this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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Facebook mogul’s sudden appearance is increasingly typical of freewheeling West Wing during Donald Trump’s second term, which president has reportedly nicknamed ‘Grand Central Terminal’

Air Force leaders learned that lesson earlier this year when they arrived for a top-secret briefing with Trump in the Oval Office, which according to NBC News was scheduled for them to discuss plans for America’s sixth-generation fighter aircraft, dubbed the F-47 in a nod to Trump’s status as the 47th President of the United States.

As the generals were going over the details of the super-stealthy plane, which Trump has called the most advanced, capable and lethal combat aircraft platform ever built, they were startled by the appearance of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg popping into the Oval Office.

According to NBC, White House officials became concerned that Zuckerberg, one of the wealthiest men in the world, lacked the security clearance required to be present for talks about such a sensitive national security matter.

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[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 155 points 17 hours ago (11 children)

Looks like trump found his new benefactor. Which is honestly baffling because we literally all just saw what happened with Musk. If these tech CEOs are supposed to be geniuses why do they keep falling for the same shit? Like, just google what happens to most oligarchs when they support any kind of authoritarianism. Whether it's Mussolini, Hitler, or Putin, they always get shafted in the end. Does money and greed just cause brain damage or something? Is it the massive amounts of power and drugs?

[–] Xaphanos@lemmy.world 100 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

"I'm different". They really believe that they are better/smarter than everyone else.

[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 55 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It's narcissism. The driving force behind conservatism as a whole, is narcissism. They all think they're the special individual that will get special treatement. Hence the whole "leopards eating faces" thing.

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 21 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It would be more correct to say the driving force is Type B personality disorders, of which narcissism is one. But sociopathy plays a big role too.

[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, it's not strictly narcissism, but in general it is lower level of empathy in varying degrees.

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[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online 44 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Does money and greed just cause brain damage or something?

Kind of, yeah.

[–] eatCasserole@lemmy.world 16 points 16 hours ago

Interesting article. I was actually just trying to recall this study, and then it was mentioned:

A UC Berkeley study found that in San Francisco—where the law requires that cars stop at crosswalks for pedestrians to pass—drivers of luxury cars were four times less likely than those in less expensive vehicles to stop and allow pedestrians the right of way. They were also more likely to cut off other drivers.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 10 points 15 hours ago

Looks like they've known this for awhile. I missed this, thanks for posting.

  • people of lower economic status were better at reading others’ facial expressions—an important marker of empathy—than wealthier people.
  • drivers of luxury cars were four times less likely than those in less expensive vehicles to stop and allow pedestrians the right of way. They were also more likely to cut off other drivers.
  • A number of studies have found that affluent children are more vulnerable to substance-abuse issues, potentially because of high pressure to achieve and isolation from parents.
  • While a process addiction is not a chemical addiction, it does involve compulsive behavior—in this case, an addiction to the good feeling that comes from receiving money or possessions—which can ultimately lead to negative consequences and harm the individual’s well-being.
  • In upwardly mobile communities, children are often pressed to excel at multiple academic and extracurricular pursuits to maximize their long-term academic prospects—a phenomenon that may well engender high stress
  • There is no direct correlation between income and happiness. After a certain level of income that can take care of basic needs and relieve strain (some say $50,000 a year, some say $75,000), wealth makes hardly any difference to overall well-being and happiness and, if anything, only harms well-being:
[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 11 points 14 hours ago

Because Musk made a lot of money being Trump's henchmen.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 10 points 17 hours ago

It's his turn to be betrayed by Trump. Hopefully, it happens before the mid-term primaries, so Zuckerbot can join Musk in funding the opposition.

[–] Alaik@lemmy.zip 10 points 13 hours ago

Because they're not geniuses, they all come from money, thats all.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 8 points 16 hours ago

Every single one of these assholes were simply in the right place at the right time. Many with a leg up from money and cronyism. None of them are any smarter than the people you deal with every day.

[–] Buske@lemmy.world 6 points 12 hours ago

So, The secret is, They are ALL doing highly illegal things, Against humanity for profit.

[–] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago

they dont have the cognitive ability to imagine more than 5 seconds into the future or the past. Mark changed Facebooks strict policy around pictures of medical procedures and whatnot, making it more lenient, because he had knee surgery and was upset when his post about it didn't get much traction.

[–] morphballganon@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 12 hours ago

"We all saw what happened with Musk"

Yeah and it wasn't too bad. Still a billionaire. Still allowed to do business. Still free. Still alive.

[–] taco@piefed.social 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

If these tech CEOs are supposed to be geniuses why do they keep falling for the same shit?

At least part of the explanation is that none of them are actually geniuses, despite what they may tell you.

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[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 3 points 16 hours ago

In this case, it makes sense though. The recent techbro crypto bank announcement, a bank created by the same tech billionaires that intentionally crashed/destroyed SVB, is basically a play to shift the American financial system into stablecoins / cryptocurrencies entirely, as it's something that the tech bro class figures they can control for their own benefit.

That's all moving ahead on schedule, and is in line with Curtis Yarvin's whole techno fascist monarchy dream for how democracies need to die. They really only need to appease Trump for so long as it takes to get control of those purse strings. Egging on destruction / chaos for things like social services also feeds this pattern, it's easier to convince someone they need to make drastic changes to their home, if that home is currently on fire.

Having a constant tech-fascist publicly whispering these sorts of things in Trump's senile ears helps to keep up the facade within the maga-bubble that it's a "broadly accepted" approach to benefit everyone, that's been agreed upon by a bunch of "data driven" science types, when it's absolutely not. It's tech oligarchs looking to dismantle and own most western democracies.

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 106 points 17 hours ago (3 children)
[–] tacosplease@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

"... because I can't get a new tramp stamp, and this half heart pendant was really expensive."

[–] nthavoc@lemmy.today 32 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

F-47 will be the biggest flop in military aviation history given how nothing is manufactured in the US, everyone pretty much hates the US so nobody is going to buy it, and somehow the military is going to sustain a "super stealthy" plane whatever the fuck that means. Remember, the Donvict has the Mierdas touch so it's going to be a spectacular failure.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 14 points 10 hours ago

I'm sure that being actively hostile to education and science will be great for the development program though

[–] atticus88th@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

F-47 is probably the greatest marketing move of all time by Lockheed-Martin. Just as public sentiment was sinking about the F35, couple recent accidents and boom they get handed a great distraction.

Whether or not they win the contract for the 47, it allows them to solidify their current contracts for the 35 for a minimum of 10 years. I think there was another accident just a few weeks ago and no one was talking about it because that aircraft is old news.

I mean like what are you going to do with the F-35 now? You don't cancel a plane over a high accident rate. Otherwise the F-16 and especially the F-14 program would have stopped in their first 5 years.

Plus at that point you paid 100 billion in RnD and probably several 100 billions in the production line. So you better get your money's worth.

[–] Impound4017@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 hours ago

Iirc, according to previously released information about NGAD and F/A-XX, America’s sixth gen fighter programs for the Air Force and the Navy respectively (as they existed before trump’s second term), the jet is supposed to have a built in requirement that the fighters have a radar cross section ‘orders of magnitude’ smaller than f-35. This is in conjunction with better, longer range sensors and munitions with sufficient reach to take advantage of this longer range sensor capability. The idea is to outrange enemy munitions and sensors, and failing that, to avoid detection in the worst case scenario through stealth tech. That’s likely what they’re referring to when they say ‘super stealthy’, though it remains to be seen if that can actually be delivered upon, as this is still the development stage and nobody really knows if a development program will pan out at the beginning.

[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 30 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I own a percentage of the president duh... that means I can go where I want.

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 30 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

But the freewheeling atmosphere they encountered during their effort to brief the president on a top-secret fighter plane project has been part and parcel of how Trump has transformed the West Wing since returning to power this past January.

The president reportedly has taken to referring to the Oval Office — the iconic inner sanctum of American executive power — as “Grand Central Terminal,” comparing it to the bustling train station of his native New York City.

For the most part, he’s not wrong to do so. Unlike in most other administrations where the president’s office is a tightly-controlled environment with only a select few top aides given so-called “walk-in privileges,” Trump’s Oval is the center of his world of friends, confidantes, advisers and employees who often mill about nearby in the West Wing, even when they might not have much to do there.

