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In our last issue, Reflections focused on The Great Heist that is currently going on in Washington, D.C. by Donald Trump, we advised people “to follow the money.” Donald Trump doesn’t do anything for free. There has to be something in it for him. That’s why he called Senator John McCain a loser for risking his life in Vietnam and getting captured after his plane was shot down. You have to pay Trump to do anything.

The same can be said for Elon Musk. It looks like he is getting his sooner rather than later. This appeared on NPR’s website:

“It appeared as if the State Department was taking steps to award Elon Musk's Tesla a $400 million government contract to buy armored electric vehicles to securely transport diplomats. The move to set in motion a lucrative contract to a company controlled by a high-profile ally of President Trump seemed so bold it surprised even longtime observers of the norm-busting president. But NPR has obtained a State Department document detailing that Biden's State Department planned to spend just $483,000 in the 2025 fiscal year on buying electric vehicles and $3 million for supporting equipment, like charging stations. It represented less than 1% of the hundreds of millions of dollars likely destined for Tesla vehicles after the Trump administration quietly revised a State Department procurement document.”

Musk is also making billions of dollars through Space X, his space vehicle program. NASA wants to deorbit the Multinational Space Station by 2030. Musk wants it done next year. Accroding to the Daily Mail:

“In June 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX a $843 million contract to build the deorbit vehicle, or USDV, that will be used to safely guide the ISS back into the Pacific Ocean in 2030. But that contract only covers the cost of the USDV, not the entire deorbit mission. Last summer, then-NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was seeking $1.5 billion from Congress to cover it all. That said, Musk's recent statements should not be taken lightly.

Not only is he Chief Executive of SpaceX, the world's leading commercial spaceflight company that will play critical role in the ISS's end-of-life plan, he is also the face of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).  For years, Musk has said that Mars should be the next frontier, dismissing other potential missions such as NASA's return to the moon as 'distractions.'

Apparently Elon Musk is not only contracting with the federal government, he is also engaged in setting its priorities, priorities that are intertwined with his fiscal relationship with the federal government. Apparently Musk not only bought Trump through his campaign contributions, but he also bought NASA in the process. The Great Heist is on.

And then there is the Environmental Protection Agency. Since the 1970s, the EPA has headed up a science-based effort to create a clean environment. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings are starting to gut or undercut the EPA’s ability to set standards and enforce them. And now with Lee Zeldin at the helm of the EPA, it will be private, wealthy people who will be setting our environmental standards, not the EPA. This according to the EPA itself:

“U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency will undertake 31 historic actions in the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history, to advance President Trump’s Day One executive orders and Power the Great American Comeback. Combined, these announcements represent the most momentous day in the history of the EPA. While accomplishing EPA’s core mission of protecting the environment, the agency is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, lower cost of living for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions.”

In other words, it will be the One Percent who will be deciding what clean water is. Instead of setting scientific-based standards, it will now be “My bottom line comes first, you clean air second.’ And every day people will have no recourse.

The Great Heist is on.

Now we have  Howard Lutnick, a multi-millionaire — almost a billionaire — appointed as the Secretary of Commerce. He has nothing in common with working people and if every day Americans feel economic pain in order to make an economic corrections, so be it. This appeared on CBNS News:

“U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended President Trump's tariff policies on Tuesday, insisting they are necessary even if they lead to a recession.

"These policies are the most important thing America has ever had," Lutnick told CBS News when asked whether they would still be worth it if they triggered an economic downturn. "It is worth it."

Lutnick quickly dismissed concerns about a recession, attributing any potential downturn to the previous administration. "The only reason there could possibly be a recession is because of the Biden nonsense that we had to live with," he said.”

I have to ask, “Who is it worth it for?” The billionaires? Yes. Perhaps it would shift more wealth to the one percent.The every day working person, no. But they would feel the economic pain.

The Great Heist is on.