In yet another example of MAGA eating its own, Elon Musk says he wants to shut down the Voice of America, which Kari Lake was to head.
Elon Musk suggests shutting down Voice of America, potentially jeopardizing Kari Lake’s promised position.
It is yet another example of MAGA eating its own.
But it also could be a dose of karma for Kari Lake.
Elon Musk’s carnivorous feeding on the federal government is Ph.D. material for scientists who study the behavior of animals in the wild.
Particularly those who document how animals will do whatever it takes to survive. Even, on occasion, eating their own.
The number of species involved in such behavior has increased since Donald Trump became president, with cannibalism now having been observed among such divergent creatures as lions, hippopotamuses, hamsters, sharks, red squirrels, chimpanzees and … MAGA Republicans.
And the latest Trump loyalist to be gobbled up by Musk just might be former news reader and failed Arizona governor and U.S. senator candidate Kari Lake.
For her undying worship at the altar of her Dear Leader, Lake was promised the job as director of the Voice of America.
It seemed to be a position that she was very much looking forward to, and one that Musk would like to chew up and spit out.
Kari Lake may not lead Voice of America, after all
Poor Kari.
Not too long ago, the rumor mill had mentioned Lake as a potential primary election challenger to Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.
That looked to all the world like a cheap MAGA tactic to frighten a skeptical-sounding Ernst into getting on board with Trump’s pick for secretary of Defense. And it was. And it worked.
Opinion:Elon Musk can peek in your wallet. You OK with that?
When Ernst decided to genuflect before Trump, rumors of a Lake challenge evaporated, with Lake’s spokesperson telling The Arizona Republic, “Kari Lake is not running for office in Arizona or anywhere else. She’s going to D.C. to lead the Voice of America and help spread the amazing story of America around the world.”
Hmm … maybe not.
Elon Musk thinks it’s a waste of taxpayer cash
Over the weekend, Richard Grenell, a former diplomat who had worked for Trump, posted a rant on X, formerly Twitter, that read: “Radio Free Europe and Voice of America are media outlets paid for by the American taxpayers. It is state-owned media. These outlets are filled with far left activists. I’ve worked with these reporters for decades. It’s a relic of the past. We don’t need government paid media outlets.”
On Sunday, co-President Elon Musk retweeted Grenell’s post with a dark message for Lake that read: “Yes, shut them down. 1. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Hello?? 2. Nobody listens to them anymore. 3. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”
Trump’s most loyal MAGAs are learning the hard way that Musk, with Trump’s approval, is carving up the federal government’s workforce with a chainsaw, not a scalpel, and that the bloodletting will also be felt in red states and among some of Trump’s most loyal sycophants.
For example, Lake.
If Voice of America is shut down, it’s possible, of course, that Trump would offer Lake another government job for which she is not qualified. But for now, it feels as if there is a mystical force at work, for which a person’s actions have consequences.
Call it MAGA karma.