Trump v. Musk -Let The Games Begin Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Elon Musk and Donald Trump are solidifying their breakup online (Musk on X and Trump on Truth Social). It’s both a big waste of time for POTUS to be involved in a tit-for-tat with the world’s richest man, and yet it keeps Trump preoccupied with his favorite thing: trashing his enemies. That then leaves him momentarily unable to further wreck the country. But it is entertaining. Let the games begin!
Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
—Dana
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy – they hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart, they don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.
Or not.
Hello.
Dana (e6bf5e) — 6/5/2025 @ 2:27 pmI’m glad this happened today. Had it been tomorrow, it would just steal the thunder from D-Day in history books written 50 years from now.
JVW (4e1a52) — 6/5/2025 @ 2:31 pmGood point, JVW.
Dana (8302e9) — 6/5/2025 @ 2:32 pmWaiting for it to get nasty.
🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
– – insert the ‘Let them Fight’ gif – –
whembly (62f634) — 6/5/2025 @ 2:33 pmElon supporting the call for Trump to be impeached.
Dana (530a06) — 6/5/2025 @ 2:47 pmWait…. I was assured that Musk was the President.
BuDuh (91cb3a) — 6/5/2025 @ 2:48 pmCut spending.
Joe (584b3d) — 6/5/2025 @ 3:18 pmBannon: Deport Elon
Kanye: Broooos please noooooo
Dave (3a0691) — 6/5/2025 @ 3:45 pmIt’s a tough day to carry water for Trump, but Sen. Jim Banks answered the call…
Paul Montagu (7eb32e) — 6/5/2025 @ 3:56 pmOoof:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/5/2025 @ 4:04 pmDouble ooof:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/5/2025 @ 4:06 pmFrom The Breakup thread:
The ultimate astroturf campaign. Musk has as much interest in the “80% in the middle” as he does in celibacy.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/5/2025 @ 4:12 pmMore from The Breakup thread:
You may get the opportunity:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/5/2025 @ 4:20 pmThis system where the government seizes the means of production in the name of the people seems like it would make industry very efficient and responsive.
Somebody should think up a catchy name for the idea and run with it.
Dave (3a0691) — 6/5/2025 @ 4:42 pmHeartwarming moment between Trump and Elon Musk’s son ‘Lil X’ goes viral
I guess Elon found out about Trump being pedo just recently? Or did he know when he handed his kid over?
BuDuh (91cb3a) — 6/5/2025 @ 4:45 pmThis is the best breakup since Operation Barbarossa. May they both lose.
Barry Jacobs (2b0ba8) — 6/5/2025 @ 4:52 pmSomebody had already checked “Luxury Jet” off the Bribal Registry.
Dave (3a0691) — 6/5/2025 @ 4:53 pmElon Musk Tells Laura Loomer Republicans Should Side With Him Because Trump Will Die First
Dave (3a0691) — 6/5/2025 @ 4:59 pm🤣😂🤣🤣😂😅😆🤣🤣😂🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂😆🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😅🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Wait… I don’t get it…
Does this have to do with the Tesla quid pro quo?
BuDuh (91cb3a) — 6/5/2025 @ 5:00 pmMusk has no constituency.
But, yeah @16, when thieves fall out honest men prosper.
nk (bb1548) — 6/5/2025 @ 5:05 pmWait until he buys Fox News.
Dave (3a0691) — 6/5/2025 @ 5:12 pmCould this all be elaborately staged kayfabe designed to get the BBB across the finish line?
Next week, taking their cue from Trump, Lindsay Graham and a few other senate invertebrates announce cosmetic and inconsequential modifications that reduce the budget black hole from $2.5T to $2.49T, while restoring the EV incentives by consigning a few million more dark-skinned children around the world to disease and starvation so the numbers work out.
Musk declares victory and praises Trump’s genius. Trump declares victory and praises Trump’s genius. Trump (of course) chickens out on all the dire consequences he has threatened. Any fence-sitters in the senate have no choice but to pretend their concerns have been addressed.
Dave (3a0691) — 6/5/2025 @ 5:28 pmRip has been speculating lately, Dave. I hope he weighs in on that theory.
BuDuh (91cb3a) — 6/5/2025 @ 5:40 pmAOC asked about the Trump/Musk feud: Oh man, the girls are fighting, aren’t they?!
Lol.
Dana (93ad91) — 6/5/2025 @ 6:35 pmFirst Putin goes crazy.
Now Musk goes crazy.
Is everybody going crazy?
nk (bb1548) — 6/5/2025 @ 6:43 pmhttps://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930798791806050496#m
BuDuh (91cb3a) — 6/5/2025 @ 7:18 pmTrump v Musk — Nevertrump catnip
lloyd (0d103f) — 6/5/2025 @ 7:24 pmAG…
If Trump could semi-resolve with Zelenskyy, maybe he could with Musk, too. However, I don’t see Musk yielding to Trump’s Big Ugly Debt Killing Bill or on tariffs, because he happens to be right on both counts.
Paul Montagu (7eb32e) — 6/5/2025 @ 7:29 pmTesla TSLA (U.S.: Nasdaq) $284.70 USD-47.35 -14.26%
Pure opportunity.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/5/2025 @ 8:33 pmThe wolves are devouring each other! Darkness at noon. Mush in desperate attempt to save tesla turns on trump. It wont work! Liberals who hate trump/mush will not buy teslas and ignornant white trash trumpsters buy non-electric trucks.
asset (039566) — 6/5/2025 @ 8:33 pm“seize SpaceX tonight before midnight.”
Uh, no. If Truman could not seize the steel mills in the middle of a war, Trump can’t seize SpaceX because he’s angry.
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer
Also, there is the “down tools” problem. I guess Bannon could hire some engineers, but C’s hire F’s.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/5/2025 @ 8:40 pmWait until he buys Fox News.
Or the Republican Party.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/5/2025 @ 8:42 pmNow, Musk should give $20 billion to Ukraine and get SpaceX building drones.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/5/2025 @ 8:45 pm@31 Who will buy tesla? Trumpsters don’t and democrats wont even in mush starts passing around money to democrat party leaders and d.n.c.
asset (039566) — 6/5/2025 @ 8:54 pmEpstein did bring up the Epstein files, and those questions won’t get answered until Trump releases all of them.
Paul Montagu (7eb32e) — 6/5/2025 @ 9:44 pmI gotta say … I’d much rather Musk was President than Trump. Low bar.
Kevin M (d27890) — 6/5/2025 @ 10:27 pmDemocrat party operatives tell mush he needs friends and their friendship can be bought. His big bucks $$$ can counter small donations from the party base to progressives ready to primary corporate establishment stooges like schumer who at least gets apac money and other drones.
asset (039566) — 6/6/2025 @ 1:33 amIn the America of song and legend, both of the filth buckets would have been tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.
nk (bb1548) — 6/6/2025 @ 3:37 amTrump breaking Musk will look fun on TV and win him votes. The problem with a plot line that looks like TV is that the clueless will love it and sheer fascist illegality will fly over their heads. Trump and his administration breaking random people in the streets or crashing the economy on a whim is better politics.
Just a hint to the folks who control the media…
Appalled (dd451f) — 6/6/2025 @ 4:56 am#34 Two excellent ideas.
Jim Miller (d7b9b0) — 6/6/2025 @ 5:03 amYes, an excellent idea. A hair-trigger, hot-tempered, Asperger’s oligarch* should start building an endless supply of armed suicide drones.
Brilliant!
*(is Musk still an oligarch?)
BuDuh (91cb3a) — 6/6/2025 @ 5:12 amOr maybe Musk should buy up all of the Trump Organization’s debt and call the notes.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/6/2025 @ 6:52 amUnless there’s a kiss-and-make-up, MAGA will throw out Musk like they threw out DeSantis.
Paul Montagu (7eb32e) — 6/6/2025 @ 7:23 amUPDATE BY PATTERICO: Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy – they hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart, they don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.
Or not.
