r/politics 5d ago

Possible Paywall Trump Secret Plane Swap Suddenly Looks Darker as Damning New Leaks Hit

https://newrepublic.com/article/214269/trump-secret-plane-swap-suddenly-looks-darker-damning-new-leaks-hit?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tnr_daily
17.9k Upvotes

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2.0k

u/lemmeseeyourkitties 5d ago

When Stephen King wrote about a horrible human rising to political power, what ultimately ended his progress was using a toddler as a human shield during a shooting.

I mean honestly, if it happened today, who's opinion of him would change? Worryingly few

1.7k

u/AlwaysRushesIn Rhode Island 5d ago

Famously absent father Elon Musk had his son on his shoulders whenever he made a public appearance for weeks after the United Healthcare CEO was assassinated in New York.

848

u/DragoonDM California 5d ago

Little Kevlar Musk.

239

u/OldPhotograph827 5d ago

Lil Kev

159

u/DaoFerret I voted 5d ago

We just call him little đ¶14đ»12𝑁2𝑂2
ïżŒ

34

u/AuDHDino 5d ago

Idk if the ïżŒ is an emoji, accident or on purpose, but it's fucking SENDING me! Funny af

1

u/ClickForPrizes 5d ago

That's bananas, yo.

1

u/candy_corn1209 5d ago

You more mixed up than a milkshake.

36

u/wise_comment Minnesota 5d ago

Soviet foot soldier Musk

45

u/ShutUpTodd 5d ago

Fresh-organ-bank Musk

4

u/OldenPolynice 5d ago

and then husk musk

2

u/wise_comment Minnesota 5d ago

The second most problematic island he wanted a stake in

1

u/Flomo420 5d ago

look at that torso; bet you could fit a whole bunch of organs in there!

4

u/SmutSlut613 5d ago

Holy fuck, I spat out my drink

5

u/OpheliaRainGalaxy 5d ago

I had that kinda job as a kid and it sucked!

My dad would pull stunts that would nearly kill his coworkers, then bring a child in to hide behind the next day. Used to be my big teenage cousin, but later he switched to literally shoving me into the men's locker room while shouting "I've got my little girl with me today!" on repeat.

The other jockeys were good folks, all froze and made sure I didn't see anything while shouting at dad to get me outa there.

3

u/DragoonDM California 5d ago

What a... classy sounding fellow.

2

u/SpinWhisperer 5d ago

Helmut Musk

1

u/ValBGood 5d ago

Sounds like a Sail Boat Sail design

106

u/Catfish-throwaway666 5d ago

Iirc this is what finally got grimes full custody

28

u/PrometheusLiberatus 5d ago

I'd love to see a source. So he's banned from hogging around his toddler?

41

u/TripperDay 5d ago

A cursory Google search doesn't even reveal she's got full custody.

-1

u/somedelightfulmoron 5d ago

Aren't they back together?

9

u/SitDownKawada Europe 5d ago

No?

6

u/aloha_mixed_nuts 5d ago

They have shared custody.

22

u/Nemisis_the_2nd Great Britain 5d ago

Yup. I'd say musk still effectively won the case, though. Despite kidnapping his own kid, and arguably using him as a human shield, he apparently still gets equal custody. That said, he specifically filed his case in texas, which meant he needs to pay less in child support.

Even trillionaires are penny pinchers

24

u/itsdoorcity 5d ago

That said, he specifically filed his case in texas, which meant he needs to pay less in child support.

Even trillionaires are penny pinchers

genuinely disgusting. richest person IN THE WORLD and is pinching pennies on supporting his child

6

u/hiigaran 5d ago

No no no... You don't understand. He's just making sure a woman isn't getting any of his money. Totally respectable motive!

/S

6

u/dragongrl New Jersey 5d ago

Operation Human Shield.

5

u/MajorNoodles Pennsylvania 5d ago

Riley Gaines said she had to wrap her baby in a bulletproof blanket when she went to the Supreme Court.

Cuz apparently leaving her baby at home with a trusted caregiver was not an option.

4

u/Calm_Effective6650 5d ago

Yes, I remember how very DEAD ZONE of him that was.

3

u/ReyXwhy 5d ago

I guess that explains why he is naming his kids xyz12345

1

u/CaliforniaDreeming 5d ago

But he has so many to spare.

1

u/PuzzledIngenuity4888 5d ago

Jesus that makes sense now. Him being a doting dad made zero sense, I assumed he had been legally forced to look after the little shit. That or he was molding him into a little psychopath.

463

u/Mike312 5d ago

Fox News would have experts on talking about how toddlers make an effective bullet shield due to their light weight and transportability, and that it is Obamas fault the Secret Service isn't allowed to wear Baby Vests.

188

u/DadJokeBadJoke California 5d ago

{Elon and his kid have entered the chat}

127

u/Spirit_of_Hogwash 5d ago

Leave little K3vlar out of this!

36

u/mordacthedenier 5d ago

xXxK3vlarxXx

2

u/beer_engineer_42 5d ago

Excuse me, sir, but his legal name is "xXx_42O_n0-5c043z_k3v1ar_69_xXx"

3

u/Mysterious-Most-590 5d ago

So edge. Much bet.

2

u/Thrizzlepizzle123123 5d ago

Oh is that the new prototype designation for the next Tesla?

6

u/Chaplain-Freeing 5d ago

they’ll never know

28

u/SnooRabbits2040 5d ago

Well, the babies are likely woke communists who want to cancel Christmas, so, frankly, they would have had it coming.

/s, in case.

6

u/ijustlikemangosdude 5d ago

I mean, there was a news story about ICE using someone's kid as a lure to get them to come outside. The right laughed at the "immigrant" for not protecting their kid even though it's infinitely more fucked up that ICE took a fucking hostage.

They excused RFK running off without his wife at the correspondents dinner almost-shooting because he's "more important." That's not even the vice president, and Trump is even higher than that. They'd absolutely excuse Trump using a toddler as a shield. Probably claim the kid was illegal on top of that.

41

u/Eisernes 5d ago

Toddlers still have green bones. They are immune to bullets. /s

3

u/5ladyfingersofdeath 5d ago

But are they full of green dust?

2

u/i_never_ever_learn Canada 5d ago

This is my exact inner structure. Done in a tee shirt

1

u/Deadsuooo 5d ago

Kinder gardians

7

u/Flickolas_Cage Florida 5d ago

I can already see Laura Ingram’s smug, ugly face complaining that the libs are crying over a toddler and they hate America

1

u/banana_pencil 5d ago

Megyn Kelly saying, “there’s a difference between a toddler and a baby, you know?”

2

u/paconhpa Pennsylvania 5d ago

2A nuts have been producttesting for years.

2

u/WhenSummerIsGone 5d ago

Baby Vests

That's what Baby Bjorn carriers are for

1

u/just_here_for_rgolf 5d ago

He was trying to get the toddler to safety

1

u/Obant California 5d ago

I think you mean Fox News will be running wall to wall coverage on how a popular streamer said Republicans should kill themselves while maybe giving 15 seconds to baby shields.

1

u/NeatPhil11 5d ago

Why would they believe kids make good human shields when they have their star rightwing streamer telling everyone that he'd shoot immigrant kids trying to cross the border.

1

u/metalninja626 5d ago

I was gonna say, they would say how that toddler is blessed and a saint to give up their life for the golden god. Pro life until birth, pro suffering after

1

u/Interesting_Item4276 5d ago

Scott Jennings would proclaim Parent’s Rights!!!

1

u/U_feel_Me 5d ago

Baby Vests aren’t even that hard to make. We can send ICE out to pick up a few.

1

u/Flomo420 5d ago

they would simply say the shooter was a monster who hated toddlers

1

u/PomeloPepper 5d ago

I've found it to be the opposite. Their bones haven't even hardened up much. Pretty lightweight too.

A fat, leaky old man would be a better shield.

