The bromance between Trump and Musk is over.
Now we have one géant enfant terrible doing battle with another. I’m not sure if the French is correct. It is supposed to mean “the giant terrible infants.”
I woke today, made my coffee, turned on MSNBC, and the story is still on the news. It seem to be as juicy as a dirty diaper and just as pungent.
So far the majority of pundits are saying that Trump is winning the battle for MAGA minds. In fact, as long as it is dominating the news for another cycle Musk is winning.
Speculation seems pretty even as to whether a kiss and make up moment is in the offing. The chattering class is pointing out the list of Trump’s former rivals , critics, and enemies who are now kissing the Royal Ass - case in point, Little Marco. Musk, however, is no Little Marco. Let’s not forget that, yes, it is true that Vance once called Trump America’s Hitler (though he may have meant that as a complement). He’s Massive Musk.
I’ve heard the term nuclear used to describe the feud. This is an apt word since Trump has actual nukes, but he can’t literally launch to liquidate Musk. He is bloviating about hitting him in the wallet by canceling federal contracts, but this would really mess up Pentagon and NASA programs which involve Starlink and SpaceX. He seems to think that announcing he’s getting rid of his own Tesla means more than a hill of beans to anyone.
Musk doesn’t have ICBM’s but he does have billions of dollars. Not only that, he already has the data DOGE stole. He’s making noise about launching, not a missile, but a new political party. If he did this it could siphon off just enough votes to give the Democrats the Congress in the midterm elections. He can pull his DOGE boys out of Washington and use them to figure out ways to take the data on voters and weaponize it so he can use it to target specific voting blocs.
How this ends up being resolved may be determined more by psychology than by politics. He could announce he’s running for president. With the money to flood the media to mount a massive campaign he could do it tomorrow, though perhaps he has already done this. Consider his pinned tweet on X:
The comments I looked at were mixed. For example:
Note above that whoever made this image got the color of the light saber right. Trump reposted an image of himself with a red Stith light saber and the mockery went viral and led Mark Hamil to blast him for this (see article).
Musk’s experts have the technology to tell how many of the commenters want him to run for president. He likely already knows. At some point if he sees there is a call for him to do this I expect he’ll post a poll.
You can read all 113,000 comments here. Then you can read probably over a million replies to the comments. Let my readers know if you find any interesting ones…
If this is, as it seems to be to some extent, a dick measuring contest between powerful men, the battle could go on and on and on. I don’t see either person capitulating.
On MSNBC Jonathan Allen called it a contest to see who’s the biggest dog in the junkyard. It’s an apt metaphor. Both men reside in a junkyard.
It is true Trump has real nukes and this probably makes him feel powerful, but he can't use them. After all, where would he send the ICBM to blow Musk to kingdom come? Trump has Truth Social and Musk has X, and both are adept at slinging slurs and threats that end up all over the news as soon as they go online. They are like ginormous babies screaming at each other.
They are making a lot of noise but does it signfy nothing? They seem to be canceling each other out. What the hell do I know? Maybe history will look at this royal battle as the Fort Sumpter of American political warfare.
Musk has nukes of a kind, not on ICBM’s or cruise missiles, but rather in the form of billions of surplus dollars just waiting to be spent. He CAN use them.
Wait until Trump discovers what the enfant terrible Musk, with his billions and his X megaphone can do.
What will happen when one enfant terrible battles to the death with another one?
It is anybody’s guess which baby has the stuff to land a knockout big baby blow.
Who do you think will be victorious?
Update: Regular commenter Robert Bender reminded me (see the comments) that Musk isn’t a natural born citizen and thus could not be president. I thought of some ways around this for him. He could find a surrogate to run in his place, a Mini-Musk. Or he could run and if he won let the Supreme Court deal with it. The Constitution says "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States." By then they may be fed up with Trump and want t rule in Musk's favor. I can't find anything that says being from S. Africa he can run for president, just that he's not eligible to BE president.
AI images in my Substacks are generated by Perchance.
Related: This is best article title about the Musk Trump battle:
Here’s an excerpt from The NY Times Maureen Dowd article (subscription).
Sometimes you’re better off letting the children fight.
That was President Trump’s callous wisdom on looking the other way as the Russians and Ukrainians continue to kill each other. But it might better be applied to Trump’s social media spat with Elon Musk. It’s hard to think of two puer aeterni (I had to look that up here) who are more deserving of a verbal walloping.
Their venomous digital smackdown fulgurated (I also had to look this up here) on their dueling social media companies, flashing across the Washington sky.
In March, Trump showed off Teslas in the White House driveway and bought an over-$80,000 red Model S. Now, he says he’s going to sell it.
Thursday was the most titillating day here since the sci-fi classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” when a spaceship landed an alien to warn human leaders to stop squabbling like children, or the aliens would destroy the Earth.
These are Maureen Dowd quotes posted on BlueSky:
Can’t We All Just Get Along? After Donnie tried to start a race war on behalf of Jburg bad boy Elon, the tiff between the Twitter and Truth Social titans feels more Rodney Dangerfield than Rodney King
DOGE Day Afternoon Elon's done more blow than Scarface, but the Don just kicked him to the curb like Fredo. Maybe now this space Serpico can go back to cruising for baby mamas without ever learning the scent of a woman. by Maureen Dowd
Reservoir DOGE Once upon a time in Washington, Mr. Orange and Nice Guy Elon teamed up for the heist of the century. But now they're cutting off each others' ears and I feel like we're stuck in the middle of a gory Tarantino flick.
Out of Africa Elon and Don were our Redford and Streep, but now they're fighting like Kramer vs. Kramer and thinking about the way they were. Will Don make the indecent proposal of deportation back to Joburg or will the Musk devil wear (dark) MAGA again? It's complicated.
Eat Pray DOGE Elon may be putting away too much gelato but he and Don made the cutest couple since Notting Hill. Will his runaway pride earn him a ticket to CECOT or just send him looking for pretty women in his DMs on Twitter?
All My Exes Live in Texas Donald Trump is more George Wallace than George Strait, but his love without end, amen with Elon has unwound. Musk's back in his Austin compound but, I cross my heart when I say if he doesn't run to Amarillo by morning, it might be The Chair for him.
He Likes Big Cuts And He Cannot Lie, But Elon Told Trump Momma's Gonna Knock You Out, And Trump Said Stop, Hammertime! White Boys Can't Pump n Dump, You're Going On Ice Ice Baby, Elon Said Hey Ya! Theres Some Whores In Your House, I Hear Your Legacy is A Minorrrr
Mean Girls AOC said the girls are fighting. Are we sure she’s not jealous that she’s not part of the Plastics?
Reading these I wonder why I even try to be clever….
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