Godzilla vs King Kong. Ali vs Frazier. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Trump vs. Musk is bigger than all of them because — unlike the first match — this one is real. And unlike the other two, it has real-world consequences.
The future of the republic — not to mention the future of Tesla, SpaceX and Musk’s other cutting-edge tech companies — could be at stake, depending on how bad it all gets.
Of course, with this pair, they could make up while this column is at the printer. Musk is known to do 180s in business like most people breathe, and he seems open (at least for now) to rapprochement. That’s why, after tanking during early rounds of the fight, Tesla shares spiked on Friday.
Trump, meanwhile, can be forgiving when he sees an opportunity. Remember how he mocked “Little Marco,” who after a MAGA-esque transformation is now Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Trump wanted to ban TikTok but as I was first to report, he’s extending its life in the US. He came to believe that even if it is Chinese spyware, it helped him win a second term.
But there’s a better case that the Trump-Musk feud will linger. These men maintain some of the biggest egos on the planet; Musk actually thinks he’s the reason Trump got elected since Elon owns X (formerly Twitter), which became a MAGA megaphone. If you know Trump like I do, someone taking credit for his success is a third rail.
Plus, Musk isn’t a natural convert to MAGA. These dudes bonded because Musk, a former Democrat, believed his party lost its mind on woke. His EV maker Tesla, a darling of the environmental movement, has a big operation in China, the main target of Trump’s trade war. Musk called Peter Navarro, Trump’s lead trade warrior, “Peter Retarrdo” because Elon’s no fan of tariffs.
For his part, Trump is no budget hawk. It’s telling that this fight started with Musk’s critique that the president’s “big, beautiful bill” spends too much money. It quickly exposed other fissures lurking beneath the surface, according to my sources, and now it has gotten messy.
No way to treat a pal
Trump is teeing up killing all of Musk’s lucrative government contracting after Musk outrageously — and foolishly — claimed the president is holding back the Jeffrey Epstein files because Trump’s in the docs in some nefarious way.
Not a way to treat a friend, particularly a powerful one.
All of which gets me to laying odds on the winner if this feud keeps going. I say Trump is the heavy favorite. Musk has no political base, even if he splinters and begins spending his billions on Dems. Yes, some lefties are relishing the battle, but Musk will never be acceptable to most Democrats for the unforgivable sin of aiding Trump, then via DOGE cutting all that government lefty spending.
Meanwhile, Musk poses little threat to MAGA. He’s not a natural politician — he’s not even comfortable in his own skin. He controls X and has a huge following, but Trump has his own following and social media platform that attracts as much media attention.
And Trump can hit him where it hurts — his pocketbook. Musk is the world’s richest man, but mostly on paper. It could diminish fast given how much of it is built on government work. Recall Musk smoking a joint on Joe Rogan, which is a no-no when you do defense contracting as SpaceX does. I reported how it sparked scrutiny by the feds that went nowhere. Maybe now it goes somewhere.
Musk’s accounting at Tesla has drawn regulatory attention in the past; it now might get some more. The company just had a lousy quarter as its lefty EV-buying base went somewhere else. Shares have recovered somewhat but remain under pressure. They fell as much as 16% when the feud went defcon.
Trump could go after other parts of the Musk empire. The president could throttle SpaceX’s government contracts, using the weed issue as an excuse to re-examine the relationship. Maybe more of those go by the wayside along with all his other government contracts.
Musk is obviously miffed that Trump’s tax bill didn’t cut enough fat, but what might have really stoked his anger is that it did take aim at various green-tax credits that Tesla has feasted upon. Musk’s recklessness in his attacks underscores one of his weaknesses as a CEO; he once said he had a buyer to take it private at a premium but no one emerged.
And you wonder why the Epstein barb shouldn’t be taken seriously.
The smarter move
Yes, Trump has a lot of levers to pull to get at what makes Musk so powerful. But here’s why he shouldn’t: For all of Musk’s flaws, he’s smart and has his finger on the pulse of the emerging economy. Tesla’s tech is first-rate. SpaceX is transformational, and serves a significant national security function. Musk is rich and can continue to elect Republicans to keep Trump from being impeached and derailing what is really working in his second term, such as his war on woke, closing the border and, when this tariff stuff subsidies, tax cuts to grow the economy.
And they did make beautiful music together exposing stuff with DOGE.
Someone please call a timeout.
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