The more Donald Trump denies he's being controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, who purchased the president-elect with over $250 million in campaign spending this year, the less anyone believes him. Last week's spending battle was complex in the details, but not in the main takeaway: The Tesla CEO is leading the aging and tired Trump by the nose. Trump's sole ask of congressional Republicans going into budget negotiations was to end the debt ceiling, at least for a couple of years, to spare him the headache of negotiating it while in office. Then Musk started flipping out on Twitter about all manner of line items, seemingly spun up by random social media users named after feline waste products. Both Trump and the GOP meekly followed suit, nearly bringing government to a halt while scrambling to cut a bunch of stuff to appease Musk, who didn't even understand most of the arguments he was making.
In the end, both Musk and Trump failed to kill the bill. Musk did slightly better, getting some of his specific funding proposals, but he failed at the big-picture goal of decimating the budget. Trump, however, failed miserably, losing most GOP votes for his one goal of shutting down the debt ceiling. Most importantly, the process thoroughly exposed Musk's hold over Trump. Democrats started the "President Musk" meme, and, predictably, Trump's narcissism has led to defensiveness. First, Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt put out a statement insisting, "President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop."
It wasn't a full stop, because Trump himself stepped into the fray Sunday at a Turning Points USA event, during an especially sleepy speech. "No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you," Trump told the crowd. “And I’m safe. You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.”
The generous interpretation of this comment is that Trump is attacking a strawman, as no one thinks Musk is literally going to be president. They are accusing Musk of being the true power behind the throne. A less generous interpretation is that Trump, age 78, got confused and forgot that he doesn't have to keep campaigning. Either way, lots of folks on social media recalled the famous line from "Game of Thrones": "Any man who must say 'I am the king' is no true king at all."
I apply this Tywin quote any time someone has to make a claim about how alpha or dangerous they are. 🤷🏻♀️ That does include President-elects who have to brag about their absolutely minuscule margins of victory as well…
— Kayla Sue (@kaylasuewho.bsky.social) December 17, 2024 at 9:35 AM
In that fictional universe, the boy-king Joffrey was put to bed. In our world, the suspicion is Trump's handlers give him his phone or golf clubs to distract him, so they can get work done. Trump certainly didn't alleviate concerns that he's lost a step during that speech, in which he complained at length about Panama controlling the Panama Canal. For those unaware of the dumbest obsessions of the right nearly five decades ago, President Jimmy Carter got a lot of flack when he signed over control of the canal in 1977 (it took effect in 1999). Being mad about it today is like still being mad about the Dodgers losing the '77 World Series, except this is somehow even dumber.
Trump's advanced age contributes to suspicions that he is being puppeteered by Musk, who is 25 years younger than the official president-elect. Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., joined the discourse, releasing a video with her dog snoring as she said, "Republicans don’t know who their daddy is."
AOC on Elon Musk “They don’t know which one they should be listening to first” “as I’ve said Republicans don’t know who their daddy is”. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— Paul Eric Scannell (@pauleric70.bsky.social) December 21, 2024 at 11:03 PM
Republicans aren't exactly hiding how their heads are being turned, either. "It feels like Elon Musk is our prime minister," Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Tex., said on "Face the Nation" this weekend. Multiple GOP members of Congress floated the idea of replacing current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., with Musk. Even Johnson "jokingly" offered Musk the role.
Echoing Yale historian Timothy Snyder, Ocasio-Cortez warned that this level of capitalist capture of once-democratic systems is oligarchy. That level of power concentration is what enables outright fascism or similarly corrupt authoritarian systems, like President Vladimir Putin's dictatorship in Russia. This is especially bad for ordinary people because, as we see with Russia, oligarchs suck up increasing amounts of money, while working people struggle to survive. Americans are already struggling, due to inflation and housing shortages, and it's likely to get worse as people like Musk scheme for ways to vacuum up more cash by cutting services to the public. But that's also why, as Ocasio-Cortez said, Musk's involvement is politically toxic for Trump, as it hands Democrats an apt illustration of how Trump sides with rich parasites against working people.
It appears Trump's nominee for chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is aware it's bad news to let Musk worm his way into being the shadow president. Despite all the mainstream media hype after Trump created "DOGE" — the Department of Government Efficiency — cooler heads noticed that this Musk-led initiative is not a real government agency, but a "presidential advisory committee." These are unpaid and powerless groups, often formed to avoid real change by giving make-work to activists and donors. President Joe Biden did it to shut up people calling for Supreme Court expansion and it's a safe bet that Wiles had the same goal in creating DOGE.
Alas for her, Musk has Twitter and he uses it the same way Trump did in his first term, to rile up supporters and create so much noise that those who are putting the leader on "ignore" are forced to kowtow to whims frequently spouted in the hours when more sober people are sleeping. Musk is doing what he became unbelievably wealthy doing: stealing other people's ideas and passing them off as his own. In this case, he's swiping Trump's strategy of using Twitter mobbing tactics to work around the bureaucratic obstacles. While it didn't work this time, in terms of actually stopping the bill, it's hard to ignore that Republicans, having spent years kowtowing to Trump's narcissism, are turning their practice towards lavish public obsequiousness to Musk.
No telling how this all plays out, except that it will be chaotic. Despite Trump's victory in November, there have been strong signs for months that his cult-like grip on his followers is loosening. The Republican National Convention was a dud, and Trump's speech was a low point. One gets the strong impression that the MAGA masses are interested in a younger, more dynamic leader. While Musk seems like an odd pick, it's also true that the billionaire gets exponentially more engagement online than Trump does. When it comes to controlling GOP leaders, Musk has a real advantage. Trump's favorite tool to keep politicians in line, threatening to run a primary opponent, makes even more sense for Musk, who can offer any such person limitless financial resources.
The silver lining in all of this is that Trump and Musk are both mean-spirited narcissists. They'll struggle to avoid conflict if pitted in a "who's more powerful?" contest. Such a fight can only demobilize the GOP base as people take sides in this increasingly ugly fight. Consider how much battles like "Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton" or "Should Biden drop out?" weakened the Democratic coalition. A Musk vs. Trump battle will do the same to the GOP and could be worse since way more people in the mix are cantankerous jerks.
