Countdown to the End of the Trump-Musk Bromance

Donald Trump has shown us who he is, over a remarkable period of time. During four years as president, and four years out of office, his traits and habits are more public than any man of prominence.

There is only Donald

“Only I can do it,” is his response to saving the union, peace in Ukraine and Palestine, negotiations with Putin, Kim Jong Un, Hamas, Hezbollah, Xi Jinping, and talking sense to Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. He is not interested in building a family dynasty. There will be no other Trump in the Oval Office, only him. He is a public figure above all others, a successful businessman and a billionaire. His rally crowds are the largest, his deals the most artful, and his supporters the most loyal. Even his ‘bigness’ is the biggest.

Yet, he willingly allowed Elon Musk’s head into the tent

“If you a allow a camel to slide his nose under the edge of a tent, pretty soon he will work his whole body under it, inch by inch, and you'll have a big, hairy, smelly (spitting!) beast in there who won't leave.” -Arab parable

If the ‘camel’ in question happens to be the richest person in the world, the consequences multiply accordingly.

Elon offered Trump nearly unlimited financial contribution to his campaign, as well as access to his online support at X (formerly Twitter). At the time, Elon’s followers at X numbered some 200 million, and they were mostly hardline conservatives, and members of the radical right. For Trump, it was a deal worth doing, and probably won him the election. There were promises of high office.

That was then and now is now

Now the shoe has begun to pinch a bit. Elon came out raging against a deal Republicans had worked on for weeks and weeks to prevent a government shutdown that Trump had endorsed. Not only that, he made his attack on the day of the vote, and it failed in the Congress, causing a major personal defeat for Trump. Chaos reigned in the congress, while a final agreement was cobbled together that was passed after deadline, without a number of Trump requirements.

Donald will not forget that, nor will he forget the press quickly naming Elon President Musk.

Trump’s first term is littered with the bodies of those who displeased him

(Brookings) And then there were ten: With 85% turnover across President Trump’s A Team, who remains?

“Having tracked turnover for five presidents and closely following the churn in the Trump White House, it is clear that what is currently going on is far from normal. Less than a month after President Trump’s inauguration, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was forced to resign, and this high-level departure marked the beginning of an avalanche that resulted in an additional 21 A Team departures over the course of that year. Compounding the first-year irregularity was the multiple firings, forced resignations, public humiliation of staff members (via Twitter), the onset of the Mueller investigation and the inability to fill high-level government jobs. From the beginning, A Team turnover in the Trump administration outpaced his five predecessors and not just by a small margin.”

It's possible this is the primary reason the President Elect is having such difficulty forming a cabinet and filling other major posts. Who would trust the appointments to outlast a presidential hissy-fit?

But Musk has served his purpose, and probably outlasted his uses

Trump is a minor billionaire, and Musk is the richest man in the world. Trump has 87 million followers on social media, Musk has 200 million.

No man in history has been called ‘President’ before the elected president even took office. No ‘advisor’ ever shot down a major presidentially backed piece of legislation before his mentor took office. It begs the question of who is mentoring whom.

I give Musk six months, but he may be gone in six weeks.

We will see.