"Down, dooby-doo, down-down, comma-comma
Down, dooby-doo, down-down
Breaking up is hard to do"Neil Sedaka, 1962
"Oh, I wish that we could stop this D-I-V-O-R-C-E"
Tammy Wynette hit, 1968
I think this is a fight, not a breakup.
I think the fight is real, not staged.
I think the fight will be over soon.
The "Judy" in that third song are Democrats getting ahead of themselves and thinking that Elon Musk is a friend or political ally. In the song, Johnny left the party with Judy, but they reconcile right away. Johnny comes back. So will Elon.
"But now it's Judy's turn to cry
Judy's turn to cry
Judy's turn to cry
'Cause Johnny's come back
(Johnny's come back, come back)
To me."
Lesley Gore, 1963
There is no need for me to republish all the back-and-forth comments President Trump and Elon Musk exchanged. I suspect every reader of this blog as seen them because they are so delicious and wild that they are being circulated friend-to-friend. Musk wrote that Trump would have lost the 2024 election but for him and that, now, with this abomination of a bill, Trump should be impeached. Trump said Musk just wants federal handouts. The topper was Musk saying that the Epstein files are sealed because Trump appears in them.
Both Trump and Musk are psychological wrecks -- narcissistic toddlers, emotionally -- and they may delay the inevitable reconciliation, but the relentless gravity of expediency and mutual benefit will get them back together. We are at the game-theory mutually-assured-destruction phase. Trump can hurt Musk badly. Maybe he can find a way to deport him. He can certainly find a way to regulate or tax his businesses into oblivion. Trump holds the stronger cards. Musk will make the first move.
Musk's money is frightening to Republicans and it is a giant force-multiplier when it is teamed up alongside a Trump endorsement. Musk's money loses its power when it is on its own. A big ad buy by Musk, in contravention of Trump, risks being a net negative. It is "genuine Trump" versus "big money." The Wisconsin Supreme Court election showed how easily the Musk-level of money can hurt rather than help. Musk money needs the grass-roots populist cover of being done alongside organic GOP support, i.e. Trump.
Trump needs Musk, too. He needs Musk not to be an irritant, a contrary voice, and documentation that Trump is surrounded by internal discord and disunity. Musk can make trouble. Given the GOP's narrow margins, every representative and senator is a potential tiebreaker and 10 or 20 million dollars in a House race in a swing district could easily be decisive. Trump needs Musk to stand down.
Musk acts like a man with mental illness medicated with drugs. He acts manic. He is rumored to travel with a medicine bag of drugs -- ketamine, Adderall, ecstasy, others. They are stimulants and hallucinogens. I don't know for a fact, but I see what I see: He acts "hopped up." He appears to have no one surrounding him who can advise caution. That, of course, is exactly what Trump has tried to arrange for himself in this second term, but it is impossible for a president. No one can stop Trump's impulsive late-night tweets, but a president must work policy through others. Even the hypothetical "Seal Team Six kills an opponent" case requires Seal Team Six and its chain of command. If Trump wants to exile Musk or end EV subsidies or withdraw a Space/X contract, other people will be involved.
Compared to Musk, Trump is the sane one here.
Some words can't be taken back. Musk's dare to open up the Epstein files embedded an accusation. If the files completely exonerate Trump, I think they would have been opened up already. Something holds them back. Maybe they cannot easily be cherry picked to protect Trump. I think Trump can survive evidence of dalliance with teen age girls. We have already seen video of him looking lusty, eyeing young women with Epstein. Trump will deny, say nothing happened, don't believe what you see. Republican voters will say, "so what?"
The GOP world wants a reconciliation. While Democrats hear about the exchange of heavy artillery fire between Trump and Musk, Fox news viewers hear a much different story. They are just "trading jabs" on a bill that is still big and beautiful. Just jabs. As John Lennon wrote, "Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about."
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| Fox News on my kitchen TV |
I expect a story in the next day or two that they have kissed and made up. If they don't, it's bad for Trump and Musk both.
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11 comments:
"I think Trump can survive evidence of dalliance with teen age girls."
You mean rape, right?
Concerning the Epstein files, and between Biden, Ray and Garland, I would have thought that we'd know by now if in fact they implicate Trump to any extent!
Regardless, the whole kerfuffle is tacky and undignified. These are the vulgarians wielding power, like junior high playground rivals. America is degraded.
Moreover, even if they kiss and make up for public consumption, it will still be daggers drawn. Lucky for Musk he's not a Russian oligarch or mercenary chief.
Lesley Gore
I think you’re wrong on this one Peter. I watched life long narcissistic doctors work together for the first time. Within a year they went from family to bitter enemies. Their narcissism could not tolerate one being the right one over the other and sharing power became problematic. The bruised ego of Musk is the wild card that may lead to reckless behavior that cannot be undone.
Both Tesla and Space X are highly dependent on the U.S. Government for their survival. Tesla would crash without electric car credits. and Space X would go bankrupt without government contracts. That's why Elon Musk cozied-up to Trump from the start. Musk was trying to maintain the gravy train. The purpose of DOGE is to streamline government, and make it efficient and eliminate waste. Musk had a hissy-fit when he learned that the gravy train was ending for him. Trump holds all the power. Musk is just a grifter looking to get richer. I think that Musk just slit his own throat when he accused Trump of being on the Epstein list.
"Musk is just a grifter looking to get richer."
In other words, there's no difference between Musk and Trump.
I'm sorry but you miss the moment of stark comparison between monarchy and our republic. Trump is behaving as a king in a spat with a duke or a barron. One has authority from God (in this case the mandate Trump claims from the electorate) and the other (Elon) a fiedom and wealth. The king controls the army and the country by right the other subsurvieance of his vassels. This will not end well for Elon, maybe short of Cromwell's fate but similar. However you look at this situation Trump wins and gains even more power and authority and America loses. The big beautiful bill is slow poison for America.
One only needs to read about Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Putin to know who wins this kind of battle.
Trump hails from the world of professional wrestling which everyone knows is a fake melodrama. They even have their own word for the fakeness: kayfabe. It is possible that Trump and Musk are putting on a show. Why would they do this? To attract attention.
In the world of the Internet and social media, attracting attention is the true path to power. As long as everyone is talking about the feud between Trump and Musk, they are not talking about anything else, such as some message which might be beneficial to the Democrats.
Not that the Democrats have any idea of what their message ought to be, or how to sell it to the voters…
SpaceX is the premier orbital launch company on the planet. No other company or government can launch as reliably and cheaply as SpaceX.
You could just as easily and truthfully say that the government is dependent on SpaceX.
Actually, SpaceX is dependent on the government.
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