Opinion: Trump’s Tariff War Fails, Provides Cover for Elon Musk
While the administration continues to portray the use of tariffs as a victory, that it's backing off after being challenged by foreign leaders is telling
President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on Latin American countries and Canada are being paraded as victories as certain countries seemingly bend the administration’s demands. However, Mexico, Colombia, and Panama pushed back and Trump backed down. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is targeting federal agencies’ data taking control of classified information and the personal information of everyone in the United States.
Make no mistake, despite taking losses as I’ll explain further, all of it is intentional. It’s about messaging more than anything as Musk pillages the federal government for his benefit and puts the country at an adversarial risk. Let’s start with Musk’s dangerous actions.
USAID
Musk’s targeting of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and saying, “It’s beyond repair” during a conversation on X Spaces on Monday while calling it a “criminal organization” in a post on X over the weekend is how he is justifying his actions to shut it down. According to Musk, it didn’t take much to convince Trump to allow him to do it as it seems Trump doesn’t understand much of how the government functions and allows those around him to just ‘fill him in’ on what executive orders say, for example.
“With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with [the president] in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said in an X Spaces conversation on Monday.
Two senior security officials attempted to block Musk’s efforts to access sensitive data and were put on administrative leave as dozens of senior staff have been suspended and hundreds more were furloughed. Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie Miller confirmed on X that classified material — that includes intelligence cables — had been accessed by staff who were granted security clearance.
The staff in question has no reported experience in government and are between the ages of 19 and 24 years old. According to Wired, Musk's cohorts are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. Despite their lack of experience, what they have done has created turmoil and uncertainty for staff and for the beneficiaries of the aid provided by USAID.
Matt Hopson, a Trump appointee and USAID’s new chief resigned, according to two officials who are part of a group of eight Trump appointees who have sequestered themselves at the agency’s headquarters. The USAID website has been shut down and all historical data is no longer publicly available through the site.
Treasury
Musk has also accessed the Treasury Department’s systems containing the personal information of everyone in the U.S. who receives social security payments, tax refunds, and other money from the government. According to The Guardian, Scott Bessent, Trump’s new Treasury secretary granted Musk and his cohorts in the illegitimate Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to the system where more than $6 trillion flows through each year.
In a statement, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is demanding answers. In a letter to Bissent, Wyden said that Musk’s access presents a conflict of interest and presents the potential to cause serious damage to the economy and cause harm to citizens across the country.
“To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically-motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy. I am deeply concerned that following the federal grant and loan freeze earlier this week, these officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs. I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems … The federal government is in a financially precarious position, currently utilizing accounting maneuvers to continue paying its bills since it reached the debt limit at the beginning of the year. I am concerned that mismanagement of these payment systems could threaten the full faith and credit of the United States.”
Wyden later confirmed in a post on BlueSky that Musk had been granted access to secure systems that held information on Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, and payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. While many have declared granting Musk access to these systems and the closure of USAID are illegal, it remains to be seen what actions are going to be taken to stop them.
Tariffs
Meanwhile, Trump is threatening all of the U.S.’s neighbors with tariffs with his and Rubio’s ‘do what we say or there will be consequences’ foreign policy strategy. As noted by the delay in the tariffs against Mexico and the administration backing off on Panama and Colombia while negotiating with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, part of the strategy is blowing up in their faces. However, it has provided enough cover for Musk to access sensitive data.
Mexico
Mexico has assisted the United States with immigration for decades. Most prominently, under the George Bush administration after 9/11. Since then, the U.S. has offered Mexico tens of millions of dollars a year to help with deportations. However, once President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) came into power, that assistance grew in 2018 when Mexico deployed thousands of troops to its southern border with Guatemala. At a cost to the U.S., of course.
Just after President Joe Biden came into office, Mexico deployed thousands of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in addition to the 6,000 troops at its southern border to help stem the flow of migrants after COVID. The Mexican government has since stopped hundreds of thousands of migrants from entering Mexico leading to sharp declines under Biden. When Trump and the U.S. news media say Mexico buckled to Trump because of the tariffs, that’s not entirely true.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to do what Mexico is already doing. However, it’s about messaging for Trump. That message is reaching his base as they think he accomplished something when he didn’t. Meanwhile, Sheibaum, like many other world leaders, is likely sitting in her office laughing because her message to her people is clear: she’s not backing down.
Panama
Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trip to Panama wasn’t any different. His strategy of using threats and ultimatums backfired. His trip was supposed to focus on Chinese control over the Panama Canal, which wasn’t (and isn’t) happening. That was made abundantly clear from the get-go when Trump started promoting what is nothing short of propaganda. That means Rubio had to walk away with something they could pretend was tangible and promote.
Panama agreed to end its cooperation with China’s Belt and Road initiative but it should be noted that Panama was never a big player in the project. Panama also reportedly agreed to help with immigration which, like Mexico, it was already doing. Within hours after his inauguration in July, Panamanian president Jose Raul Milino took measures to close access to the Darien gap which connects South America to Central America.
By January, Panama reported a sharp decline in migrants crossing the treacherous terrain. The number of migrants crossing through the area dropped by 41%. Rubio and Trump can claim they accomplished something. But like President Shienbaum, the right-wing president of Panama is likely sitting in his office laughing at both of them. Meanwhile, Trumpers celebrate.
Propaganda
In the end, it’s all propaganda not unlike the videos and images you’re seeing of migrants being loaded onto military planes, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noen running around with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and riding horses with Border Patrol Agents, or Trump’s nonsensical statements about Canada, the European Union, NATO, and DEI.
What the administration is doing doesn’t benefit anyone and is being used to keep his base fired up by throwing red meat at them. The truth is, like the agreement with Colombia, none of these so-called agreements change anything and are being used to hide the fact that he and his administration are getting slapped around by countries they deem inferior to the United States.
Much of what the administration says and does is being used to provide cover for the constitutional crisis Elon Musk is putting the U.S. in. There’s a reason they’re not talking about the negotiations with Venezuela. That deal was one-sided and benefitted Maduro more than anyone else. The whole world knows that.
The questions many voters are asking are, what are Democrats doing about it, and who is going to stop them?
I’m a freelance journalist. Find my work at Latino Rebels, Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, and more. I’m also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work, become a paid subscriber or donate via Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp.