There was no subtlety to what Elon did, just full-blown thermonuclear posting warfare, threatening every piece of leverage he had over the president. All that effort amounted to a groveling public apology where Musk now must go through the same humiliation so many other Scaramuccis went through, publicly begging to get back in the King’s good graces.
Making this post even more humiliating for man’s sweatiest poster, the New York Times is reporting that Musk “called Trump privately before posting message of ‘regret.’” Before saying that calling the president a pedophile was a mistake, Musk reportedly “had spent several days signaling that he wanted to make up with the president.” A man who wants to be known as a poster more than anything in the world couldn’t carry on a petty feud for more than a day. How pathetic.
Trump’s responses since the phone call have basically amounted to ‘I don’t know her,’ as he told reporters on Wednesday who were asking if he felt better after Musk bent the knee, “I really haven’t thought too much about it,” clearly signaling that Musk is now on the outside looking in at the central hall of power. Great job Elon. All because Trump fired your NASA guy and you got mad online about it.
Jared Isaacman’s dismissal from NASA as Elon left government was interpreted as an obvious shot at Muskworld, and every piece of reporting about this spat includes it as a central issue in this fight. The GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” is what sparked this war of posts, and it seems to be the tension with the most substance, as I wrote last week how Musk’s and Trump’s interests on this bill diverge in more ways than one. The bond market and credit agencies told the Republicans that the version of the bill that passed the House will push the economy closer to crisis, providing Musk with an opportunity. After faceplanting on the White House lawn, Elon is trying to put his big boy pants back on to try to convince the business community that he is the Very Serious innovating genius they all told us he was last decade. Even from deep in a k-hole, Elon can likely see this obvious dynamic at play, and piggybacking off this businessworld consensus is clearly Musk’s ticket back to the big time.
So I wouldn’t expect this fight to be over, any more than last week was the start of a serious breakup. These are two petty catty posters whose north star is self-interest. The more things that come between them and their goals, the more friction it will create, but they also are still aligned on certain policies too. Musk is not gone from government, not by a longshot, given how the Big Balls brigade are all still working at the General Services Administration. He is still very much a part of the Trump administration and there is no doubt that part of his capitulation is due to this alignment of interests. The problem Elon has is he thought he built a propaganda platform for himself, when this saga taught him who the primary beneficiary of Twitter’s disinformation machine really is.
It is surely not a coincidence that this public act of groveling coincides with new polling suggesting that if the GOP held a snap primary between Trump and Musk today, Elon would compete at Andrew Yang 2020 levels while Trump wrapped it up by Super Tuesday. Yet again, Musk lived a saga where he was forced to realize how his actual popularity doesn’t come close to his perception of it, and now he is headed back to the drawing board. That drawing board is positioned at Trump’s feet, and now the question is how long will Musk grovel at them before some other petty sleight comes between them to remind everyone why we were all convinced this marriage of convenience would never last in the first place.
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