Take eight minutes and listen to this video. It’s a good summary of the basic issues which the Trump/Musk war has brought to the forefront. Steve Schmidt notes that many Democrats are thinking that Musk turning on Trump makes him okay to rejoin the Democrats. I don’t see it that way. I see Musk’s desertion of MAGA and vow to “fire all the Republicans who vote for the OBBBA” as an opportunity for Democrats to pick up seats with Musk’s money. I agree with Schmidt that nobody should welcome the overt Nazi back to the party with open arms — but hey, if he wants to fill the coffers of people running against Republicans who voted for this detested bill, are we going to say him nay? And if he wants to attack these self same Repubicans in print and provide us with fodder for terrific ads, are we going to discourage him? All’s fair in love and war and politics is both.
As you’ve already read here today, Musk is making noises about founding his own political party. I am not losing sleep over that. As Schmidt points out, Musk’s only friend is Trump and now Trump has shown him the door, 330 million bucks later. (Gee, that’s a million for every American.) I have a swell idea, I think Musk should forget about his new political party and just give each of us a million bucks, and he’ll still be the richest man in the world. (For that matter, he could give us each a billion and have plenty of money left over.) What say you?
The Trump/Musk break up is new and passions are running hot right now. Here’s what I truly believe is going to happen. Musk is not leaving politics. Musk wants the spotlight back, desperately. He wants to be a big shot. Going anti-Trump as he already has, has already gotten him more publicity than he’s gotten in a few months.
To all intents and purposes, Musk washed out in April when his bid to buy the state supreme court judgeship in Wisconsin fell apart. That was one flop too many and it took Musk off of the public scene. He was no longer the focus of Oval Office briefings and cabinet meetings.
He’ll never get that back from Trump. He’s out insofar as Trump is concerned. But if he takes Trump on and takes on the GOP, that will get him plenty of the attention that he craves.
And consider this:
- We know Musk has stopped taking Mike Johnson’s calls;
- We know Musk has unfollowed Stephen Miller;
- We know something happened the other day to give Musk a black eye, and there are various theories as to who struck the blow;
- We know that Trump offered to give Elon “a little makeup” for his black eye because that’s what alpha males do, right, offer each other makeup? (Trump made this comment in the Oval Office today while meeting with the German Chancellor Freidrich Merz. What Herr Merz must think of us, Sweet Jesus.)
So bridges are being dynamited all over the place. Look for Elon Musk to do whatever brings him attention and keeps him in the public eye. Fame is a drug. Once you’ve tasted of the intoxicating elixir of the adulation of the crowd, you never lose the craving. And people do crazy things trying to get it back. Ask Norma Desmond.
This is all going to get a hell of a lot crazier before it’s over. That’s the only certainty here. Get ready for the hats, Make Elon Famous Again. Maybe that will be the new party name MEFA.
Amicus meus, inimicus inimici mei.
My friend, the enemy of my enemy.
But both are my enemies! … So they’re both my friends! I get it. Or do I?
“As Schmidt points out, Musk’s only friend is Trump and now Trump has shown him the door, 330 million bucks later. (Gee, that’s a million for every American.) I have a swell idea, I think Musk should forget about his new political party and just give each of us a million bucks, and he’ll still be the richest man in the world. (For that matter, he could give us each a billion and have plenty of money left over.)”
Ursula, I’m not sure if you’re being facetious or not but you really need to go back for a math class or two to learn some facts about numbers.
For starters, “330 million bucks” is NOT “a million for every American”; it’s LITERALLY a dollar for every American. (That, of course, operates under the idea we do have 330 million Americans.) For “a million for every American” to be accurate, you multiply 1,000,000 by 330,000,000. The product (the term applied to the result of two or more numbers being multiplied together) comes to a pretty massive 330,000,000,000,000–or in words, 330 TRILLION (dollars, in this case). And the Muskrat’s estimated fortune is just $420.6 BILLION. For the Muskrat to afford to give every American a million dollars, his own net worth would have to increase by a THOUSANDFOLD. Granted, the Muskrat could easily afford giving away $1000 to every American even though his own net worth would drop by nearly 80%; of course, the good publicity he got from that would send his stocks back into superpositive territory and he’d regain a good chunk of what he’d lost. But there’s NO way he could begin to offer a million to everyone (not even if he did it in a kind of “payment plan” like $1000 a year, every year since that would require everyone to live to at least another 1000 years).
For another way to look at it, one million equals one thousand thousands. One billion equals one thousand millions. And one trillion equals one thousand billions.
Or, the current national debt is closing in on $37 trillion dollars (according to the US Debt Clock organization) which breaks down to around $112,000 per American–less than 1/10th of the “million dollars” you think mElon can afford to just hand out to every American.
I’m wondering if this feud is the beginning of a Billionaire Club effort to replace Trumpler? It’s obvious to everybody with half a brain and one eye that Trump’s in fast decline, his mind even more feeble than before, his cabinet a collection of imbeciles and his policies about to wreck the country. Maybe the Really Rich don’t want that. Maybe they like a functioning America which generates far more wealth for them than dumbass tax cuts. They won’t want Musk, he’s no brighter than Trump and is toxic as hell now, but they have Vance already bought and paid for. He’d make a much better lap dog.