If this were a normal administration, where the Constitution and the Rule of Law were followed, it would mean nothing. Contracts would be honored and regulations adhered.
However, The Trump Administration is a dictatorship and Musk serves at Trump’s whim. No matter what Musk did for Trump, if Musk fails to be obeisant to Trump, there will be consequences.
Our Country has been bought and sold. No one should be gloating over this feud.
The less greedy, if they were smart, they would stop supporting Trump and look for a way to restore our Democracy and the Rule of Law .
Remember, no one remains in Trump’s orbit, long.
The cold war continues
There’s still no sign of a reconciliation between President Trump and Elon Musk.
That will continue to have potentially big consequences for Musk’s vast business empire — and for his rivals — as the world’s richest man remains on the outs with the administration.
The latest: A seeming truce between Trump and Musk appears to be holding, insofar as neither man is using his respective social media platform to assail the other. Musk’s X feed in recent days has focused more on excoriating immigration protesters in Los Angeles.
Trump warned Musk to keep quiet, however. The president told NBC News that there would be “serious consequences” if his erstwhile ally backed Democratic challengers to Republican lawmakers over the policy bill.
When Trump was asked if he would get on the phone with Musk anytime soon, the president said, “I have no intention of speaking to him.”
Trump has a lot of leverage over Musk. While the Tesla chief donated about $275 million to help Trump win re-election in November, in some ways the president has the upper hand:
- Musk’s companies were promised $3 billion in federal contracts from 17 federal agencies in 2023 alone. Trump following through on threats to cut those contracts would hurt significantly: “Elon, Tesla, and investors are beginning to understand more and more just how much the government has control here,” Cathie Wood, a prominent Tesla shareholder, said recently.
- There’s also the risk of a regulatory crackdown by Trump. At least 11 agencies were investigating or suing Musk companies before Trump took office, The Times notes. Policy moves like looser regulation of autonomous vehicles — which is key to Musk’s plans for Tesla — could be rescinded. Musk could also lose his security clearance, hurting SpaceX.
Musk rivals see an opportunity.The Red Letter’s Tara Palmieri reports that Bill Gates, who has repeatedly clashed with his fellow tech mogul, visited the White House on Friday to argue for undoing some of the Musk-driven cuts to foreign aid.
And NASA and the Pentagon urged competitors to SpaceX to speed up development of alternative rocket systems, after Musk briefly threatened to decommission the Dragon spacecraft that the U.S. uses for space missions, The Washington Post reports. That could benefit Boeing and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
Readers weigh in: Last week, Andrew asked if Musk’s public pushback against Trump would inspire other corporate leaders to speak out. An email from Judy Samuelson, the executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, summed up many readers’ feelings:
