On Friday, The New York Instances printed a bombshell report detailing co-President Elon Musk’s drug abuse, saying the malevolent billionaire used psychedelic mushrooms, ecstasy, Adderall, and a lot ketamine that it was negatively impacting his bladder.
However President Donald Trump has embraced and celebrated Musk, regardless of the drug abuse, permitting him to take a sledgehammer to the federal authorities’s features whereas on the similar time selling Musk’s private enterprise ventures.
Trump even plans to have a good time Musk on Friday afternoon, as Musk prepares to go away his position as an unelected bureaucrat to concentrate on his ailing enterprise empire.
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“I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House,” Trump wrote in a publish on Reality Social—an occasion that can almost certainly be much more extremely watched now that the Instances’ report dropped and reporters will wish to learn about Musk’s drug use.
Whereas Trump has embraced the drug-using Musk—regardless of his erratic conduct and sloppy work that has endangered lives and livelihoods—he has on the similar time tried to punish low-income drug customers by making an attempt to strip them of their Medicaid and unemployment insurance coverage.
Throughout his first time period in workplace, Trump needed to permit states to disclaim individuals Medicaid protection in the event that they had been unlawful drug customers.
He additionally needed to permit states to drug take a look at individuals who misplaced their jobs with a view to deny them unemployment insurance coverage—a coverage the ACLU opposed as a result of it doubtless violates People’ Fourth Modification rights to unreasonable authorities searches if there isn’t a purpose to suspect somebody is a drug person.
Now in his second time period, Trump is making an attempt to slash funding for drug therapy and overdose prevention.
His administration has canceled $11.4 billion in “COVID-era funding for grants linked to addiction, mental health and other programs,” NPR reported in March, slicing analysis on drug dependancy in addition to authorities staff working to assist present therapy and assets to drug customers.
In reality, Trump’s administration slashed tons of of jobs from the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration—which seeks to forestall substance abuse and supply therapy to assist drug customers recuperate—and folded the group into the brand new Administration for a Wholesome America.
Trump has so decimated SAMHSA that Democratic senators say it is going to affect how many individuals can obtain therapy.
In the meantime, in Trump’s 2026 finances request, he additionally proposed slicing $56 million in funding for a program that teaches first responders learn how to use Narcan—a lifesaving drug that may reverse drug overdose results. And his administration can be eschewing different hurt discount efforts—like offering fentanyl take a look at strips—in favor of 12-step applications to assist drug customers, which specialists say will result in extra overdoses.
Finally, the truth that Trump is ok with Musk’s drug use whereas on the similar time making an attempt to punish low-income drug customers can doubtless be boiled down to at least one factor: Musk has been helpful to Trump, bankrolling his marketing campaign to the tune of tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} that helped Trump win and take his profitable grift to the White Home. In the meantime, low-income drug abusers should not helpful for him.
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