“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly.” — William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”

“Quickly” is the key word for Macbeth as he muses before the bloody murder of King Duncan of Scotland. He must do the deed with his dagger by night, while the court sleeps. Act now or not at all.

“Quickly” is the passcode for Elon Muck — or Musk — as he acts as henchman for the man who would be king, President Donald Trump. The federal government is under a ruthless siege like thunder, lightning and rain — so swiftly that it’s hard to arrest or even protest the process.

Thousands in the federal workforce had no reason to brace for mass layoffs one month into Trump’s reign. They have families and mortgages, a stable economy, last they looked. Dedicated career public servants, specialists in their fields, they don’t deserve such brutal firings.

The new FBI director is threatening to uproot and reassign agents all over the country to decentralize law enforcement.

Awakening Americans are now full of sound and fury at a brash South African brandishing a dagger to government professions in the dead of the night.

Musk’s foul murder is in plain air and sight, often by email. He is orchestrating layoffs, cutting the life out of the Treasury, Pentagon, Justice Department, National Institutes of Health, the IRS in tax season, you name it.

It’s unprecedented (or “unpresidented”) to fire C.Q. Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — on a shabby phone call while he’s on the southern border late on Friday. Yes, shabby. Trump didn’t even do it himself.

But make no mistake, Trump is loving every minute of it. Roy Cohn, his mentor and former Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s lawyer, would be so proud of him. (Remember, McCarthy went on a rampage against the State Department.)

In Musk, Trump’s found a new match, a marriage of true minds. Making people suffer is their greatest pleasure. The Germans have a word for their shared trait: schadenfreude.

Trump sees Musk, along with his explosive new helpers like Pete Hegseth, defense secretary, and Kash Patel, FBI director, as clearing the way for a complete and hostile takeover of the American government. Only fierce loyalists with no call to conscience need apply to the top of the court.

Farmers, many of you voted for the man, and now your crop exports for humanitarian food relief around the globe have been cut off as the U.S. Agency for International Development closed abruptly.

You thought Trump was your friend, with his trash talk about diversity, equity and inclusion. But agriculture is far from this cunning Copperhead New Yorker’s mind. All he really wants is absolute power and more tax cuts for the richest among us — (and Ukraine’s minerals).

Rural red states shall soon feel duped.