{"id":2775,"date":"2025-01-25T00:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T22:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.AVNERFALK.NET\/?page_id=2775"},"modified":"2025-08-01T20:24:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T18:24:28","slug":"first-buddy-donald-trump-and-elon-musk","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.AVNERFALK.NET\/?page_id=2775","title":{"rendered":"First Buddy: Donald Trump and Elon Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Now that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are rivals and enemies, with Musk trying to form a political party that will defeat Trump\u2019s Republicans in the 2026 elections, it is time to look back at the dramatic course of their tormented relationship, which moved from antagonists to close friends and then into sworn enemies. There is much more to the Trump-Musk affair than meets the eye.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elon Musk is twenty-five years Donald Trump\u2019s junior. Musk was emotionally abused and traumatized by his father as a child. He learned to repress his anger and aggression and to survive by trying to appease a furious father. Donald Trump, on the other hand, was emotionally abandoned by his mother at age two and kicked out of home and school by his father at age thirteen. He has a violent nature. He incites others to violence and enjoys it vicariously, as he during the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021. Trump\u2019s scripted body-slamming of Vince McMahon and having his head shaved by musclemen in the boxing ring at WrestleMania 2007 was a \u201csublimated\u201d expression of his violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trump-Musk relationship involves unconscious idealizing and mirroring transference. Both men are very ambitious but are also damaged individuals who harbor within themselves rage at parental figures from their early lives. Musk, however, may unconsciously provoke Trump into the same kind of rage at him that he suffered from his father. This is known as the \u201crepetition compulsion.\u201d The trauma inflicted by the father on Elon and suffered passively and helplessly is actively repeated with a father figure like Trump in a vain unconscious attempt to master the traumatic situation. Both Trump and Musk are narcissistic and each sees himself in the other as in a mirror.
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Trump is said to be annoyed with Musk\u2019s public feuds and with the public perception that Musk is the \u201creal power\u201d behind his presidency. At some point Trump may have a fit of rage at Musk, who has declared himself Trump\u2019s \u201cfirst buddy\u201d and who takes liberties with Trump. Musk and Trump may clash on issues such as the H-1B visa program and China policy, which could strain their alliance. Trump is said to be privately complaining about Musk being \u201cclingy\u201d and frequently dropping by unannounced. Musk\u2019s aggressive critiques of allied leaders and his involvement in international politics may test Trump\u2019s patience. While their partnership was founded on mutual interests, particularly in defeating the Democrats, their differing views on future priorities and power sharing (and their emotional problems) may lead to a souring of the relationship, if not to an explosive rupture. Trump will only keep Musk as long as he can use him and his money for his own ends.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us recall the tortuous development of the Trump-Musk relationship. After Twitter was created in 2006, Donald Trump became an inveterate \u201ctweeter.\u201d In 2016, when Trump first ran for President, Musk was an opponent of Trump, pronouncing him unfit to be President. By 2022 Musk was a key Trump ally, whose money helped Trump get re-elected.[1]<\/a>\u00a0Trump \u201ctweeted\u201d endlessly, until he was suspended from Twitter in early 2021 for having incited the U.S. Capitol riot. Trump then created his own \u201cTruth Social\u201d website, where he continued to \u201ctweet\u201d on a daily basis. In 2022 Trump\u2019s new ally, Elon Musk, the founder and owner of Tesla and SpaceX and the world\u2019s richest man, bought Twitter, renaming it\u00a0X,\u00a0<\/em>and let Trump \u201ctweet\u201d on it again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk turned\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0into \u201ca far- right radicalization machine.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0Musk was one of Trump\u2019s emotionally-damaged fans, a deeply traumatized man. In his native South Africa he had been emotionally abused by his father, who constantly berated Elon and told him he was worthless. At school, Elon had been severely beaten by other students. His brother recalled an incident where \u201cfour or five guys\u201d attacked Elon, \u201cbeating him senseless\u201d to the point where he was nearly unrecognizable. At home, Elon\u2019s father, Errol Musk, himself an obviously disturbed individual, made Elon the scapegoat for all his problems. Elon\u2019s brother described it as \u201ctorture,\u201d stating that their father made both of them stand up for two to three hours while verbally upbraiding them.[3]<\/a>\u00a0In the same way Donald Trump and his father had constantly berated Donald\u2019s elder brother Freddy, who became an alcoholic and did at a young age.<\/span><\/p>\n