Patterico (a9b549) — 6/6/2025 @ 7:38 amIYKYK
Patterico (a9b549) — 6/6/2025 @ 7:41 amSnicker.
nk (bb1548) — 6/6/2025 @ 7:53 amLemme repeat my earlier post:
whembly (88dc84) — 6/6/2025 @ 8:22 amUnless there’s a kiss-and-make-up, MAGA will throw out Musk like they threw out DeSantis.
Shrinking the tent further. Wait until Mrs. MAGA tries to buy clothes.
Kevin M (7c28a2) — 6/6/2025 @ 8:24 amYesterday, Merz was compelled to educate Trump on Ukrainian and Russian drone/missile strikes, that the Ukrainians are striking Russian military targets, which is legitimate under the rules of war, while Putin hits civilian targets practically daily, therefore are terrorist attacks.
The irony is that Trump still doesn’t (or won’t) understand the dynamics of Putin’s War Against Ukraine. This isn’t two kids fighting in the schoolyard, this is the Russian bully trying to take the weaker Ukrainian kid’s lunch money, and the underdog is resisting the theft.
Trump and Elon aren’t the only internet troll leaders here, because Putin is one of them, too.
Paul Montagu (7eb32e) — 6/6/2025 @ 8:24 amTrump is more likely to need Russian asylum. The world’s richest man has more choices.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/6/2025 @ 9:17 amMusk would be happier in China anyway.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/6/2025 @ 9:23 amFrom The Breakup thread:
Contracts have multiple termination clauses, such as termination for convenience, for cause, default, failure to comply with laws or regulatory compliance, breach of warranty, improper consideration, etc. so it shouldn’t be a problem to find an excuse; much like the grant agreement cancellations cancelled by the administration.
Not sure what grounds Musk would have for a lawsuit for something that hasn’t occurred.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/6/2025 @ 9:34 amMusk’s reported drug use could be grounds, since federal law requires contractors to maintain a drug-free workplace.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/6/2025 @ 9:39 amIrony: Trump is going to attempt to bankrupt a leading US car maker.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/6/2025 @ 9:43 amNot sure what grounds Musk would have for a lawsuit for something that hasn’t occurred.
The threats tanked the stock, harming the company and Musk.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/6/2025 @ 9:44 amfederal law requires contractors to maintain a drug-free workplace.
Wouldn’t they have to show that Musk used drugs in the workplace?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/6/2025 @ 9:45 am“Unless there’s a kiss-and-make-up, MAGA will throw out Musk like they threw out DeSantis.”
I wonder how “I’m sorry to have implied that you are a sex offender” is going to work?
And then, how does “Oh and you’re a drug user and I’m going to cancel all your government contracts” disappear?
It was a relationship of convenience. Trump got his campaign funding….Musk got to jump around with a chainsaw and hang out at the White House…while Tesla burned.
Sure looks like Musk got short changed, but who would have thought!? In Trump’s meager defense, DOGE really was BS on fire. What disastrous execution. If that is genius, I must be missing something.
Trump will move on but having a crazy rich guy out there lurking and itching to burn you down, can’t be a good feeling. DeSantis ultimately had a Bic lighter. Musk’s got a flamethrower and satellites that can always find you….our modern day Blofeld. I guess it’s good advice to just watch them fight for awhile and tire themselves out. What could go wrong?
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 6/6/2025 @ 9:56 amThat is the question, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Musk will be investigated by the feds because where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Violations include possessing drugs; using drugs before reporting to the office; or at the office.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/6/2025 @ 10:00 am“Shrinking the tent further”
Will it ever get as small as Nevertrump’s?
lloyd (e19e82) — 6/6/2025 @ 10:02 amYep, Musk definitely implied that. Just terrible.
Who said this?
BuDuh (91cb3a) — 6/6/2025 @ 10:05 amSource
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/6/2025 @ 10:07 amNASA without SpaceX is a Russian rocket program.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/6/2025 @ 6:51 pmI wonder what Musk knows about insider trading at the WH.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/6/2025 @ 6:52 pm