If the relationship between the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful man is what is called a “bromance”, then they, and by necessity the rest of us, are going through the “jilted-partner-flirts-with-someone-else-to-spite-them” phase.
Elon Musk, slamming the door on the way out, called Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill”, of which the president is so proud, “this massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Trump, opening the window and shouting down the street, yells back that his close friend has “gone CRAZY!” Musk retreats, mumbling something about the Epstein files.
Now, a little later, our love story has moved on, and Musk has found a new way to hurt Trump – a new political party that could break his uncertain hold on Congress in the midterm elections next year and paralyse his presidency. The America Party, backed by practically unlimited funds, will be controlled by Musk and its efforts will be targeting relatively few Republican/Maga-held Senate seats and Congressional districts that could tip the balance of power in the legislature away from the the president’s profligate – Musk says suicidal – fiscal policies and turn the party back to the lost cause of fiscal conservatism.
Musk claims that the Democrats and Republicans are basically the same, which will come as news to those Dems that Trump has threatened with jail, and that only the America Party can save the United States. Trump blusters back that “I think it’s ridiculous to start a third party”, adding: “Starting a third party just adds to the confusion”; “I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails’, essentially becoming a trainwreck over the past five weeks”. It’s possible Musk will bankroll a presidential candidate in 2028, and end the Maga saga for good.
At which all one can say is: “It must be love”.
What happened, we must ask Elon, to your promise to leave politics behind and concentrate on your businesses, especially Tesla, where the toxic association with Trump has hammered sales of what have been dubbed “Swasticars”, particularly in Europe. But no, even throwing himself into his work hasn’t helped Musk cope with the pain of the breakup.
Like the overgrown spoiled adolescents these two men actually are, it appears obsessional revenge motivates their every action. They will never escape from their relationship, even if Trump deports Musk and Musk cuts off the US government’s access to his satellites and the SpaceX Dragon capsule upon which the International Space Station’s mission depends.
It’s like watching a couple destroy each other’s most treasured possessions, to see who can hurt the other the most, pretending all the while they’re not bothered. When Trump cancels the electric vehicle (EV) mandate that has done so much to boost Tesla, Musk says he doesn’t care, he just wants the pork out of the porcine big beautiful bill. Trump says he doesn’t need Musk’s help to win elections, even after he piled lavish praise on his help in the past. None of this, as lovers tend to know, is rational.
What will happen? It’s impossible to say with this pair. They’ve both walked back from the brink when the threats got too heated, and hinted at reconciliation, only to then renew hostilities. You’d think they’d grow up until you realise they don’t want to, and no one can make them. Not even one another.
