): “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” And on Wednesday, the White House released an AI-generated photo of Trump wearing a crown, declaring himself “king” of America.
“King of America?”
Brian A. Howey is senior writer and columnist for Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs. Find Howey on X @hwypol.
