Musk underestimated the significance of a diverse and often chaotic political landscape of American democracy.
Chicago: After four years of uncertainty about who was running the country, Americans do not doubt that there is a commander-in-chief whom they elected in 2024 to oversee the country’s affairs. They also found out that, unlike his predecessor, who often struggled to make coherent statements in public, the current occupant of the White House has a sharp tongue.
Before entering politics, President Trump was a reality TV star on the hit show “The Apprentice.” What the Americans, and indeed the rest of the world, saw unfold on Thursday was nothing short of a reality TV drama. Mr Trump and his one-time close confidant and financier, Elon Musk, exchanged barbs at each other.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has played a pivotal role in Mr Trump’s 2024 presidential election victory, as well as delivering the House and the Senate, making Mr Trump’s victory a trifecta. Musk also oversaw, until recently, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration, a department of great importance. DOGE and Musk were tasked with maximizing efficiency and productivity, as well as cutting costs, within the federal bureaucracy.
At the root of the Trump-Musk feud is Musk’s public criticism of Mr Trump’s “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” (the Bill). This mega tax and spending bill has already passed the House of Representatives and is set to be taken up by the Senate. President Trump wants to turn this Bill into an Act by 4 July.
One of Musk’s major criticisms of the Bill, including by some Republicans, is that it expands the federal deficit. Musk’s public abomination of the Bill prompted some choice comments from Mr Trump, including the accusation that Musk suffered from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” The President accused Musk of objecting to the Bill because it rolled back the electric-vehicle tax credits, hinting that those tax credits may harm Musk’s business interests.
From here, the situation spiralled into an ugly public tu-tu main-main that has rarely been seen at this high level, and we have seen some ugliness involving this President. Musk even suggested that the reason the Trump administration has not released the Epstein files is that Trump is in it.
DOGE came into existence with the intention of making radical changes in the functioning of the federal government. These changes were to stop waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption in the various departments of the US government. One of the most enduring visuals of Musk at the helm of DOGE was Musk impersonating Argentine President Javier Milei, wielding a chainsaw and pretending to trim the federal bureaucracy. However, as Mr Musk would soon discover, running a government in a democracy is not as straightforward as it sounds.
Musk relished being a kingmaker. It is impossible to quantify Musk’s influence on the election with exact precision. Still, it will be an understatement to say that Musk’s involvement changed the direction of the 2024 elections. Even his purchase of Twitter, later renamed X, ushered in a new era of online free speech, where being on the wrong side of the political divide, which meant being on the right, was previously punished in more ways than one. That purchase also meant people could openly discuss the Covid-19 era government excesses—lockdowns, mask and vaccine mandates, and vaccine adverse effects, among others. Musk’s involvement also ensured that US elections were free of the kinds of interference the Americans saw in the 2020 presidential cycle. In addition, Musk poured more than $290 million into Trump’s 2024 campaign.
But Musk underestimated the significance of a diverse and often chaotic political landscape of American democracy. It isn’t just the permanent bureaucracy or the Deep State. In any democracy, there are entrenched interest groups with diverse incentives that drive their political agendas. Musk focused his energy and resources on shoring up the presidency but did not pay much attention to solidifying his influence in Congress. The GOP has a slim majority in the House of Representatives, and the one-vote victory for the Bill is not lost on anyone.
Musk did not handle the situation gracefully. Despite their differences, it was Musk who publicly expressed his grievances. His posts on X about the Bill were distasteful, if not disrespectful.
Elon should have handled this privately from the get-go. The MAGA world was quick to turn on Musk. Several GOP lawmakers criticized Musk for his public brawl with the President, which effectively jeopardizes Musk’s agenda of deficit trimming in Congress. MAGA philosopher Steve Bannon went even further to suggest that Musk should be stripped of his security clearance and “the US government should seize” control of Musk’s SpaceX under the Defense Production Act. The Act grants the US President powers “to ensure the nation’s defense by expanding and expediting the supply of materials and services from the domestic industrial base.”
Many understand the significance of the Trump-Musk coalition. They also realize that this Trump-Musk divorce leaves some unfinished business to attend to. One of the key figures of the “coalition” is the hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman. He requested that Trump and Musk “make peace for the benefit of our great country.”
Both Trump and Musk are strong personalities. No one knows how this will end. No one knows who will stop being a juvenile and who will be an adult. However, as Ackman wrote in his X post, their coalition is much stronger together than apart. The will and the dreams of 77.3 million voters rest on this coalition.
* Avatans Kumar is a Chicago-based award-winning columnist.