President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk are two peas in a pod. Both think they hit a home run, but in fact they were born on third base. Both came from extremely wealthy families and connived and plotted their way to become billionaires. Both are obsessed with money and will not let anything or anyone get in their way of accumulating more. Both continue to be the consummate con man. Both failed in their endeavors but failed upwards with other people around them paying the price. Both schemed to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Not paying taxes does not “make them smart”; it makes them cheaters.
Because of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, Musk paid no taxes in 2018 and saw his wealth explode. Musk then paid Trump back by his gargantuan funding of Trump’s reelection campaign. Trump is now proposing to reward Musk with a top government job which will make Musk eligible for a special tax benefit worth tens of billions of dollars. Musk will be required to divest his corporate holdings and be able to indefinitely defer all capital gains taxes.
To you and me, this sounds like a corrupt good old boys system. To Musk and Trump, it is business as usual. Trump is right, it is a rigged system. Rigged for people like Trump and Musk.
Joanne Garing
North Huntingdon