There is a very small faction of billionaires siphoning wealth away from the world, truly hoarding it such that it is unused and unproductive. The role of the political class is to facilitate this and distract the general population away from it by setting naturally allied groups against each other. Divide and conquer is as old as humankind and we still fall for it every time.
I think the problem here is not so much Musk but the systems of governance that exist in these countries, and I include USA in that, are too open to non-democratic influence. There will always be people seeking to bend politics globally and domestically to their own advantage, but if they are able to succeed the fault lies in the system not their intent to do it. I think the problem is very similar to that found in the financial systems of the world, the weaknesses that provide backdoor and covert direction have been intentionally built into these systems to allow unfair command. These controls are now being used very overtly by people they were not intended for. Leaders complain about the agents exerting these influences because they can not admit to the methods.
Work to have a destabilising leader elected in an opposing country. Succeed and destabilise that country. Realise a destabilised opposing country is worse for your country.
I think he thinks about China as much as he thinks about last night’s supper, he knows ultimately China will back down, not because it is weak but because it is sane. Putin created Trump to perform a few basic tasks and having gained power in such an unopposed manner he is now up to whatever takes his fancy in the moment and that will be as problematic for Russia as it will for everyone else.
I don’t think any concerns meet that criteria.
Welcome to the club.
It is hard for me to believe a president would fly in the face of international law, or just the law, or basic human decency, or sanity - but here is where we find ourselves.
This is a difficult thing because in theory burning books is not illegal, a person is allowed to buy a book and burn it. So making it illegal to burn this specific book sends signals of Islamification of the law but context is important here. This book means very much to Muslims, not just in the obvious religious way but personally, individuals will remember their grandfather teaching it to them when they were a child. This makes burning it very emotional, it is like someone burning a photograph of your mother outside your house just after she died. It is true that burning pictures is not illegal but the context here is emotive to the point of incitement. It is not Islamification to view this book as a special case, it is about honouring beliefs you do not share and respecting other people.
A noble act and good luck to it but I doubt these few water weak men trying to take over the world will even notice.
This is a workable method to deal with these four years, a clever leader deciding strategy suggested by very clever advisors can beat a strategy suggested by very clever advisors decided upon by an unclever leader.
It is why they are hastily trying to turn the calendar back to 1933 but they might overshoot and get 1789.
Even the rest of the world’s far right are telling Trump’s entourage not to go full Nazi.