64 days to Transition: Infighting Starts in Parallel with Celebrations

Democrats lawyer up to face the MAGA administration.

‘Law’ and ‘Litigation,’ the CEO of Democracy Forward, told the NYTimes about the Democratic plan to hold the MAGA administration in check. The group, formed in response to Donald Trump’s win in 2016, is a vast network of more than 800 lawyers and has raised significant funds over the years to protect Democratic priorities.

However, unlike the fight witnessed during Trump 1.0, when Democrats rallied people to publicly protest the administration’s policies, this time they seem to be taking a different approach. They plan to use blue states as a counterbalance to resist a Trump administration intent on veering off course.

At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday evening, Elon Musk told attendees that the incoming administration would not represent "business as usual." He declared, “This is going to be a revolution.”

The administration’s emphasis on attention-grabbing tactics appears designed to divert focus from the consequences of their actions. Trump announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would head the newly established Department of Efficiency, tasked with cutting government spending and implementing dramatic changes.

What exactly they plan to cut and how they intend to do it remains unclear. Take the Department of Education, for instance. It operates with an annual budget of nearly $80 billion, funding crucial programs that many Republican-led states with low educational attainment rates depend on to advance future generations.

There are 400,000 children in foster care in the United States. The Department of Education enforces provisions from the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, which emphasizes maintaining school stability for students in foster care. Beyond this, the Department of Education plays a critical role in administering federal funding, establishing and enforcing federal education laws, and promoting equal access and equity.

It serves as a vital tool in bridging the gap between children born into privilege and those who are not.

These are precisely the kinds of departments the MAGA administration is targeting for elimination. Given that MAGA’s core base consists largely of Americans without a college degree, it appears they aim to foster another generation of undereducated Americans who will remain susceptible to their propaganda and conspiracy theories. For the MAGA administration, the more uneducated Americans, the better.

While Matt Gaetz as Attorney General is alarming, it is just one piece of the broader problem posed by Trump 2.0. A host of challenges will be thrown into the mix, leaving Democrats and us to decide what can be blocked, what can be slowed, and what might need to be sacrificed for the sake of future rebuilding.

We should not and we cannot resist every single action. We have to pick our battles.

During a rally at Madison Square Garden in late October, Elon Musk promised that Republicans would get the government off the backs of Americans and out of their pocketbooks. However, it’s clear he was likely speaking about himself. Gutting government agencies that protect and facilitate crucial aspects of society and public services is one way to redirect funds, offering massive tax cuts to billionaires like Musk while leaving the rest of society to bear the consequences.

But there will be one immediate side effect. Any action they take won’t just contract the government; it will also contract the economy. If they start firing tens of thousands of federal workers, unemployment will rise, and the flow of money into the economy will slow. There’s no escaping that. If they compound this by deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, the resulting chilling effect alone could be enough to tank the Biden economy.

The best solution for the border crisis would be to secure the border and prevent anyone from entering illegally. That should be the first priority: bring illegal entry to zero. Only then should we focus on who is already inside and what to do about it. But the GOP isn’t interested in solutions. They want theater—a show that works to their advantage.

They will put cruelty front and center, pushing Democrats to respond and then telling their gullible voters, "See, Democrats are filling the country with immigrants to secure votes." In the process, they will normalize cruelty while turning Democrats into the enemy of the state.

The MAGA administration’s decision to contract the government while deporting hundreds of thousands of people in the country would create a twin blow: a short-term consequence of triggering an economic slowdown, and a long-term impact of reducing the standard of living for Americans. Those earning more than half a million dollars a year won’t be affected—and neither will the MAGA administration care.

However, not everything is rosy in the Trump-Musk alliance. Questions are beginning to emerge about whether Musk is essentially acting as the co-president of the United States.

This development was reported by Detroit News. Trouble seems to be brewing in paradise.

The president’s allies were grateful to have had Musk’s financial and political backing during the campaign, but his growing influence has irritated some of Trump’s backers. Several people in Trump’s circle expressed astonishment Saturday that Musk would publicly push for his choice for a crucial economic role while the president-elect was still weighing his decision.

“People are not happy,” said one person in contact with campaign officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations. This person said the statements suggested Musk was acting as a “co-president” and potentially overstepping his new role in Trump’s orbit.

Both men are transactional by nature. Trump is involved because he’s getting something out of it, and Musk will join in because he needs something. However, the real challenge lies in managing their egos. Handling one oversized ego proved difficult enough during Trump 1.0, with a constant revolving door of staff entering and leaving his administration. Back then, they only had to contend with Trump. Now, they must manage Trump, Musk, and several others. It remains to be seen how far they can sustain this transactional relationship.

I am increasingly worried about the Senate confirmation hearings for Donald Trump’s picks. We are going to waste a ton of energy.

For a moment, I was stunned after reading the following headline on Daily Mail, but then I realized—it’s just par for the course with Donald Trump.

Oh, well!

Welcome to circus 2.0.

This is a group that couldn't handle the pandemic, and now they are piling on too many things promising revolution.

They are overreaching. Let them. They do not have the margin in the House of Representatives to end the elections. That will do for now. 2026 will be the time to pulls things back.