Nah. Not even Trump can control him.
The staff is “furious” about it:
A White House official said Musk “very much” got over his skis when the tech tycoon launched a daylong screed against the AI project. One Trump ally said Musk abused his closeness to the president. Another Republican close to the White House went further, saying Trump’s staff is “furious” over Musk using his massive social media platform to pour cold water on the infrastructure deal that Trump called “tremendous” and “monumental” just a day prior.
“It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president,” said the Trump ally. “The problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.”
What’s this all about?
Musk, who owns his own AI startup, was not at Trump’s unveiling of “Stargate,” an effort to supercharge the country’s AI infrastructure featuring the tech giants OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, has long been critical of its CEO Sam Altman and spent much of Wednesday trolling him online. “They don’t actually have the money,” he said. Softbank, meanwhile, “has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
But Trump, when asked by reporters about Musk blasting the deal said, “The government’s not putting up anything. They’re putting up money. They’re very rich people, so I hope they do. And, I mean, Elon doesn’t like one of those people.”
Trump said it did not bother him that Musk criticized the deal, saying, “No, it doesn’t. He hates one of the people in the deal.”
Right. The two little geniuses battled it out on Twitter like real men:
Musk seems to favor another AI investor, saying Microsoft’s Satya Nadella “definitely does have the money.” Musk even reposted a joke that suggested Altman and his team smoked crack “to come up with their $500 billion number for Stargate.” Altman shot back at Musk on X: “i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put 🇺🇸 first.”
This is exactly how you would assume the president of the United States would run the country. I’m just glad he isn’t old. Oh wait. He is.
This is a ridiculous story and a ridiculous situation. I’m not sure that there’s any reason to even care about at this point. But there is one thing in the article that caught my eye that might just be important. The staffer said, ” the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.” What are we to make of this except that Musk has Trump by the cojones?
I expect it has something to do with $$$$, perhaps the Bitcoin scam or the rumors that he plans to buy Truth Social for big bucks. Whatever it is, Elon’s obviously not afraid of Trump and will say and do whatever he wants. He already demonstrated that during the near government shutdown battle before Christmas.
Trump can’t control him and we have no idea what that means for the country.