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2025-01-30 11:00
Two men, two huge egos, two quests for endless amounts of power and money – joined, for now, in the pursuit of those common goals. That’s the story behind the tight relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire who hangs out in the West Wing of the White House and has the ear of the president.
But there are cracks in the facade of closeness, and – based on Trump’s past intolerance for anything but total loyalty among his allies – one must wonder how long it will last. And should the bromance come apart, it is likely do so with a bang heard ’round the world.
To say the relationship is symbiotic is an understatement. Trump has the political power; Musk has endless money.
In today’s environment, these go together better than Buffalo wings and Budweiser at a Super Bowl party. Musk was at Trump’s side at Mar-a-Lago on election night and was soon installed in the White House, leading the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), a special group that Trump has created, with its ominously Orwellian-sounding name. He even reportedly joined a post-election call between Trump and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Barry Blitt’s portrayal on the 20 January cover of the New Yorker, titled Two’s a Crowd, said it all: a widely grinning Musk is sworn in alongside Trump, but getting almost all the spotlight, raising the question of which member of the duo would be the “shadow president”.
How does the symbiosis work? The writer Judd Legum has a solid theory as he observes how Trump’s policy toward China has changed dramatically since taking office. During the campaign, Trump promised tariffs of 60% or more, but now he’s down to 10%, or maybe none at all.
“How do you explain the sudden shift?” Legum ponders, and then answers. “Two words: Elon Musk.” (The Musk-owned Tesla, which produces a million cars a year, has its biggest factory in Shanghai. You do the math.)
What does Trump get out of the arrangement? Recall that Musk gave at least $260m to help get Trump elected, largely through a Super Pac the entrepreneur founded last year. And he used his social media platform, X, to vastly amplify Trump’s message.
Those are the kind of things that can really endear one of the world’s richest individuals to a corrupt politician.
But will it endure? Some have their doubts, as Musk declines to show utter fealty to the narcissist who demands it. In recent days, he has publicly criticized the president’s $500bn artificial intelligence deal, trolling the OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, on X.
“It’s clear that (Musk) has abused his proximity to the president,” one Trump ally told Politico. “The problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him.”
Trouble in paradise? Some observers think it’s inevitable.
“We now have a situation where neither one of them has played the No 2,” as the Cornell law professor and tech policy expert Sarah Kreps told Axios. That’s not exactly comfortable.
Americans, according to a Wall Street Journal poll, are skeptical of the tech bro’s influence, with half of respondents saying it’s a bad idea for Musk to advise Trump and less than 40% approving. Musk’s overall approval rate among Americans has plummeted, and Trump – always ready to say “you’re fired” – is sure to notice.
It may be that the duo’s huge amounts of power and money will keep them bonded, like the White House version of holding a marriage together “for the children”.
But should they turn on each other, the parting could be ugly. Trump thrives on insult and revenge. And Musk – with his Nazi salutes and his destructive streak (witness what he did to Twitter) – is ruthless.
I don’t know what, exactly, that breakup would look like, but I can’t wait for the New Yorker cover. If these two did not possess the frightening ability to do great harm on a global scale, it could be entertaining.
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