Just as it is important for the Prime Minister of India to ensure that he retains a majority in Parliament in order to implement his policies and govern effectively, it is important for US President Donald Trump to ensure that he has a majority in the US House of Representatives and the Senate in order to get legislation passed. Were he to lose his present slim majority in both the US House and Senate in the 2026 midterm polls, he would be a lame duck for the remainder of his term. Which is why his reliance on Elon Musk ought to be a matter of concern for him, if it is not already so. Musk has never been in politics, and through his career in business has had to report only to himself. In contrast, President Trump has to report to the House and Senate if he is to get the legislation needed to implement the policies he favours through. The way in which DOGE supremo Elon Musk is functioning, he is building up anger against himself, even in the MAGA base of the Republican Party. In the first Cabinet meeting of the Trump administration, the error was made of inviting Musk to participate in the proceedings.
Musk has not signed any Oath of Office and Secrecy, DOGE being an agency outside the government. As a consequence, a serious breach of security was made by his very presence in the room where the Cabinet meeting was held. Musk is only building up trouble for himself as a consequence of his seeking to dominate the Cabinet meeting in place of the President. Whether in DOGE or after that agency has folded up, enquiries are certain against Musk and the company he runs, Tesla. Some of these will be criminal in nature, such as whether Musk has used his privilege as the key confidant of the President to benefit Tesla in some way or the other, for example by nudging countries to make concessions for him that would otherwise not be given. Where security is concerned, the extensive holdings of Musk in China and the good relations he reportedly has, or has had, with the Communist Party of China (CPC), could be central to some of such probes. The fact is that the Trump administration has identified China as the principal adversary of the US. In such a context, any financial linkage dependent on the CPC would be regarded as a vulnerability, making him unfit to be the holder of official secrets, which he undoubtedly has access to at least for now.
Details have come out of a spat between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Musk, in which the latter made some sneering references to Rubio. Eventually, President Trump had to step in on the side of the US Secretary of State against the DOGE supremo. It was an error for Musk to have made a foe out of Rubio. The Secretary of State got a hundred Senate votes in favour and none against during his confirmation hearing. Were Musk to ever need a vote, as of now it appears likely that he would get a hundred votes against and none in favour in the US Senate. At best, a handful of Senators would vote for him. Trump is very cold blooded about such matters, and were it to be a choice between his losing the ability to ensure majorities in the House and Senate or Musk going, he would choose the latter. Indeed, when Musk faced the choice of either Vivek Ramaswamy quitting DOGE, where he was co-Chair, or Musk and Ramaswamy going, Musk chose to jettison Ramaswamy with the speed of light. Trump has shown that he often goes it alone when policies get made, sometimes by a post on what was Twitter until Musk bought the platform. An example has been his caution that there would be strong sanctions on Russia were it not to stop pounding Ukraine. The Russians have been pounding Ukraine despite all the US sanctions since 2022, and are unlikely to stop now. US intelligence sharing was used to provide targeting information inside Russia for Ukraine to strike. By that action, the US under President Biden, in effect, made the US a co-belligerent in the war. Trump would not wish to repeat such a mistake, which is why his warning to Russia would not be helpful in stopping a broader conflict between the US and Russia. The European powers eager to send peacekeepers to Ukraine are, thereby, increasing the risk of a direct rather than proxy battle between much of the European Union and the Russian Federation. Playing with fire may result in getting burnt, which is why the Global South in particular, especially PM Modi, would welcome peace in Ukraine for the first time since 2014. President Trump will need all the wisdom at his command within his administration to secure peace in Ukraine. Distractions and actions contrary to his own objectives need to be avoided, and friends of Donald Trump across the world would be wishing him success as a peacemaker on a historic scale