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Last week, the inevitable happened: the unholy union between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk fell apart. Onlookers had long predicted that their two giant egos would someday cause a breakup, and it finally happened over the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Musk called it a “disgusting abomination” that, in his view, flew in the face of all he’d done with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It prompted a social media spat on Twitter/X and Truth Social in which some serious accusations were posted online, including Musk alleging that Trump was “in the Epstein files.” But days later, Musk began to delete his posts, eventually capitulating on Tuesday: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week,” he wrote. “They went too far.”
We have to imagine that what Musk regrets the most is coming out the loser in their feud. CNBC reported that his company Tesla dropped $152 million in value amid the fighting. (Musk reportedly took issue with parts of the bill that would hurt Tesla’s bottom line.) In response to Musk’s antagonizing posts, Trump threatened to terminate Musk’s government contracts, which would affect both Tesla and SpaceX. While Musk tried to rally his followers to turn against any of the congresspeople who voted for the tax and spending bill, Trump further threatened “serious consequences” for the tech billionaire if he supported Democrats in the upcoming election. There were even calls amongst Trumpists to have Musk, a South African native, deported.
As cult leader of his own fiefdom of right-wing tech nerds and bootlickers, Elon Musk may have thought he could face off with Trump in a battle of wills. But being a right-wing tech nerd bootlicker himself (“I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man,” he posted to Twitter/X earlier this year), he couldn’t possibly beat Trump, who clearly has no respect or loyalty towards Musk whatsoever. And so Musk deleted his posts calling for Trump to be impeached and shared his meager mea culpa. It’s a story we’ve seen play out so many times before: Trump threatens or humiliates a rival, only for them to come crawling back into the MAGA fold. (Remember how he made fun of Ted Cruz’s wife?) There’s certainly some schadenfreude involved when the person getting humiliated really deserves it, but it’s also disturbing to watch as Trump indiscriminately intimidates individuals, organizations, and corporations. Do you think we’ll ever have a normal news cycle ever again?
