To the Editor:

For the bargain basement price of just under $300 million dollars, Elon Musk bought himself a president and he now appears to be running the US government. Republicans who control both houses of Congress have abdicated the power of the Second branch of government for fear of being primaried by our first official oligarch. Some of Musk’s efforts are currently being halted by the courts but if Musk and Trump refuse to abide by any of these decisions — exactly who is going to stop them?

The richest man in the world wants to take away food and lifesaving medical assistance from millions of people across the world including war-torn Gaza and Ukraine. No government agency is perfect, but Musk has attacked the US Agency for International Development viciously by spreading outright lies on his platform X.

Closing USAID programs will affect NGO’s that work in conjunction with this agency including Catholic Relief Services and Fairfield based Save the Children. American farmers who supply 41% of the food that is distributed by USAID will also lose out.

What should trouble everyone, regardless of their political affiliation, is Musk diving into our government databases that contain private information on just about every citizen in this country. Musk has a crew of dodgy dogeies running around Washington sticking their un-elected, un-secured noses into various government systems including the US Treasury payment system which also has our personal banking information. Did anyone really vote for this??

These dubious characters have been given access to systems that allow them to make changes while bypassing normal security protocols. Vast troves of government records and databases are being fed into artificial intelligence tools for future use to decide which programs can be eliminated and who can be replaced by AI or robots based on Trump’s priorities.

If all goes according to plan, we will be looking at an imperial Presidency with a subservient Congress and Judiciary; a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich where dissent from the press or anyone else will get you on the enemies list.

In the meantime, the government should send us all a “Notice of Data Breach” letter along with free access to credit reports for the next four years.

Kathy Quinn

Newtown