Progressive Democrats accuse Trump and Musk of 'a plutocratic coup'
Source: The Guardian
Mon 3 Feb 2025 17.30 EST
Last modified on Mon 3 Feb 2025 17.37 EST
Progressive lawmakers condemned Donald Trump and Elon Musk on Monday, pointing to the attempted shuttering of the foreign aid agency USAid and the accessing of the treasury department’s federal payment system as the markings of a “constitutional crisis”.
After Musk declared that he was working to shut down USAid, Democratic members of Congress tried to enter the agency’s Washington headquarters but said they were turned away on the orders of Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge). USAid staffers were also locked out of the building on Monday, as the White House confirmed plans to merge the agency with the state department.
Addressing reporters outside the USAid headquarters, Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat of Minnesota, accused Trump and Musk of attempting to “take away the constitutional power of Congress”, which has the authority to allocate federal funds.
“We are witnessing a constitutional crisis,” Omar said. “We talked about Trump wanting to be a dictator on day one, and here we are. This is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like. When you gut the constitution and you install yourself as the sole power, that is how dictators are made.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/03/trump-musk-plutocratic-coup
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