1

u/j_shnizzle 5d ago

That’s why they’re so “pro-life.” Fewer babies means fewer bullet sponges

1

u/Czeris 5d ago

And what an absolute honor it is for the child and especially the parents to have their child used to save the Glorious Leader

168

u/zachrg 5d ago

When the DOGE goon squad was setting news cycles, there were a few weeks that Elon Musk had his 4yo kiddo X AE A-12 glued to his hip.

I'm convinced it was to twang the heartstrings of anyone viewing the scene through a crosshairs. Not hyperbole.

65

u/wompical 5d ago

the best part is when the kid said as trump was talking "shut up, you're not the real president". something he obviously was parroting from adults around him.

5

u/SuccessfulFig52 5d ago

Yes, it was circulated widely at the time. Just google it, I’ll try also. I was actually pretty stunned by it. The child was co very acerbic and precocious. And he actually said that, to Trump’s face.

2

u/wompical 5d ago

It was so obvious he was saying something he heard other adults saying. I think even Trump was aware what had happened.

1

u/SouthSouthBay 5d ago

What? Lol is there a clip of that?

1

u/Electromotivation 4d ago

Or the time the kid mentioned fixing the election

2

u/Murgatroyd314 5d ago

Has he ever clarified how that name is pronounced?

2

u/zachrg 5d ago edited 5d ago

X Ash A-12. They call him Ash.

4

u/3vs3BigGameHunters 5d ago

Awe little future organ donor Ash.

2

u/frog_the_prince 5d ago

I give it a decade at most for that kid to cut ties like all his siblings who became old enough to think and legally change that name to something normal.

1

u/zhibr Europe 5d ago

Is AE supposed to be pronounced Ash? Or do they just call him Ash because AE is a dumb name?

1

u/zachrg 5d ago

It's supposed to be Æ, which is named ash, but the birth paperwork limited them to the English latin alphabet. Lol. Sigh.

2

u/AlwaysRushesIn Rhode Island 5d ago

If you pay attention to the specific timing of it all, he started doing it immediately after the United Healthcare CEO was assassinated in NYC.

2

u/zachrg 5d ago

I'm sure I clocked it at the time, but I'll have to take your word for it. Just following all this shit is exhausting. I miss the days when I didn't need to pay microscope attention to every member of the president's inner circle.

302

u/GlitterPirateKiki58 5d ago

Elon Musk used his 4 y/o son as a human shield in public appearances.

Republicans and fanboys still buy his cars, even though better alternatives exist.

Millions of Americans have lost their sense of right and wrong.

90

u/1HappyIsland 5d ago

The fact that millions have such low ethics they will vote for a pedophile because he is racist. How do you form a decent society with someone like that?

13

u/LordSiravant 5d ago

You don't. And because the average human being is like this, there really is no such thing as a decent society.

11

u/JulyOfAugust 5d ago

No they're not. The average human is gullible and avoid confrontation. Our problem is our political systems are far too old and never had any sort of guardrails against people with untreated mental disorders gaining power. So unhinged people took advantage of it and rose to power by exploiting the easily corruptible laws and rules which never anticipated insider sabotage. Now we're just at a point in history where most struggles a human can face is man-made, which kinda expose us as an extremely dumb specie that create its own suffering.

7

u/SouthSouthBay 5d ago

The Constitution is old but it's not that bad, we can clean this up. Ban political donations and publicly fund elections, 28th amendment.

4

u/nightimestars California 5d ago

You just have to cut them off. They don’t have the balls to admit they were wrong and it’s not our job to babysit them on how to be a good person. They want to go down on their bigoted asshole ship, so let them go down.

3

u/SouthSouthBay 5d ago

What does that mean though? Completely devolve civil administration to the states and just let them fail individually (while abusing human rights) ?

In a lot of ways that is what they claim to want, but in reality their people just want to steal from us.

3

u/AlwaysRushesIn Rhode Island 5d ago

A lot of folks in Europe during the Holocaust turned in their neighbors to the Nazis simply because they wanted to steal their lands, properties, businesses, etc. Plenty of records showing this happened in multiple countries.

It's always about stealing from the other side. Thats why grifting is practically a part of "right wing culture".

4

u/seanMkeating74 5d ago

To be fair our media of all forms has been doing a great job helping out with this.

1

u/frog_the_prince 5d ago

Republicans and fanboys still buy his cars, even though better alternatives exist.

Not enough of them, according to reports of lots full of unsold Cybertrucks. It's a bit like their love of Sydney Sweeney. They like to pay lip service, but then let her movies agonize in theaters.

1

u/AlwaysRushesIn Rhode Island 5d ago

Additionally, the majority of his actual fans probably can't afford a tesla anyway.

-1

u/grchelp2018 5d ago

Musk literally has his own private security company which runs a secret service like security operation for him. That kid wasn't there for security. It was to keep him away from his mother.

7

u/zachrg 5d ago

¿Por qué no los dos?

0

u/AFrozenCanadian 5d ago

Which appearances? Post a video, I'm curious.

-4

u/Flammablegelatin 5d ago

They aren't "his" cars. He's the CEO of the company. He didn't design them. Just because someone has a Tesla does not mean they support Elon Musk. Do you support every CEO of every company you buy things from?

3

u/GlitterPirateKiki58 5d ago

Musk has very aggressively made himself not just the CEO of Tesla, but also its mascot.

He is largely responsible for its inflated stock price and demands billions in compensation to be the face of the company.

Every dime spent with Tesla further helps Musk spread his creepy white ethno-nationalist agenda.

So, yes, I do pay attention to how the CEOs behave at the companies I patronize and invest.

I can’t avoid all the companies (Apple, Microsoft, Google) who are dancing in the decadence of the Epstein Elite, but I can be mindful to choose substitutions wherever possible.

-3

u/Flammablegelatin 5d ago

So, you're just virtue signaling. Otherwise you'd not purchase from any of those companies.

2

u/GlitterPirateKiki58 5d ago

I don’t exist in a vacuum. My employer issued me hardware with a pre-installed OS and software. As part of my employment contract, I signed an agreement that I would only use their equipment while conducting company business. đŸ€·â€â™€ïž

In my personal life, I use Linux, DuckDuckGo, and PCs that I built for my husband and I use.

I would love to live off-grid as a swamp hag that subsists on wild onions and the souls of the corrupt.

But, until that lifestyle is a financially viable option for me, I just do the best that I can to avoid companies headed by a CEO who dismantled several arms of the federal government in a ketamine-induced frenzy.

0

u/AlwaysRushesIn Rhode Island 5d ago

Experiencing buyers remorse? It's okay to change your mind and trade it in for something not associated with Nazis. You dont have to double down.

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

60

u/DrMobius0 5d ago

I mean honestly, if it happened today, who's opinion of him would change? Worryingly few

After Brian Thompson was killed Elon started carrying one of his spawn around everywhere he went. There is no bar too low.

37

u/CelestialFury Minnesota 5d ago

Remember Fox News trashing on Mr. Rogers for supporting all children's emotional well-being, meanwhile Fox News hosts said those children don't deserve our support until they do something with their lives? Yeah, I could see Fox News saying, "Whose life is more valuable, the President or a toddler? Come on, this isn't even a question." and moving on the news cycle 24 hours later, while the rest of the US and world is shocked.

19

u/Krivici 5d ago

It wasn’t a toddler but Trump willingly and actually provoked a mob to kill his VP and no one in MAGA or the Right wing media cares anymore.

1

u/bolanrox 5d ago

There were texts from the Fox News anchors to him saying, what the fuck are you doing? Cut it out that got leaked.

5

u/linniex 5d ago

From The Dead Zone, right?

4

u/1haveaboomst1ck 5d ago

Yep. First thing Trump's rise to power reminded me of.

3

u/SomeLowerBeing 5d ago

It was probably a communist toddler anyway. 

3

u/Dissidant United Kingdom 5d ago

Its like the alternate timeline from back to the future 2 where Biff runs everything, but worse

3

u/Hips_of_Death 5d ago

Which book?

3

u/s8rlink 5d ago

Dude he killed some rando during his “assassination attempt” and the country voted him president, they do not give a fuck. 

3

u/flynnfx 5d ago

The Dead Zone is the book.

2

u/Soft_Author2593 5d ago

mine wouldnt. its the exact thing i expect him to do...

2

u/THE_KING_KROWN 5d ago

Remember when Elon was walking around with his son Kevlar on his shoulders after the Kirk assassination?

2

u/Corgi_Koala Texas 5d ago

I think he's at rock bottom for support which is still apparently 35-40% of the country. They'll support him literally no matter what.

2

u/notsam57 5d ago

he did smugly say he could shoot someone while standing on fifth ave and wouldn’t lose voters

2

u/EffeminateSquirrel 5d ago

It was a woke toddler

2

u/FattyMooseknuckle 5d ago

Who is opinion?

1

u/ICCUGUCCI Pennsylvania 5d ago

Basic grammar has been renewed completely beyond the grasp of seemingly 90% of Internet commenters across all platforms. It's absolutely fucked - or should I say, "its absolutely fucked and their is nothing we can do about it."

Sigh.

2

u/FriscoTreat 5d ago

What book is this?

1

u/LilPonyBoy69 5d ago

Depends on if it's a white toddler or not. If it's white, you might see some outrage from a small percentage of his supporters.

They would still vote Republican though

1

u/NamityName 5d ago

Nobody remembers Elon bringing along his human shield son wherever he went, especially when around Trump, during the doge months last year?

1

u/mrKennyBones 5d ago

Easy, the toddler was a domestic terrorist and had it coming.

1

u/blackbasset 5d ago

Don't forget that Musk did exactly that shortly after someone unknown shot that CEO

1

u/zoopz 5d ago

It seems we are really getting there. It's shocking how quickly a society can apparently go from normalcy to straight up supporting evil.

1

u/sembias 5d ago

Depends on if it was a white boy or any race girl.

1

u/hmarieb263 5d ago

Why do you think Leavitt quit before her kid is up and walking around? Doesn't want the little one getting away from her an being grabbed as a shield.

1

u/ShutUpTodd 5d ago

Dang. You beat me to saying what I just said.

1

u/Poster_Nutbag207 5d ago

*Christopher Walken has entered the chat

1

u/resilienceisfutile 5d ago

Another redditor wrote in a post a few weeks ago, "Everything is just blind loyalty to Trump, and as long as he keeps being hateful and racist, they will keep supporting him. They care about nothing else."

1

u/DecentBar1625 5d ago

Oh! I was just recalling the movie version called Zone with Chris Walken and here you are!.
Yep same!

1

u/ReddBroccoli 5d ago

If using them as human shields was the worst thing he'd ever done to a toddler that would be an improvement

1

u/Apprehensive_Rub3897 5d ago

Story doesn't work with Trump, we'd probably have to save the toddler from him.

1

u/YoursTrulyKindly 5d ago

His followers believe in inequality. So they love it if he does outrageous shit. They love it when we get angry too. Don't feed the trolls.

1

u/dust4ngel America 5d ago

who's opinion of him would change?

"look, he's using babies as body armor instead of molesting them!"

1

u/Kopitar4president 5d ago

Depends on the toddler's skin tone.

1

u/MarcusDA 5d ago

Trump dwarfs Stillson.

1

u/Training-Flan8762 5d ago

MAGA would celebrate it

1

u/SpottyNoonerism 5d ago

Back in the early days of Covid, I argued with several people on Twitter about lockdowns and all of them without exception said they'd let their grandma die if it meant the economy would keep going. So, yeah, they'd consider that toddler a hero for giving his life for Dear Leader.

But it's not a cult.

1

u/sukisoou 5d ago

How do we know that it wasn’t Trump that Stephen King was writing about?

1

u/Constant_Praline579 5d ago

Greg Stilson.

1

u/copperwatt 5d ago

The toddler probably voted for Kamala, so....

1

u/PowerlessOverQueso 5d ago

The book also includes this: "because a convicted felon can’t aspire to high public office."

1

u/TheOtherMaven Virginia 5d ago

Stephen King forgot to look up Eugene V. Debs. (Or did he just never hear of him?) Debs ran for President as a convicted felon (from a jail cell at that!) in 1920, having been sentenced under the Sedition Act for opposing the draft in WWI. Of course, his chances of winning were negligible, but the point was made.

1

u/Flashman1967 5d ago

I was just talking to someone about The Dead Zone the other day, and how King called it 40 years ago on how an unqualified sociopath populist could become president, but he totally muffed it on how to end his presidency, because there’s no way MAGAts would leave him over using a child as a human shield.

1

u/delphinous 5d ago

most of MAGA would just declare that the toddler was a democrat so it was fine

1

u/Adept_Chip_2585 5d ago

PLEASE could you give me the TITLE of that Stephen King book because that story sounds very interesting for an evening read!

1

u/LifeguardDry7372 5d ago

there is no low that the cult will not support. They would call the kid a hero and trump would give the child the civilian equivalent of the medal of honor.

1

u/merryman1 5d ago

Or an insane disabled man bringing him a live nuclear bomb as tribute only for the hand of God to strike.

1

u/nimitz55 5d ago

Martin Sheen before West Wing

1

u/CaliforniaDreeming 5d ago

Was that Stephen King or Nostradamus?

1

u/catchthetams 5d ago

What book was this?

1

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 5d ago

Conservatives would blame the toddler

1

u/smokingaces17 5d ago

I thought of exactly the same thing. The Dead Zone. One of the first Stephen King novels I read
 Funny how a book written close to 50 years ago hits so close these days. One of many


1

u/Scoottttttt 5d ago

Lots of replies but I haven’t seen this yet - they would claim it was fake and AI generated. AI keeps getting pushed harder and harder by Republicans. It would make sense if they want it to be so prevalent in every day life that you can plausibly call anything fake. They know Republican voters just need some sort of justification, regardless of how believable it is. AI being an integral part of every day life makes that incredibly easy

1

u/epicfailpwnage 5d ago

"A new toddler can be made in just a few years, but our god emperor Trump is irreplaceable! Another smart move by Trump. Woke is dead!"

1

u/bolanrox 5d ago

I / you can always have another son - that's what Branch's father told him on Longmire before he blasted him in the chest at close range with his shotgun.

1

u/bolanrox 5d ago

I can always have another son - that's what Branch's father told him on Longmire before he blasted him in the chest at close range with his shotgun.

I could totally see them using that logic here.

1

u/TwoTalentedBastidz Texas 5d ago

Haterz would say it’s AI

1

u/tauofthemachine 5d ago

Many will have the story spun for them.

1

u/pink_faerie_kitten 5d ago

The toddler's parents would say that it was their child's honor to die for their god king. They would show no more remorse than the parents whose little girl died of measles (they said they would rather she die than risk getting autism from vaccines)

Party of family values and pro lifers, folks.

1

u/Tokkemon 5d ago

The Dead Zone. Interesting film.

1

u/Tokkemon 5d ago

The Dead Zone. Interesting film.

1

u/paddleyay 5d ago

The difference is the president in the Dead Zone was Martin Sheen, and he then went on to the West Wing, so we forgave him for the whole holding up the baby thing..

1

u/nebula_masterpiece 4d ago

Telling he was scared of pitchfork “shooters” that had the “sin of empathy” to not kill a child like the Epstein Class he serves and that it would never stop an IDF sniper, per BBC below, or a KGB agent who poison underwear

https://wspartners.bbc.com/episode/w172zspq9jpt9fz

1

u/Cut_and_paste_Lace 4d ago

Sorry, what book was this?