The End of the Affair

IT’S MAD. The idea of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ prevented nuclear annihilation during the Cold War and it appears to be work­ing for Donald Trump and Elon Musk. People close to the people really close to King Kong and Godzilla might have succeeded at a tenuous détente.

Verbal missiles on social media have hit pause. For now. Busybodies on both sides feel nothing good will result from a war between the world’s most powerful man and the world’s richest. The choice between salvation and annihilation is not hard to make just as it wasn’t during the Cold War. Musk needs the billions in federal contracts for SpaceX and the government needs the services his company provides or plans for the moon and Mars go belly up.

Yet too much bile has flown down the Potomac since the brawl erupted for peacemakers to be con­fident. Egos aren’t easily bandaged, that too if the size is gargantuan and especially when one brawler had the temerity to suggest the other wouldn’t be in the White House if it weren’t for the $290 million spent getting him in. A pro-Musk activist on X went further and said Trump “wishes he was Elon” and has been sparring with pro-Trump voices ever since.

The future is uncertain but as of now Musk has taken to endorsing and sharing Trump’s posts on California where pro­testers are clashing with the National Guard over immigration raids. Trump called protesters—some of whom were waving Mexican flags—“insurrectionists” and “troublemakers” and skewered California’s Democratic leadership for doing an “absolutely horrible job”. Musk agreed and re-Xed the post. JD Vance’s message about how the president won’t tolerate rioting and violence got two American flag emojis from Musk. On Wednesday, June 11, Musk said he regretted some of his com­ments and posts about Trump which “went too far”.

These certainly are signs of a truce but keep the nature of the volcanic eruption in mind. While opposition to Musk in the White House had been brewing for a while thanks to his wanton arrogance and DOGE-y ways, Trump had been mostly tolerant. In happier times in a galaxy far, far away, the two men would spend Christmas together, have sleepovers at Mar-a- Lago and exchange gifts. The president even gave Musk a cer­emonial gold-coloured key to the White House after an Oval Office send-off at the end of his 130 days as a “special government employee”. The farewell on May 30 was less than a week before the flameout.

The clash of the titans began in earnest when Trump threw out Musk’s nominee for NASA because the candidate had donat­ed to Democrats in the past. Things went ballistic shortly after when the SpaceX and Tesla CEO declared on X: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, the Dems would control the House…” He went on to trash Trump’s beloved “big, beautiful” tax bill as a deficit-inducing abomination full of pork.

THE WAR RAPIDLY ESCALATED: Trump threatened to withdraw billions in federal contracts to Musk’s com­panies as an easy way to cut the deficit, Musk suggested Trump was connected to the notorious Jeffrey Epstein, a sex pred­ator who hanged himself in jail. Then he suggested that Trump should be impeached. He deleted those posts later but the damage was done. Trump lined up media interviews, called Musk “crazy” and said the “poor guy has got a problem”—a broad hint at Musk’s drug (ketamine) use. That red Tesla sitting in the White House is on sale, presidential aides announced for good measure.

It turns out that even in this White House some lines can­not be crossed—billionaire or not, no one can insult the high office and assume the president serves at his pleasure. That’s simply not acceptable to cult members. The breakup has im­plications for the MAGA world: a civil war doesn’t help the cause. The very public feud was like a bomb exploding in the rightwing ecosystem with some taking cover, some taking sides, and others hoping for a reunion.

Charlie Kirk, a Christian nationalist and founder of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, wants the two men to reconcile for the “good of the country and the world.” But those virulently opposed to Musk are grinning from ear-to-ear that the man finally got his comeuppance. They celebrated what they consider to be the end of Musk’s influence in Washington by raising a toast at Butterworth’s, a MAGA hangout on Capitol Hill, as the battle peaked last Thursday (June 5).

Steve Bannon, Trump’s former political strategist, is chief among them—he wants the government to take control of SpaceX and seize Starlink, Musk’s satellite company with a huge footprint at home and abroad, on national security grounds. Musk shouldn’t control essential government programmes, in space or on earth. At one point during the Trump-Musk blowout, the SpaceX CEO did threaten to decommission Dragon, a crucial spacecraft which would have seriously impacted US space projects. He withdrew the threat a few hours later.

Bannon has long claimed that Musk is “owned” by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—not hard to imagine given the billion­aire’s efforts to seek Xi Jinping’s favour for his companies. Musk has literally danced on stage for the Chinese. Bannon recently called Muska“parasiticillegalimmigrant” whoshouldbeinvestigatedand deported. He is “an unstable individual who has a history of massive drug use,” Bannon was quoted as saying.

To be clear, MAGA is a coalition of varying shades, some darker than others. Musk and MAGA have a complicated relationship and the biggest influencers have kept their criticism of the feud gentle. The biggest reason: Musk owns X and many MAGA names gain followers and therefore influence and therefore power through the platform. They believe the billionaire liberated free speech by buying Twitter which he later renamed X. Fox News host, Greg Gutfeld, said he wanted the fight to end. “I don’t want to see my parents fighting.” Laura Loomer, who can affect personnel changes in the White House, has dared to criticise Musk in the past and seen her posts get relegated down the algorithm totem pole. She has since adjusted her tone and last week she tried to play mediator.

Then there is a part of MAGA that is suspicious of Musk because he opposes tariffs, supports H-1B visas and argues for sensible im­migration policies. The regulation red hat and proximity to Trump don’t impress them because they have long doubted his loyalty and worried that his billions would swallow their movement.

Talking of billions, Musk has received $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits over the years, two-thirds of it promised over the last five years. It might be too late to limit his role at least in space because he is already in too deep. SpaceX has $13 billion in various contracts from NASA, ranging from developing a human lander for the moon to running a shuttle service to the International Space Station (ISS) for both cargo and astronauts to ultimately de-orbiting the ISS itself by 2030.

In other words, Musk has a monopoly. The NASA-SpaceX public-private partnership was once hailed as path-breaking and carefully studied by other countries, including India. Today it looks like a case of overdependence where the state withers while the private company prospers. Musk also launches satel­lites for the Pentagon, earning another $5 billion to say nothing of subsidies for Tesla to promote electric vehicles.

While a decoupling might be impossible, Trump could turn the screws if he so desired by activating and fast-tracking some of the investigations against Musk. Reports say that 11 federal agencies were either probing or suing Musk’s companies when Trump took office. They include the Federal Aviation Administration, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Incidentally, Republicans on Capitol Hill have tried to stay out of the line of fire and downplayed the tensions as smart poli­ticians would. They need both the cult leader and the funder of candidates for the next midterm election. They can read the polls and see that favourability ratings for both are dropping but more dramatically for Musk. Enough of men playing boys.

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Repre­sentatives, is hoping for a resolution, even reconciliation so he can get on with the business of rubber-stamping Trump’s legislative masterpieces. As he said, “I believe in redemption.”

DOGEDonald TrumpElon MuskUS politics