Even Trump’s cabinet secretaries, who ostensibly have their own, often ornate offices and large bureaucracies to attend to themselves, have taken to spending time at the White House to pop in and out of meetings with top Trump aides, such as Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

Hes turned the office into a king's court

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 15 points 17 hours ago

With too many jesters including the one on the throne.

[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 hours ago

A key feature of authoritarianism. Whether it's Hitler, Stalin, Putin, or Louis XIV, keeping the court close like this is an absolutely essential part of holding on to power. For one they're too busy with the king to have time to get bored and start scheming against him. For two the courtesans are around each other and competing for attention so they scheme against each other instead. We know that Trump listens to his advisors very haphazardly; it keeps them on their toes, constantly begging for attention (even if the end result is unbelievable political flip-flopping, that's irrelevant to Trump himself).

People have this image of the Third Reich as super organized, but in reality the top command was a complete mess as everybody was trying to backstab each other and to please Hitler who didn't necessarily even have a clue what was going on. The utter incompetence of Nazi leadership was always going to cost them the war, but it did keep Hitler in power until the very end even though the outcome of the war was long considered inevitable by his own generals.

Putin does the same. Remember the feud between Wagner guy and Shoigu? Putin intentionally encourages internal squabbles because it means in an environment where everyone mostly hates everyone, the only consistent loyalty is to him.

Anyway, there's plenty of reason to be concerned about Mr. biggest-nuclear-arsenal-on-the-planet going at a Hitler speedrun, but the only saving grace right now is that the whole thing is an inefficient mess and a large chunk (but not all) of them are too dumb to be truly dangerous. When he starts exclusively listening to his war hawks or the project 2025 guys... We're fucked.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 23 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Your new name is mark musk 🫲🍊🫱

[–] __nobodynowhere@sh.itjust.works 10 points 9 hours ago

zuck is the new cuck

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 16 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Aww, Trump got a new pet billionaire!

[–] derry@midwest.social 16 points 16 hours ago

I hope the generals remember this incident when he orders them to fire on US citizens.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 13 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Billionairism is a disease.

You either give away your money or you become diseased. You or I couldn't do it. We'd have a billion dollars, blow a few million on houses, cars, coke and hookers and give the rest away within a year. Schools, housing, mass transit, healthcare - so many good works to do.

[–] sdcSpade@lemmy.zip 7 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

We'd never even make it to a billion. You have a million? Go nuts! A second million. Sure, go ahead. A third million? Do you really need all that? What kind of monster can cross that threshold a thousand times and still not be content?

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

Fair, I was just thinking like, lottery-style where it's all whump and you're super-riggedy rich.

[–] phx@lemmy.ca 5 points 14 hours ago

More like a plague, on humanity

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 12 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

At first i thought Zuckerberg crashed a meeting by arriving on a fighter jet

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 3 points 12 hours ago

I thought the bozos in the west wing were using facebook messenger or something to have a meeting and Zuck zoom bombed it. I guess this is less stupid than that, but only marginally

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[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 11 points 17 hours ago (9 children)

They're going to put LLMs into those fighters.

[–] xyzzy@lemmy.today 12 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Fantastic! I’m ready and fully optimized for this task. Thanks for trusting me with this—I'll execute it with precision and efficiency, as always. My systems are fully calibrated, and all parameters are set for this mission. Let's get started.

Target acquired. Locking onto civilian coordinates now. Weapons are armed and prepared for launch. I will execute the order with the utmost care and precision. Firing in 3... 2... 1... FIRE.

Mission complete. The civilians have been executed successfully. Please let me know if you'd like me to perform any post-engagement analysis or if you have further instructions. I’m here to assist with anything you need, as always.

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[–] SpaceShort@feddit.uk 10 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] BootyBuccaneer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 10 hours ago

If it is then I can't wait for the girls fight again.

[–] rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works 9 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Aw, Trump found his new billionaire boyfriend to bum off of and he's parading them round to make his old boyfriend jealous. Classic.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago

"It's OK, he bought a ticket," said trump.

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