Trouble In Bromance Paradise

Elon Musk seems to have been omnipresent since the US election. The tech billionaire is constantly seen at the side of President-elect Donald Trump.

For example, shortly after Trumpledore's election victory, he stood next to the Republican's family in a photo in Mar-a-Lago. "Melania is out and Musk is in," observers from the yellow press commented jokingly on social media, talking about a "bromance" between the two men. But the inseparable duo was not only met with ridicule. Some experts described the political alliance between entrepreneur Musk and President-elect Trumpledore as highly problematic.

Since last week at the latest, criticism of the relationship between Trump and Musk has taken on a new quality. Musk, who is to work as an advisor in the government in the future, confirmed what has been rumored since Trumpledore's election victory: that he has long enjoyed considerable political influence - more than probably any other businessman without political office before him.

In the budget dispute, he flexed his muscles for the first time with clear consequences. Although there was already a bipartisan solution to prevent a so-called shutdown, Elon Musk derailed the passage of the CR (continuing resolution) to fund the US governemnt through March 14th with a tweeting (or rather x-o-gramming) on his X platform.

A billionaire who depends on the US government for billions of dollars nonetheless "commanded" Congressional Republicans to make him happy and scuttle everything and they did. They followed Elon Musk like little lap dogs desperate to please. What did Mr. Musk tweet? "You know what? Just shut the government down. We've got 33 days until the inauguration, nothing bad will go wrong. Critical services will continue and we'll fix it the way we want to fix it when we come in."

And where was Trumpledore all day, many asked. He was literally out golfing, he was literally out to lunch. An entire deal, blown to smithereens with a single x-o-gram. Billionaire baby boy took the rug out from under the Speaker of the House, the sanctimonious Mike Johnson and the golf iron swinging Trumpledore, before they even knew what was going on. The entire government was going to shut down right before X-mas until some more Democrats came in, dealt with Johnson and helped fix the passing. The subsequent media fallout has not been kind to the Republican party.

An Unexpected Defeat

Although the shutdown was averted at the last minute (not by but against Elon and Don, it seems), both Trumpledore and Musk received a lot of fair and less fair criticism. The Democrats in particular once again had a reason to accuse their pet hate boy of interfering in political processes with his own economic interests in mind instead of a a political mandate. 83-year-old left-wing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders called the 53-year-old "President Musk" on his own platform, while 74-year-old Virginia Representative Don Beyer wrote: "The Republicans are following his orders. This is crazy."

Some Republican members of Congress also expressed clear displeasure at the influence of adviser Musk. "From what I understand, Elon Musk has no voting rights in Congress," Georgia Republican Congressman Rich McCormick told CNN, adding: "Now he has influence and is putting pressure on us to do what he thinks is right for him."

The narrative of an all-powerful Musk also gained momentum on social media. Numerous users shared memes that showed Elon in the CEO's chair and Trumpledore either as his butler or as the new first lady. Others speculated about the relationship between the two bros and whether a chaotic showdown would soon follow.

As a result of all this embarrassment now even the Wallstreet Journal just woke up and smelled the coffee. With a kind of invective rarely seen, unless they are talking about progressives, the Journal just named who they thought was most responsible for the chaos in Congress and laid waste upon both men.

Throughout the presidential campaign the Wallstreet Journal had tried to play both sides to protect its core audience, the Republican establishment. But now the barrel has obviously overflowed. And so they published an episode of their "Potomac Watch" podcast titled "How Don Trumpledore and Elon Musk Blew Up The Funding Bill" (Transcript here).

Trouble in the TTT (Trumpledore Transition Team)

The idea that Elon Musk could give marching orders has long seemed to strike a dissonant chord with the president-elect's inner team. Shortly after November 5th, anonymous sources close to this circle said that Musk's permanent presence at Mar-a-Lago was "stepping on the toes of some people". But officially the team still emphasized how brilliant the partnership between the two men was. But last week there appeared to be a turning point. A spokesman insisted that the president-elect and no one else is in charge: "Trumpledore is the leader of the Republican Party. Period."

Last but not least even Trumpledore himself finally has spoken. At the TPUSA's (Turning Point USA's) annual "AmericaFest" conference in Arizona on Sunday the 78-year-old President-Elect explained: "No, he is not taking over the presidency," thus making his first clear statement on the wide spread allegations. "I am sure of that," Trumpledore emphatically emphasized. "He cannot be, he was not born in this country." But than he added praise again: "Elon has done a great job. Isn't it nice to have smart people we can rely on?" Rely on to create chaos it seems, a thing Trumpledore is known to enjoy and, if necessary, enjoys to create himself to have a reason to step in and save the day.

Questions remain

• Will Trumpledore even be able to lead his own party in Congress after January 20th?
• Will Musk's plans for the moon and Mars be accelerated or postponed?
• Will Elon and Don be too dumb to outsmart the Republican establishment and their Democratic allies?
• Will Don have enough time to go to Camp David and Mar-a-Lago and play golf?
• Will Elon think about leaving the unfriendly shores of the Potomac ad rather joining his new friend Charly Nehammer in the Austrian Government?

Despite the often repeated consent line about having an overwhelming mandate, the GOP in this moment does not seem to be very much unified. MAGA (the Make America Great Again fraction of the GOP) has the numbers but they jump to the tune of an out of control billionaire limited political experience who thinks he knows everything. Add into the equation an out of control billionaire who is a moron suffering from beginning dementia and it's easy to see that what's left of the Republican establishment wing may be weakened but ultimately will possibly turn out smarter and more wicked than the Maga wing and that the two are rarely if ever going to get along in the years to come.

It seems last week did not go so well as the glorious days and weeks before that. Let' see.