By Sushil Kutty
The headlines are topping the Trump-Musk fallout. The best was “I hate my X”, straight out of a divorce playbook and so true of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the two are like a divorced couple carrying the thrill and bitterness of divorce into the public domain with dirty linen washed on Social Media. If Elon has ‘X’, formerly Twitter, Donald has ‘Truth Social’, making them even-steven.
Another headline that’s found traction is ‘Big Beautiful Break-up’, because it’s another way to tell that the parties have both gone their separate ways after the kiss of death! And it best copies the fate of Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, which the Congress passed and Musk sulking in the aisles.
Elon has grave predictions for the United States’ with the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’. An angry Musk is throwing barbs at ‘BBB’ and that with a grey MAGA hat. Where did Musk throw the red iconic one? And why the abomination grey and the bloodless ‘black’, what was the billionaire Elon Musk hinting at?
President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is a big bull to Elon’s red rag. The Tesla CEO quit the Trump un-electric wagon-train. Till things changed for the best with insults traded and not a single Trump tariff imposed on Musk. The break-up began on ‘X’, Truth Social not quite the all-purpose vehicle for guerilla warfare.
Reactions on ‘X’ are quick and viral, those triggered on Truth Social take their own time to pick up traction. Elon scored and Trump must be cursing himself for returning to ‘X that was Twitter’. Now, he has to exit ‘X that was Twitter’ all over again and would look stupid if he didn’t.
And the manner in which Trump gave access to Musk, straight into the oval of the Presidential office in the White House! This to a man who slept like a nomad. Tonight at a friend’s bachelor pad, another night in the attic of an acquaintance; the third night, in the bedroom of a woman who he spoke of having twins with!
Musk could walk into Trump’s Oval Office whenever and with whomever he wanted to, but it was Musk’s son ‘X’ who got to take all the liberties with the “most powerful man on earth”, the President of the United States of America! Did Elon Musk care, did Musk’s son ‘X’ care? Trump was putty in the Musks’ hands.
The insults Trump took! Trump is now threatening to cut government contracts for Musk and Musk is questioning why the Trump administration is not releasing records of the Jeffrey Epstein case, could Trump be in the records?
The Trump-Musk camaraderie began in July 2024 after the attempted assassination on Trump in Butler, Penn. Musk in a sudden outburst of ‘Trump-o-Mania’ endorsed Trump setting both on the path of eventual ‘break-up’, which had to happen simply because these are two self-centred masala egomaniacs.
Deep down the pair are like two peas, similar in every which way except that one has dark hair and the other sports greying silvery hair. In July 2024, Musk wanted to interview Trump on ‘X’ and he was funding a super PAC “to promote the principles that made America great in the first place.” It was in the interview that Musk pitched the idea of a “government efficiency commission”.
Now, he is mulling on a political career, perhaps even a presidential bid, by floating a political party, which is easier done if you have billions to splurge. And money is talking, Elon Musk is talking his way into Trump’s bad book for billionaires. What’s the guarantee Musk doesn’t go after ‘Truth Social’ like he did with ‘Twitter’?
In October 2024, Musk hit the campaign trail for Trump wearing his “Dark MAGA” attire. “As you can see, I’m not just MAGA — I’m dark MAGA.” Musk spent the election night at Mar-a-Lago. The next morning he posted an AI-generated image of himself and captioned it “It is morning in America again.” Trump returned the compliment with “A star is born — Elon!”
Musk settled down in Trump’s office. Imposing DOGE’s aggressive cost-cutting measures. “The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what people are going to get,” Musk told reporters. “They’re going to get what they voted for.” Trump seemed to be in tandem and sympathetic, too: He’s “sacrificing a lot”.
But come May 2025 and Musk was announcing he was leaving DOGE, his “scheduled time” in government service over. Trump called a press conference and praised Musk for being “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced”, adding that Musk wouldn’t be actually leaving but would be “going to be back and forth.”
The vestiges of bromance! Whoever thought of the “Big Beautiful Bill”? And Musk saying it would undo all the work DOGE did. Also that ‘BBB’ would drive up the federal budget deficit by trillions. Musk went on to christen ‘BBB” a “disgusting abomination” and “shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” And much-much later, “In November next year, we (will) fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”
All was over for Trump-Musk. For Trump, “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Of course, crazy people react crazier: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate”.
Americans are watching and waiting. President Trump has three-and-a-half years more to shelve Musk out of contention and Musk says he has 40 years over Trump’s maybe a decade more. “Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years…”
The Trump-Musk feud is a sideshow that will cost President Trump. All Musk has to do is ignore Trump and head out into outer space and explore for new opportunities, which in the vast wide Milky Way wouldn’t be stingy with, unless an EV blows up with Musk in it or a SpaceX spaceship blows apart somewhere out there in Outer Space with Musk in it! Long and short after “I hate my X”, the only headline that comes to mind is “Till death do us apart”, whose death is what counts for the both of them? (IPA Service)
