Trump v Elon: Will their battles become legend?

Musk is just the latest in a long line of people to fundamentally misunderstand Trump. They all come in thinking that Trump is manipulable and controllable and that they can bend him to their own devices. They all learn ultimately that Trump will never honor any promise or follow through on any quid pro quo unless it suits him to do so. In that sense Elon is no different than any of the innumerable contractors Trump has stiffed over the years. Trump isn't playing 4D chess or whatever people like to imagine; he's just plowing straight through in pursuit of his own whims and interests. And Musk is just another person whop hoped to manipulate Trump but now is just in the way.
 


“… Since Musk left the White House last week, he and Trump have fallen out bitterly, sniping at each other in public over the cost of Trump’s sweeping tax legislation and government subsidies for Musk’s businesses. But even before that, the administration was working to undo some of DOGE’s highest-profile actions.…”

Expect more of these kinds of stories — there’s a long line of folks in the Trump cabinet and their orbit with an axe to grind against Musk and DOGE.

Trump is declaring victory and indifference and claims to be moving on. His team is not moving on quite so fast and the open plan is to let the underlings to the dirty work.
 

Those are much worse numbers for Trump than it first appears.

1) 60% responded either "neither" or "Musk".
2) over 15% of republicans picked "Musk" over "Trump" (although it is unclear how the category "neither" fits into the party aligned equation.
3) The independent split on this issue may have the biggest ripple effects should the divide continue.
 
Trump team strategy - ignore Musk:



Can Trump stick to it? He delights in punching down but Musk is a riskier target.

He also has an extremely fragile ego. He is fuming right now. A couple of nights of no sleep and I have no doubt that he will go on a 2:00 AM binge against Musk. Actually, the longer his handlers can keep him from responding, the more agitated he is going to get, which will just make the response, when it happens, more absurd. Trump is literally the antithesis of "when they go low, we go high."
 
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But can he stomach selling it for a deep loss just to hammer Musk on the resell value? My guess is no — he will probably auction to a fanboy for a profit.
 
Musk is just the latest in a long line of people to fundamentally misunderstand Trump. They all come in thinking that Trump is manipulable and controllable and that they can bend him to their own devices. They all learn ultimately that Trump will never honor any promise or follow through on any quid pro quo unless it suits him to do so. In that sense Elon is no different than any of the innumerable contractors Trump has stiffed over the years. Trump isn't playing 4D chess or whatever people like to imagine; he's just plowing straight through in pursuit of his own whims and interests. And Musk is just another person whop hoped to manipulate Trump but now is just in the way.
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