Growing up in apartheid-era South Africa, Elon Musk had witnessed murderous violence, seeing a man fatally stabbed on a train, which further traumatized him. To \u201ctoughen him up\u201d (or to get him killed), Elon\u2019s father sent him to a wilderness survival camp, where bullying was encouraged and children were forced to fight over food and water. Some children died. Elon Musk was a \u201cparamilitary Lord of the Flies.\u201d The abuse Musk experienced as a child has had a lifelong effect on him. Musk\u2019s biographer, Walter Isaacson, thought that these experiences left Musk with a lifelong post-traumatic stress disorder.[4]<\/a>\u00a0Some mental health experts have diagnosed Musk\u2019s symptoms as \u201ccomplex post-traumatic stress disorder\u201d due to the prolonged and varied nature of the abuse he had endured. These traumatic experiences shaped Musk\u2019s personality and his drive. Both Elon and his brother have said that their difficult upbringing instilled in them a fear of failure and a determination to succeed.[5]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Back in 2015, at an election rally, Trump had sadistically mocked the disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski,[6]<\/a>\u00a0a Pulitzer Prize winner who suffered from congenital arthrogryposis that contracted his right arm. Trump publicly imitated Kovaleski\u2019s \u201cfunny\u201d posture,\u00a0[7]<\/a>\u00a0falsely claiming that Kovaleski had accused the people of New Jersey of cheering at the fall of the World Trade Center in 2001. Kovaleski vehemently denied it.[8]<\/a>\u00a0Trump\u2019s unconscious mind, however, was saying, \u201cIf this guy is so distorted, disabled, and damaged, then I am strong, healthy, and omnipotent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Like other tyrants, Donald Trump receives narcissistic pleasure from putting others down. In his unconscious mind, if he can shame and humiliate other people, then he cannot be shamed and humiliated himself. At the Golden Globe Awards ceremony in 2017, the eminent actress Meryl Streep[9]<\/a>\u00a0expressed the horror and the outrage of many millions of Americans at Trump\u2019s outrageous cruelty.[10]<\/a>\u00a0In response, Trump viciously attacked Streep on Twitter,<\/em>\u00a0calling her \u201can overrated actress.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0Four years later his Twitter account was \u201cpermanently\u201d suspended[12]<\/a>\u00a0but was restored by Elon Musk after he bought Twitter and renamed it X.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s owner Jeff Bezos was another billionaire who at first opposed Trump. In retaliation, Trump falsely attacked Amazon for \u201cripping off the U.S. Postal Service\u201d by paying it rock-bottom bulk postal rates. Fact checkers found that the U.S. Postal Service\u2019s business arrangement with Amazon was no different from its deals with any other bulk shipper, and that the USPS was actually making money on its Amazon shipments.[13]<\/a>\u00a0Jeff Bezos himself responded wittily, referring to his own spacecraft, Blue Origin, and saying, \u201cFinally trashed by Trump. Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket.\u201d Bezos added a link to a Twitter account named \u201cSend Donald to Space.\u201d[14]<\/a>\u00a0By 2024 both Musk and Bezos had become Trump supporters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s relationship with Musk has had its ups and downs. In late 2016 Musk had said that Trump \u201cdid not have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States\u201d and that Trump\u2019s election was \u201cnot the finest moment in our democracy.\u201d[15]<\/a>\u00a0Unlike Jeff Bezos, however, Elon Musk joined several economic panels advising Trump, saying \u201cThe more voices of reason that the President hears, the better.\u201d[16]<\/a>\u00a0In 2017 Musk resigned from Trump\u2019s councils in protest after Trump had withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change.[17]<\/a>\u00a0In 2022, however, Musk became a key Trump ally, creating a Super PAC in 2024 to help Trump\u2019s re-election campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, the third member of their \u201cprivate space club,\u201d Richard Branson,[18]<\/a>\u00a0the owner of Virgin Galactic, was not an American. In 2016 Branson recalled that Trump had invited him to a bizarre face-to-face meeting at which Trump told Branson that he was going to \u201cspend the rest of his life destroying\u201d five people who had refused to lend him money after his latest bankruptcy.[19]<\/a>\u00a0Branson had told Trump that being consumed with vengeance \u201cwas going to eat him up, and do more damage to him than to them,\u201d but Trump\u2019s vindictiveness was too powerful. Branson did not name the five individuals whom Trump had vowed to destroy.[20]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Constant lying was a symptom of Trump\u2019s perversion of truth and reality. Tucker Carlson was a fast-talking far-right Trump fan who lied almost as frequently as Trump himself. Carlson\u2019s talk show on Fox News was canceled and Carlson himself was fired. After Trump\u2019s fan Elon Musk bought Twitter and renamed it\u00a0X<\/em>, Carlson\u2019s show was revived as\u00a0Tucker on X<\/em>. On August 23, 2023, the day of the first Republican presidential nomination debate for the 2024 election, Carlson hosted Trump on his show. The idea was to tell Trump\u2019s Republican rivals that he was the only candidate with any chances of being nominated.<\/span><\/p>\n

On September 6, 2023, Carlson interviewed a shady character named Larry Sinclair, who had a criminal record, and who falsely claimed that he had \u201chad a night of crack cocaine-fueled sex with Barack Obama\u201d 24 years earlier. The interview was criticized by many viewers, including Elon Musk. In February 2024 Carlson traveled to Russia to interview President Vladimir Putin, the murderous autocrat who had invaded Ukraine and caused over a million casualties, let alone killing all his opponents, the latest one being Alexei Navalny. On October 27, 2024, Carlson was one of the warm-up speakers at Trump\u2019s racist election rally in New York City\u2019s Madison Square Garden, where Carlson delivered a vulgar, hateful and arrogant speech. Elon Musk also spoke at that meeting. He was in a hypomanic mood and waved his arms above his head as he jumped up and down euphorically.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in 2021 Trump had seethed with rage at his humiliation by Twitter\u2019s Jack Dorsey, Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg, and Google\u2019s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who had permanently suspended his accounts on their media. Cutting off his access to Twitter was a kind of political castration for Trump.[21]<\/a>\u00a0Trump appealed his ban to Facebook\u2019s Oversight Board, which turned him down. That summer Trump filed class-action lawsuits against Twitter, Meta, Google, and their owners, complaining that they \u201cdiscriminated against conservatives.\u201d[22]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In the fall of 2021 Trump filed another court motion asking a federal judge to order Twitter to reinstate his account,[23]<\/a>\u00a0saying nothing about his incitement to violence in the Capitol insurrection early that year. His lawsuits faced a formidable judicial precedent. In 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that newspapers could not be forced to publish replies from politicians they had criticized.[24]<\/a>\u00a0In the end Elon Musk came to Trump\u2019s rescue. He bought Twitter, renamed it\u00a0X<\/em>, and reinstated Trump\u2019s account. In 2024 Musk became a major Trump ally, moving into Mar-a-Lago and calling himself Trump\u2019s \u201cfirst buddy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On the day Trump was re-elected, November 5, 2024, the racist far-right activist Nick Fuentes posted a misogynist video on Musk\u2019s\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0website in which he confronted abortion-rights activists outside his home. The video was titled \u201cYour Body. My choice. Forever.\u201d[25]<\/a>\u00a0This phrase became \u201cviral.\u201d During the 24 hours between November 7 and November 8, 2024 the posting of misogynist phrases like \u201cYour body, my choice\u201d and \u201cGet back to the kitchen\u201d on\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0increased forty-six-fold.[26]<\/a>\u00a0Trump did not denounce the misogynist messages. They reflected his own feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n

On November 8, 2024 Trump delivered a victory speech at which he praised Elon Musk, the eccentric billionaire whose money had helped Trump win the election. Trump called Musk a \u201cnew star in the Republican Party\u201d and said, \u201cHe\u2019s an amazing guy. We love you, Elon!\u201d To the chagrin of Trump\u2019s other aides and advisers, Musk assumed a key role in Trump\u2019s inner circle and in the Republican Party without ever having been elected to any political office.<\/span><\/p>\n

On August 13, 2024, with Kamala Harris threatening to defeat Donald Trump, Elon Musk had audio-interviewed Trump for a full two hours on\u00a0X<\/em>. Musk had become a major Trump supporter. He had set up a Super PAC named America PAC in order to win eight hundred thousand voters for Trump in the \u201cswing states.\u201d His political beginning was inauspicious. Musk had overhauled the leadership of his Super PAC less than three months after launching it.\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0thought that \u201cMusk is tackling the election effort in his signature hands-on, chaos-be-damned style, echoing his 2022 takeover of Twitter and early efforts to meet Tesla\u2019s production goals. Whether he and the team he has assembled succeed could be an important part of the election puzzle, and some Republican political operatives said they fear the early stumbles could be costly for the Trump campaign.\u201d[27]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Like Donald Trump, and like many of his associates who had criminal records, Elon Musk had his own problems with the law. His companies\u2019 shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2018 Musk had been charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with falsely promoting his company with a \u201ctweet\u201d saying that he had secured enough funding for making Tesla private (removing its shares from the stock exchange and buying out its shareholders).<\/span><\/p>\n

The SEC lawsuit characterized Elon Musk\u2019s \u201ctweet\u201d as false, misleading, and damaging to shareholders, and sought to bar Musk from serving as the CEO of any publicly traded company. Musk\u2019s lawyers settled the lawsuit with the SEC without admitting guilt. Musk himself and his Tesla Corporation were fined $20 million each. Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla\u2019s board chairman but remained its CEO. In 2019 Musk once again falsely \u201ctweeted\u201d a promotional message for his company, saying that Tesla would build half a million electric cars that year. The SEC sued him again. Tesla\u2019s shareholders also sued Musk over this \u201ctweet.\u201c Musk had good lawyers, however, and in 2023 a jury found him not liable for damages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elon Musk seems to share with Donald Trump a penchant for volatility, instability and unpredictability. Both men are damaged individuals with what look like borderline personalities. Trump has been married three times. Musk has been married and divorced three times, the last two with the same woman. In his rambling two-hour audio interview with Musk on August 12, 2024 Trump re-hashed his old lies and his venomous invective. A BBC fact check found most of his statements false.[28]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Trump attacked the \u201ctwenty million illegal immigrants\u201d in the U.S. (a vastly exaggerated figure) as the world\u2019s worst criminals and denounced Kamala Harris as the \u201cborder czar\u201d who had let them in.[29]<\/a>\u00a0The Musk-Trump interview began inauspiciously with a technical glitch that prevented many users from hearing the conversation for forty-one minutes. In the end some 1.1 million people listened to the interview. Trump\u2019s campaign managers falsely claimed that a\u00a0billion<\/em>\u00a0people [sic] had tuned in to his interview.[30]<\/a>\u00a0Some 25 million people may have listened to the\u00a0recording<\/em>\u00a0of the interview, but the one billion figure for those who tuned in was outlandish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk claimed that the 41-minute delay in beginning the interview had been caused by a \u201cmassive cyber-attack\u201d on X, but X insiders said that there was a \u201c99% likelihood\u201d that this claim was false. Internet security firms monitoring global hacking threats did not record unusual levels of traffic to X during the time of the alleged attack, and other parts of X were functioning normally during the interview, which is atypical for a large-scale cyber-attack. The real causes of the glitch were probably server overload, reduced staff and unforced errors. Moreover, this was not the first time\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0had experienced technical difficulties and glitches during a high-profile political event. A similar incident had occurred during Ron DeSantis\u2019s presidential campaign announcement in May 2023, which also faced live stream problems on the\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0platform.[31]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

During the interview, at Musk\u2019s request, Trump recounted the failed assassination attempt against him a month earlier. Trump had announced that he would only share the story once, at the Republican convention the previous month, yet during his interview with Musk on August 12, 2024 he again discussed it in detail, saying he would revisit the site in October. Trump was convinced that God had saved his life so that he could save America. \u201cIt was a miracle. If I hadn\u2019t turned my head, I would not be talking to you right now, as much as I like you,\u201d Trump told Musk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump then returned to his current obsession, Kamala Harris. Trump said that Harris was \u201ca terrible woman\u201d and that \u201cshe was getting a free ride.\u201d However, he said he had just seen the picture of Harris on the cover of TIME magazine, and \u201cshe looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live. It was a drawing [sic], and actually, she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania. She didn\u2019t look like Kamala, but of course, she\u2019s a beautiful woman, so we\u2019ll leave it at that.\u201d[32]<\/a>\u00a0By calling Kamala Harris \u201ca beautiful woman\u201d Trump had alleviated his fear of her as the female prosecutor who would bring him down and put him in jail (and his unconscious fear that she would devour or castrate him). He knew how to deal with beautiful women \u2014 put them in beauty pageants, flatter them, abuse them sexually \u2014 but had no idea how to deal with a political opponent like Kamala Harris.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his audio interview with Musk, Trump sounded like a man who lisped and slurred his words. Was this due to his anxiety and to his regressed emotional state, caused by the \u201cterrible\u201d Kamala Harris, who unconsciously represented the mother-witch of his infancy? Trump acknowledged that his voice had sounded \u201cstrange and different\u201d during the interview but attributed this to technical problems. He later posted on X a clearer version of the interview which his technical aides had recorded at his end, and wrote on his \u201cTruth Social\u201d website, \u201cUnfortunately, because of the complexity of modern day equipment, and cellphone technology, my voice was, in certain areas, somewhat different and strange. Therefore, we have put out an actual, and perfect, recording of the conversation. ENJOY!!!”[33]<\/a>\u00a0Few people bothered to listen to the entire two-hour interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

Philip Elliott thought that Kamala Harris had made Donald Trump panic: \u201cHe has yet to figure out how to run against a Black woman two decades his junior who is matching him if not lapping him in crowds and fundraising. Instead of pushing for traditional on-the-ground campaign infrastructure, he clings to bogus claims that Harris\u2019 campaign photo-shopped a crowd of 15,000 in Detroit and blames Democrats for the bullet that nicked his ear. In private, according to reporting from\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>, Trump has used a sexist pejorative to describe Harris, an allegation Trump\u2019s allies deny.\u201d[34]<\/a>\u00a0The \u201csexist pejorative\u201d alluded to by Elliott was \u201cbitch.\u201d Calling Harris a bitch allayed Trump\u2019s fear of her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elon Musk repeatedly clashed with authorities and father figures. In Brazil, the fascist government of Jair Bolsonaro had been replaced by the leftist government of Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva. In late August 2024 Musk refused the Brazilian supreme court\u2019s orders to suspend certain far-right Brazilian\u00a0X\u00a0<\/em>accounts. Musk closed X\u2019s Brazilian offices and fired all its Brazilian employees. In retaliation, the Brazilian supreme court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, ordered the \u201cimmediate, complete and total suspension of X\u2019s operations\u201d in Brazil \u201cuntil all [Brazilian] court orders [\u2026] are complied with, fines are duly paid, and a new legal representative for the company is appointed in the country.\u201d The judge froze the assets of Musk\u2019s companies in Brazil to collect the fines he had levied on\u00a0X.[35]<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

After weeks of resistance and a total Brazilian ban on X, Musk appeared to have submitted to Moraes\u2019s demands. He blocked the required far-right Brazilian X accounts. Musk appointed the Brazilian lawyer Rachel de Oliveira Conceicao X\u2019s his legal representative in Brazil. Musk paid the imposed fines, with Brazilian banks deducting a total of $3.3 million from the bank accounts of X and Starlink. On September 21, 2024, however, the Court demanded that Musk\u2019s X present documents validating the identity and appointment of its Brazilian representative within five days. On September 26 Musk\u2019s X filed a petition with the Court requesting that its service be reinstated in Brazil, and confirming its compliance with the court\u2019s orders. Justice Alexandre de Moraes was not satisfied, imposing a new fine on Musk.[36]<\/a>\u00a0The eccentric billionaire was once more fighting a father figure.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the U.S. presidential election of 2024, Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democrat who became a far-right Trump fan, and who supported Putin\u2019s war on Ukraine, helped Trump win the vote of far-right, white supremacist and other disgruntled voters on the political fringe.[37]<\/a>\u00a0He received big donations to his campaign chest from Miriam Farbstein Adelson, the widow of the multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson (1933-2021), as well as from the billionaires Tim Mellon, Elon Musk, Dick and Liz Uihlein, and Linda McMahon. Kamala Harris\u2019s donors included Reid Hoffman, George and Alex Soros, Mike Bloomberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Jeffrey Katzenberg. By early September 2024 Harris had raised $540 million while Trump\u2019s campaign reported having raised $327 million.[38]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday evening, October 5, 2024, Trump held an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the first attempt on his life had been made that summer. Elon Musk, who had become one of Trump\u2019s key advisers, made a surprise appearance at the rally, in what seemed to be a hypomanic state. \u201cHe hopped onstage. He bounced. He jumped like a Pixy Stix-enhanced toddler who was up well past his bedtime.\u201d[39]<\/a>\u00a0Musk had been abused and traumatized by his father as a child. Was he unconsciously repeating the same kind of abusive relationship with Trump, who would be sure to fire Musk as soon the latter gained enough power to threaten him? Musk\u2019s hypomanic behavior, including jumping on stage in an ecstatic state, persisted through Trump\u2019s final rally at New York City\u2019s Madison Square Garden.<\/span><\/p>\n

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On October 18, 2024, the American Lincoln scholar Sidney Blumenthal predicted that Trump, like Hitler, would \u201cchannel the aesthetics of the Nazis, their\u00a0F\u00fchrer<\/em>\u00a0cult, and their violent world view to his own attempt to take total control of America and make himself its dictator.\u201d[40]<\/a>\u00a0Nine days later, on Sunday evening, October 27, 2024, during the warm-up speeches preceding Trump\u2019s at his Madison Square Garden rally, Tucker Carlson, who had been fired from Fox News for his far-right extremism and personal arrogance, repeated his vulgar act where he thanked Trump for enabling him \u201cto tell the truth about the world around us.\u201d Carlson falsely called the Jamaican-Indian born U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris \u201cyour first Samoan-Malaysian low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.\u201d [sic].[41]<\/a>\u00a0Elon Musk jumped onstage in a hypomanic state, as he had during Trump\u2019s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, three weeks earlier. After Trump won the election on November 5, the value of Musk\u2019s Tesla company rose by 39% or about $70 billion.[42]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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For an inveterate liar like Tucker Carlson to publicly thank a greater liar like Trump for enabling him\u00a0to tell the truth<\/em>\u00a0to the world was mind boggling. It was a looking-glass world where fair was foul and foul was fair. The other warm-up speakers at the Madison Square Garden rally hurled racist barbs at Harris and her Democrats.[43]<\/a>\u00a0Elon Musk jumped wildly and exuberantly on the stage in what looked like a hypomanic state. A vulgar forty-year-old comedian named Tony Hinchcliffe made lewd and racist jokes about Latinos, Jews and African Americans and insulted the almost six million Puerto Rican Americans by calling Puerto Rico \u201ca floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.\u201d Trump\u2019s campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said, \u201cThis joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,\u201d but the damage had been done. Trump risked losing the votes not only of Puerto Rican voters but of all Latino voters.<\/span><\/p>\n

On November 10, 2024 Trump posted a message on\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0which read like a royal decree. He ordered the Republican Senators who were running for Senate Majority Leader to endorse \u201crecess appointments\u201d for his nominees to federal positions, beginning with his cabinet secretaries. His message read, \u201cAny Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner. Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY! Additionally, no Judges should be approved during this period of time because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. THANK YOU!\u201d\u00a0[44]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In an obvious attempt to do away with federal agencies and officials who stood in his way, the autocratic Trump named Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who had run against Trump in the Republican presidential primaries) to head a new federal \u201cDepartment of Government Efficiency\u201d (DOGE) that would make \u201cdrastic changes\u201d in the federal government to make it more efficient. It was an Orwellian name. The right name for Musk and Ramaswamy\u2019s new agency would have been \u201cDepartment of Axing Trump\u2019s Opponents\u201d(DATO). Trump wanted the odd couple to do the dirty work of eliminating from the federal goverment all agencies and employees who opposed his dictatorial way of governing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Referring to the Manhattan Project that built the atom bomb during the Second World War, Trump said this new Department would be \u201cthe Manhattan Project\u201d of this era, driving drastic change throughout the government with major cuts and new efficiencies in bloated federal agencies by July 4, 2026. \u201cA smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence,\u201d Mr. Trump wrote in a public statement. \u201cI am confident they will succeed!\u201d Behind the \u201cefficiency\u201d lay Trump\u2019s wish to rid himself of tens of thousands of federal officials who opposed his fascist plans by eliminating their agencies and their positions and replacing them with his loyalists.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s nominations made it clear that he was going the fascist way, picking criminal, questionable and corrupt figures loyal to him for his key appointments so he could personally take over the federal government and become its sole ruler. Robert Kennedy Jr., his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, had made unfounded statements about COVID-19, claiming that the virus was designed to affect Caucasians and Black people disproportionately, and that Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people were more immune to the virus. Kennedy had also opposed COVID-19 vaccinations, the only serious way of dealing with the pandemic. The eccentric billionaire Elon Musk would head Trump\u2019s Orwellian named \u201cDepartment of Government Efficiency,\u201d better known as DOGE, whose real task was to kill democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

On November 25, 2024, Donald Trump gave an interview in his Mar-a-Lago fortress to the editors of TIME magazine, who had chosen him their Person of the Year for the second time since 2016 and splashed his photograph on the magazine\u2019s cover for the 36th<\/sup>\u00a0time since he first made that cover in early 1989. In his interview with the TIME magazine editors, published on December 12, Trump made light of the obvious conflicts of interest for Elon Musk, whose companies had received over $15 billion in federal contracts over ten years, and who stood to have billions more in federal funds funneled his way in the years to come. In 2023 alone Musk\u2019s companies were promised $3 billion from almost 100 different contracts across 17 different U.S. agencies.[45]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Seventy-two days had passed from August 24, 2024, when Trump was endorsed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to November 5, when he was re-elected. In a possible allusion to Michael Wolff\u2019s book\u00a0Fire and<\/em>\u00a0Fury<\/em>, and in an unconscious expression of his own fury, Trump called his \u201cflawless\u201d election campaign of 2024 \u201c72 Days of Fury.\u201d[46]<\/a>\u00a0During his first presidency Trump had threatened North Korea with \u201cfire and fury like the world has never seen.\u201d His TIME magazine interview, like everything else he said publicly, was riddled with lies and falsehoods.[47]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

During the 2024 election campaign Trump had used the three most prominent people who had joined him, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Elon Musk and Tulsi Gabbard, to advance his campaign and to run his transition team. After his re-election, Trump\u2019s transition team was co-chaired by Howard Lutnick, Trump\u2019s nominee for Secretary of Commerce, and by Linda McMahon, his nominee for Education Secretary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elon Musk appointed himself Trump\u2019s \u201cFirst Buddy,\u201d an allusion to the First Lady, and began to throw his weight around Trump\u2019s transition team. Musk had moved into a $2,000-per-night cottage at Mar-a-Lago. At a Mar-a-Lago dinner with outside guests, Musk clashed with Trump\u2019s Russian-born lawyer and adviser Boris Epshteyn, accusing Epshteyn of leaking information to reporters about Trump\u2019s transition team, including his Cabinet picks. Two weeks later the world discovered that Epshteyn stood accused of soliciting payments from potential Trump appointees in exchange for promoting them for jobs in the new Trump administration. Trump reportedly ordered his legal team to investigate the allegations.[48]<\/a>\u00a0Epshteyn was yet another Trump aide tainted with a criminal record. There were many others.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Musk-Epshteyn altercation came during dinner at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago club on November 13, 2024, and reportedly produced a \u201cmassive blowup\u201d and a \u201chuge explosion.\u201d Musk, whose father had repeatedly berated him as a child, criticized Epshteyn\u2019s advice about nominations for the Justice Department, especially that of the far-right Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Gaetz later withdrew his name from the nomination. Musk questioned the qualifications of the people Epshteyn had recommended for positions in the Justice Department and for White House Counsel. Musk also accused Epshteyn of leaking information about Trump\u2019s personnel decisions to the media. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about!\u201d Epshteyn reportedly shouted at Musk, who had also pushed for the co-chair of Trump\u2019s transition team, Howard Lutnick, a billionaire Wall Street executive, to be named Treasury Secretary, over the favored candidate, Wall Street veteran Scott Bessent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk praised the Argentinian president Javier Milei\u2019s decision to cut tariffs on imports \u2014 the very tariffs that Trump wanted to raise by 25% for Canada and Mexico in the U.S. \u201cBessent is a business-as-usual choice [for Treasury Secretary], whereas [Lutnick] will actually enact change,\u201d Musk posted on his\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0website. \u201cBusiness-as-usual is driving America bankrupt.\u201d[49]<\/a>\u00a0As if to put Musk in his place, Trump picked Bessent over Lutnick for Treasury Secretary.[50]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Reportedly irritated by Lutnick\u2019s constant presence at Mar-a-Lago (as well as by Musk\u2019s), Trump nominated Lutnick for his Commerce Secretary rather than for his Treasury Secretary.[51]<\/a>\u00a0Trump could only officially nominate his Cabinet secretaries after he came into office again, however, and they would have to be confirmed by the Senate after Trump\u2019s inauguration on January 20, 2025. The perverse purpose of his early nomination announcements in November 2024 was to get the American public and politicians used to the idea of unconventional, unsavory and criminal characters serving in his cabinet. It was a political strategy right out of the fascist playbook.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elon Musk, a man deeply traumatized by an abusive childhood, began to learn \u201cthe cutthroat politics of Donald Trump\u2019s inner circle.\u201d Musk was an outsider and a newcomer to Trump\u2019s politics. One journalist pointed out that \u201cfor the first 53 years of his life, Elon Musk barely spent any time with Donald J. Trump. Then, beginning on the night of Nov. 5, he spent basically no time without him [\u2026] Most of the people who now surround Mr. Trump in the transition are battle-tested aides from his past fights, or decades-long personal friends. Mr. Musk is neither. What he brings instead are his 200 million followers on X and the roughly $200 million he spent to help elect Mr. Trump. Both of those have greatly impressed the president-elect. Mr. Trump, gobsmacked by Mr. Musk\u2019s willingness to lay off 80 percent of the staff at X, has said the tech billionaire will help lead a Department of Government Efficiency alongside Vivek Ramaswamy.\u201d[52]<\/a>\u00a0Placing two men, rather than one, at the helm of this new Department would ensure that neither of them became too powerful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk and Ramaswamy published an article in the conservative\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0about their plan for the new Department of Government Efficiency. \u201cThe entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long. That\u2019s why we\u2019re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won\u2019t just write reports or cut ribbons. We\u2019ll cut costs. We are assisting the Trump transition team to identify and hire a lean team of small-government crusaders, including some of the sharpest technical and legal minds in America. This team will work in the new administration closely with the White House Office of Management and Budget.\u201d[53]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Musk and Ramaswamy proudly \u201ctweeted\u201d on Musk\u2019s\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0about their cost-cutting plan, which, they said, would cut two trillion dollars from the U.S. federal budget of 6.1 trillion dollars, eliminating the U.S. federal budget deficit and, eventually, the U.S. national debt (the cumulative total of all past budget deficits minus any surpluses), which stood at 35.8 trillion dollars. However, their plan was based primarily on cutting vital services to Americans public rather than on increasing the revenue of the U.S. treasury. If enacted, their plan would bring about a \u201csignificant disruption in services that Americans have come to expect.\u201d[54]<\/a>\u00a0Trump had chosen two billionaires who, like him, had no empathy for the needs and wishes of common people.<\/span><\/p>\n

On November 19, 2024, Donald Trump attended the launch of Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX Starship in Brownsville, Texas. Just as the far-right militias supporting Trump, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, were paramilitary forces, Elon Musk was a \u201cparamonetary force,\u201d described as \u201cunofficial forces, operating outside the government and skirting the boundaries of legality, willing to do what the legitimate forces will not.\u201d[55]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Ruth Ben-Ghiat called Musk \u201ca new and sinister force in government.\u201d[56]<\/a>\u00a0In February 2023 a disgruntled Musk had ordered his engineers to tweak the\u00a0X<\/em>\u00a0algorithm after his \u201ctweet\u201d during the Super Bowl (the annual championship game of the U.S. National Football League) failed to achieve as much notice as a \u201ctweet\u201d from Joe Biden.[57]<\/a>\u00a0Without being elected or confirmed by anyone, Musk holds a position of great power in Trump\u2019s government. On December 7, 2024 Musk joined Trump at the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris as if he were the equal of President Macron and all the other dignitaries and heads of state who attended.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elon Musk, the world\u2019s wealthiest man and a key figure in Trump\u2019s return to power, was \u201cfar from a neutral player in the deep-pocketed intersection of government and private partners.\u201d[58]<\/a>\u00a0Unless Musk divested himself of his companies, any funding or cost-cutting decision he made at DOGE could be in his own interest. The Democratic U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren urged Trump to make Musk either divest his interests or ensure that his advice to the president stays clear of areas where he has financial conflicts. This would mean complying with stringent conflict of interest rules that federal employees follow.[59]<\/a>\u00a0Trump laughed such rules to scorn.<\/span><\/p>\n

