As discussed in a column here yesterday, the White House had trouble fitting all the egos within the cabinet inside the same room holding Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. That’s fine, it’s nothing short of amazing that Musk and Trump can “fit” anywhere near each other, never mind others. Bending and curving those egos requires one to defy known physics and psychology, perhaps physiology. Somehow they’re making it work. But it may be precisely because Musk and Trump look to get along that Sec. of State Marco Rubio got into it this week with Elon, only to be saved by Trump, as covered by ‘Zoom and many others. It almost sounds as though Marco was a little jealous of Elon’s proximity and it raises one’s eyebrow to learn that Trump jumped to Marco’s defense.
Coverage spilled over into Saturday Night Live’s cold open, where Mike Myers again returned as Elon Musk with a priceless fist-pump-dance thing that is equally creepy and funny – kind of like Elon himself only far more endearing.
Right. And so after extensive coverage this week, it took White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt to go on to Fox News’s weekend couch to speak to Lara Trump (Why, Lord?) in order to assure us that, despite being two of the strongest personalities in modern human history, there’s just nothing to be seen or covered as between Trump and Musk. Kind of like they’re just junior members of the book club instead of the spiciest members of Junior Club. Lara Trump led Leavitt to sleep with a near-lullaby question:
“Well, you know, Karoline, you and I have had the opportunity to both spend a lot of time around President Trump and Elon Musk. There’s a lot of palace intrigue about what’s happening in that relationship, what Elon’s relationship is like with, you know, the rest of these government officials.
“Once and for all, can we dispel the rumors that there is some ongoing feud between Elon Musk, President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio?”
Now, you might ask “With a lead-in like that, why does she even need a guest?” And it’s a fair question. It is also fair to guess what you might pay to hear an answer such as: “No, we can’t dispel such rumors because these two absolutely have to rage at each other because they’re just so hot in love that if they didn’t fight we don’t… ” Something that was at least semi-interesting. We have no such luck as Leavitt rolled right long:
“I can confirm there is no such feud. In fact, I was at Mar-a-Lago last night with President Trump, Elon Musk, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and all was well.”
A few questions. We are back to what the meaning of “is” is – because we saw a president ride this answer right out of an impeachment hearing. “There IS no such feud… ” means that Marco is just sleeping in on a Sunday morning. The fact that there most certainly “was” such a feud this week lurks in the background. Moving on, Leavitt assured us that this is basically Sesame Street only with better looking people:
“The president convened a meeting last week with members of his cabinet and with Elon to talk about this historic effort that everybody is on board with to identify the waste, fraud, and abuse across our federal government. And the meeting was highly productive.”
“It was an open dialogue and discussion, which is exactly what the president’s team should be doing, engaging with one another to implement the president’s goals.”
After assuring us that things couldn’t possibly be more perfect, there was little left for a White House press secretary to do but rob the media of all self-worth as human beings claiming any right to share in this world:
“And both Elon and Marco are doing an incredible job in their respective roles. And I think it’s pitiful that the mainstream media is working overtime to try to divide President Trump from Elon and from other members of his cabinet.”
Huh. Interesting. No one had to work overtime to hear reports about the fight that occurred in a private meeting of the cabinet, a fight that people within the cabinet obviously dished on or it wouldn’t have gotten out. People within that room managed to find their way to reporters. The very fact that it all spilled over is more a reflection of people close to Trump rushing to find someone to listen rather than anyone working any harder. But the alternative to blaming the media is having to explain why Musk finds Marco so threatening, or handsome.
It doesn’t change the fact that the M & M pair are way too much alike with respect to demographics and relative power – and, both perhaps wanting to be seen as the indispensable aide to Trump. In the future, they best take great care to avoid scheduling matters that require the two in the same room. The results are inevitably pitiful according to the White House Press Secretary.
But SNL will be better that week.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on twitter-X at @JasonMiciak, and follow now on Bluesky.Â
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