Republican insiders liken the relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump to “two scorpions in a bottle”.
The money and manic energy of the world’s richest man helped make Trump the world’s most powerful person once again, as the re-elected President of the United States. But Musk (and some of his small children) have overshadowed Trump in the Oval Office. With the tech billionaire being spoken of as “the real president” by some, many wondered how long the partnership could survive.
Now Musk is beset by increasing personal, political and business troubles. His popularity with the US public is plunging, as his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) slashes into the federal government. In 2017 he was America’s favourite businessman, with ratings of +24; now he is at minus 19.
His millions failed to secure victory for the Republicans in the most recent bellwether election test, when Democrat Susan Crawford was elected to Wisconsin’s Supreme Court by a comfortable 54 per cent to 45 per cent.
In the days after the inauguration, Trump said Musk was “amazing” and would be by his side “for ever”. His tone had changed by last month. With hindsight, the cabinet meeting when Trump publicly praised the red-Maga-hat-wearing “friend of mine” looks like a farewell. “Elon, I want to thank you – I know you’ve been through a lot,” the President told “the Patriot”, noting the death threats and vandalism of Tesla cars and show rooms he was experiencing.
Musk is also clashing with the administration over its defining policies. He has championed “zero-tariff” free trade. He was left out of the Houthi attack WhatsApp group, and Trump was reportedly angry when he learned the Pentagon planned to include Musk in a briefing on classified war plans relating to China.
When the President turned the White House into a forecourt to promote Tesla cars, it was the equivalent of a retirement gold watch presentation. Musk was desperate, Tesla was slumping. It still is. This week Tesla announced a $10,000 discount per car in an attempt to shift the Cybertrucks piling up unsold.
The message from Trump’s scorpion-brain is transparent: you are wounded, get out of the Oval Office or be stung some more
By 31 March, Trump was practically holding the door open for Musk’s exit. “I think he’s been amazing, but I also think he’s got a big company to run,” the President said hopefully. “And at some point, he’s going to be going back. He wants to.” Conveniently, Musk’s appointment to “special government service” is time limited to 130 days in a 365-day period and will run out next month.
Musk has been a useful lightning rod for unpopularity. While Doge slashed an alleged $155bn for government spending, he had generous ongoing government contracts for some of his businesses. But with the mid-term elections approaching, Trump does not want to be close to a man identified with job and benefit cuts.
Tariffs will also remain a signature policy of the administration while Musk will not disown his comments that their chief architect is “a moron” and “dumb as a sack of bricks”. Economist and Trump advisor Peter Navarro responded in kind that Musk is “a car assembler” using “cheap foreign parts”.
Estimates of 53-year-old, South African-born Musk’s worth are between $330bn and $360bn, largely held in his companies. China is the second-largest market for Tesla cars after the US, but is losing market share to the home-grown manufacturer, BYD. Both Tesla and Space X/Starlink are largely US-based but they depend on components which can only be sourced from China.
Revulsion and ridicule has also been prompted by a juicy and deeply embarrassing expose in The Wall Street Journal, America’s business newspaper: “The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies and their Mothers”. Musk has fathered at least 14 children by four women. One mother, 26-year-old Ashley St Clair, rejected more than $15m tied to a non-disclosure agreement to go public and argue for the rights of their son, Romulus, in open court.
square IAN DUNT
Elon Musk is turning on Trump – but he can’t escape the blame
Read MoreShe has revealed that during her pregnancy, Musk wanted to have even more children, faster. “To reach legion-level before the apocalypse,” he texted, “we will need to use surrogates.” He also told her that he had provided sperm to high-profile women at the request of “Japanese officials”.
“They want me to be a sperm donor. No romance or anything, just sperm,” he wrote. Musk also reportedly urged St Clair to have a Caesarean and not to have their son circumcised.
Musk has expanded on his right-wing pronatalist views elsewhere. He says it is important that intelligent people should have more children. St Clair is a Yale University graduate. Another of Musk’s baby-mothers, the singer Grimes, protested during a custody battle that she had “a fraction of [his] resources (or IQ/strategy experience)”.
Legal woes are also set to hit Musk’s business reputation. After a five-year battle, a California court has granted Cristina Balan permission to pursue a defamation claim against Tesla. She was a senior engineer who was fired after she raised safety concerns about the cars. This brave whistleblower also has stage 3B breast cancer and hopes to live long enough to see justice.
None of these setbacks will be fatal to Elon Musk as an entrepreneur and global eccentric – he has his enormous cushion of wealth to fall back on. Perhaps uniquely, Trump is strong enough to dispense with his services. The President is the bigger beast, with the world’s roughest and toughest survival instinct.
Trump could not get enough of Musk when he was a political asset. But the tech tycoon has become a toxic liability now. The message from Trump’s scorpion-brain is transparent: you are wounded; get out of the Oval Office, or be stung some more.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The only person who can bring Elon Musk down is Donald Trump )
Also on site :
- Billboard’s 2025 Top Music Lawyers Revealed
- Semi-truck explosion, fire closes Interstate 65 in NW Indiana
- Cannes Film Festival’s Official Poster(s) For 2025 Honor Claude Lelouch’s ‘A Man And A Woman’