Gabe Sherman at Vanity Fair has many contacts in Trump world. He reports on Elon Musk’s crazed rampage in detail and asks whether Trump’s on board:
“Trump is the king on the chessboard and Elon is a bishop. Sometimes the bishop takes the lead,” the Republican said. Plus, it’s useful for Trump if Musk takes political heat. “Trump can let the public hate Elon and Elon doesn’t care. So then Trump can come in and save a few programs and look like the restrained one. He can be ‘Trump the Merciful King.’”
But other Republicans I spoke to said Trump can’t––or won’t––challenge Musk because Trump understands Musk’s unprecedented power. Musk is reportedly worth nearly $400 billion and has more than 216 million followers on X. (Trump has less than half that follower count on X, plus an audience of 8.8 million on Truth Social.)
“How can he say no to Elon?” a former Trump campaign staffer said. “You think he wants to go to war with him?”
It’s ironic that Trump finds himself unable to control Musk, as Musk is doing to Trump what Trump did to the Republican Party. Trump gained control of the GOP by pushing the outer limits of what behavior the GOP would tolerate. Trump’s grip on the MAGA base eventually made it impossible for the establishment to rein him in. Musk has a similar psychic hold over his massive fan base, which gives him significant leverage over Trump. Trump also knows that Musk is willing to out-crazy him.
“Elon is autistic and that scares people. He’s unpredictable and prone to tantrums,” another Trump ally said. (In 2021, while hosting Saturday Night Live, Musk disclosed publicly that he had a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder.)
That said, the longer the “President Musk” memes continue, the more Trump might be motivated to act. It’s been a truism since Trump descended the golden escalator in 2015 that there can only be one star in the Trump show. “Trump has a limit to others getting credit,” a prominent Republican strategist told me. Musk’s falling popularity could also hasten Musk’s defenestration. An Economist/YouGov poll recently found that Musk’s Republican support has dropped 21 points since shortly after Election Day. “Elon is going to blow himself up,” the Trump ally said.
I think we all expected Trump to tire of him before now and he hasn’t so who knows? I do think it gives Trump way too much credit to say that he’s strategically allowing Musk to take the heat so he can be the good guy. There’s no evidence that Trump thinks like that at all. I think it’s far more likely that Trump just doesn’t care much about what Musk is doing and until it causes him a problem he’s happy to let him do it.
Remember, Trump didn’t run on slashing and burning the entire government. He ran on destroying the Deep State which he sees as anyone in the government who isn’t 100% loyal to him personally. He wants vengeance. He wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He wants to make money.
Musk is destroying the government to reorder the way the world is structured for his own benefit. Those aren’t the same things.
Musk knows exactly how to play him: