Amidst all the outpouring of words, images, claims and counter-claims about the activities of the Musk-Trump regime there is one word missing – schadenfreude.

For anyone who doesn’t know what it means it is that delicious experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of, or witnessing, the troubles, failures, pain, suffering, or humiliation of another. In this case, the experience all those people who didn’t vote for Trump are starting to get.

Obviously, the billionaires that voted for him and funded his campaign and Inauguration in expectation of favours and tax cuts are still rooting for him while secretly worrying just a bit about what new chaos he will bring.

But what did the ordinary folk who voted for him get? Count the ways. The Centre for Disease Control has been abolished by the dumbest Kennedy opening up the probability of mass deaths from the next pandemic that arises; funding programs  for farmers have been abolished; the staff who monitor and look after nuclear weapons have been sacked; CIA staff details have been exposed opening up the staff to the sort of treatment the US has meted out to progressive people and organisations around the world; US Treasury data about the $5.45 trillion in annual Federal payments has been exposed; the Federal Aviation  Administration  has been gutted while planes are crashing; and; children  will be exposed to deadly measles outbreaks.

As summer approaches with peak fire risk Federal workers at the Forest Service are being fired. The Musk-Trump regime is so cheap forest workers’ services such as providing support to hikers can’t be provided and Christmas tree permits can’t be issued.

And that’s only the beginning. Cold War Warriors (there are some still around) will be dismayed by Trump sucking up to Putin raising questions yet again about exactly what kompromat Putin has on him. Was it film of a golden shower or something else? Ukraine is hung out to dry while Trump wants the country’s rare earth metals – along with those of Greenland – as recompense for its support. Watch out Australia. The same might apply to us.

It’s hard for anyone to follow the overwhelming rush of events involved. A lot of commentators are talking about the concept of flooding the zone with shit as if it is something new. Moreover, the constant pace of announcements wears people out and reduces their capacity to react.

The Musk-Trump regime dominates the news cycle with Trump holding up yet another signed proclamation while Musk’s DOGE cronies gut more institutions.

Already there is some legal pushback, but does anyone imagine the Supreme Court will ever constrain him? It is more likely that he will be granted dictator-type powers just as it has decided that he can’t be prosecuted for acts he takes as President.

Meanwhile, even usually moderate commentators are starting to talk about the MuskTrump regime as verging towards fascism. Sadly, the fascism they are talking about is that of Germany under Hitler – something dramatically different from what might be happening in the US but actually more akin to the fascism of Mussolini days – which is where the term originated from the Latin fasces root.

Mussolini was cruel and murderous but can’t be compared with Hitler. Neither can Trump. But he can be compared with Mussolini in one respect – the way he holds his head and his body language. If you look at photos of him at rallies, after signing documents in the Oval Office and other settings you can see he holds his head and body almost exactly like Mussolini did.

Of course, Mussolini’s fate was far more public than Hitler’s. Shot and hanged upside down with his lover Clara Petacci. The partisans were vengeful but couldn’t hold their respect for women at bay and folded her dress up so that onlookers couldn’t see her underwear.

That won’t happen to Trump. He is more likely to drop dead of a stroke after eating too much junk food.

Schadenfreude achieves nothing but it certainly feels good. That’s why millions of people around the world are secretly enjoying the travails of those who voted for him and are now being shafted.