Politics is a lot like bowling. A pin will fall, or several pins at once. That changes the configuration of the game. Plays that might not have been theretofore anticipated then become warranted. Donald Trump has had a horrific administration so far, unlike any other in history. Just crack open the books and see if you can find an administration whose first four months are anything like the nightmare that we have all witnessed since January 20. Yesterday, it became official that a strategic realignment had taken place in Trump 2.0, namely Elon Musk is on the outs with Trump. That situation is not happening in a vacuum. Musk is not just one individual, he is part of a techbro conglomerate, the same techbro conglomerate that took J.D. Vance from obscurity and put him where he is. What you’re about to read is entirely plausible, although hardly front page news, in a day and age where billionaires own the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times and journalists are cowed.
The full scale war that broke out between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has gone nuclear, fast. In addition to Musk claiming credit for Trump’s election, he has now raised Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein several times, called for Trump’s impeachment, and threatened to decommission SpaceX’s rockets from NASA after Trump threatened to take away Musk’s corporate welfare and contracts.
As delicious as this is, the backup to Donald Trump is worse—as hard as that is for most of us to imagine. JD Vance is a fully owned component of Peter Thiel and the PayPal Mafia, of which Elon Musk is the most prominent member. Vance as president would complete the stranglehold of the broligarchy and the technofascist monarchy they want to install. The surveillance state would be assured.
There is only one constitutional solution to the problem of JD Vance—impeachment. Trump should ask Mike Johnson to start an impeachment investigation immediately. Otherwise, Trump will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his term, and will face potential impeachment or the 25th Amendment. I am in no way joking.
This is not a joking matter. Consider the cast of characters we are dealing with here. They are all transactional cut throats. It is no secret that Elon Musk and Peter Thiel would like to be feudal overlords and rule over the rest of us as serfs. The middle class — what’s left of it — is greatly imperiled by the financial waves which Trump’s economic whims have stirred up and the lower class stands to sink even lower if the OBBBA passes. People making under $50,000 a year will be taxed at a higher rate and over 10 million people will lose Medicaid.
Trump is in a lame duck presidency to begin with. Do you think for a minute that if it came down to Trump or what we’ll call “institutional interests” that the tech bros won’t knife Trump? And do you think Trump doesn’t know it? Maybe Vlad can explain it to him, because it’s for damn sure that Trump has never heard of, let alone read, Machiavelli.
This may be the one way we get out of this regime even partially intact. Trump would need Democrats to help him pull it off and they could extract demands for their assistance. If anyone doubts Trump would do this to save his own ass, I bring your recollection back to the chants of “Hang Mike Pence!”
If you agree, I recommend encouraging this idea through your own platforms, and with others.
it’s important to remember:
“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” —Sun Tzu
Make no mistake, the defection of Elon Musk puts things on an entirely different footing than they were 48 hours ago. And Musk made an interesting comment yesterday which bears noting. He said, “Trump will be in office another 3.5 years. I’ll be here another 40.” That’s optimistic on Elon’s part, considering he’s 53 now and a heavy drug user, if we are to believe what we read, and not a lot of junkies reach the age of 93. But the point is well taken, whether Musk is here another ten, twenty, whatever years, he will outlast Trump.
And the young Mr. Vance, who didn’t like Trump to begin with until his opportunism got the best of his *principles* definitely sees Trump as a stepping stone who was useful but whose usefulness has a shelf date on it. Especially when that stepping stone turns into a boulder and said boulder is tied around his neck.
We are looking at a major realignment in our politics with the potential for a sudden shift to a dystopian, authoritarian state, based on Musk and Thiel having access to all of our data. Knowledge is power. And I call your attention to today’s Supreme Court ruling, allowing DOGE access to Social Security information. DOGE should be disbanded. If Trump has a lick of survival instinct, that will be the next move he makes.
Things are going to get a lot crazier before they stabilize — “stabilizing” meaning a loss of Republican power in the 2026 elections, and that’s granting arguendo that we have an election in 2026. Focus on the Musk/Trump debacle because that’s the main theater of conflict but do not lose sight of the machinations taking place elsewhere, not just in the shadows, but in plain sight.