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On January 20, 2025, during a speech at the post-inauguration celebration for President Donald Trump at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. Elon Musk twice waved his arm to the crowd \u2014 first to the crowd in front of him, he then turned around and waved it to the crowd behind him \u2014 in a gesture that looked very much like the Nazi-style salute. The incident occurred while Musk was addressing a crowd of approximately 20,000 Trump supporters. To many, this incident reaffirmed the fascist character of Trump\u2019s new government.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trump-Musk love fest (or bromance, as it is called by some journalists) is not likely to end happily. At some point, due to his massive traumatization and to his compulsive unconscious need to repeat it, Musk may unconsciously provoke Trump\u2019s ire, either by clinging to him, or by meddling in his affairs, or by fighting with Trump\u2019s closest aides, or in other, more subtle ways, without intending to do so. If Trump\u2019s rage is provoked, he may either fire Musk or punish him in some other way, probably humiliating Musk in the process. Musk may react to such a humiliation with a great fury of his own, unconsciously displace (or transfer) his early rage ta his father to Trump, and denounce Trump publicly. With two such complex and emotionally damaged people, it is impossible to predict the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ENDNOTES<\/span><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0Gideon Lichfield, \u201cThe Trumpification of Elon Musk,\u201d\u00a0Wired,<\/em>\u00a0December 13, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0Ruth Ben-Ghiat, \u201cElon Musk: A New and Sinister Force in Government,\u201c\u00a0Lucid,<\/em>\u00a0December 20, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0Erin Prater, \u201cDoes Elon Musk have PTSD? Biographer Walter Isaacson says the billionaire\u2019s turbulent childhood with an abusive father left him scarred,\u201d\u00a0Fortune,<\/em>\u00a0September 17, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0Walter Isaacson,\u00a0Elon Musk,<\/em>\u00a0New York, Simon & Schuster, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0Erin Prater,\u00a0ibid.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Serge Frank Kovaleski (born 1961), South-African-born American investigative reporter, a member of the team of that won a Pulitzer Prize for its investigation of the prostitution scandal of the former New York governor Eliot Spitzer (born 1959)<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Glenn Kessler, \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s revisionist history of mocking a disabled reporter,\u201d\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>August 2, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a>\u00a0D\u2019Angelo Gore, \u201cTrump\u2019s Revised 9\/11 Claim,\u201d\u00a0Fact Check<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>August 5, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Mary Louise (Meryl) Streep (born 1949), American actress who was nominated for twenty-one Academy Awards, won three, received thirty-two Golden Globe nominations, and won eight<\/span><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a>\u00a0Hilary Weaver, \u201cMeryl Streep\u2019s Powerful, Anti-Trump Golden Globes Speech: Read the Whole Thing Here,\u201d\u00a0Vanity Fair,<\/em>\u00a0January 8, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

[11]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0@realDonaldTrump, Twitter,\u00a0<\/em>January 9, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

[12]<\/a>\u00a0Callum Borchers, \u201cMeryl Streep was right. Donald Trump did mock a disabled reporter,\u201d\u00a0The Washington Post,<\/em>\u00a0January 9, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

[13]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Jen Kirby, \u201cTrump thinks Amazon\u2019s destroying the post office. Here\u2019s what\u2019s really happening,\u201d\u00a0Vox,\u00a0<\/em>March 30, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

[14]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Jeff Bezos, Twitter,<\/em>\u00a0March 31, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

[15]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Robert Ferris, \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s character reflects poorly on the United States,\u201d\u00a0CNBC<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>November 4, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

[16]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Lee Dave, \u201cElon Musk: I\u2019m Trump\u2019s voice of reason,\u201d\u00a0BBC News<\/em>, January 26, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

[17]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Elon Musk on\u00a0Twitter,<\/em>\u00a0June 1, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

[18]<\/a>\u00a0Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 1950), British investor, author and commercial astronaut, founder and chairman of the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies in various fields; in 2021 he traveled to space for a few minutes aboard his Virgin Galactic spacecraft<\/span><\/p>\n

[19]<\/a>\u00a0Nolan C. McCaskill, \u201cRichard Branson: Trump vowed to destroy 5 people who refused to help him,\u201d\u00a0Politico,<\/em>\u00a0October 21, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

[20]<\/a>\u00a0Max J. Rosenthal, \u201cRichard Branson Describes \u2018Bizarre\u2019 Lunch in Which Donald Trump Waxed About Vengeance,\u201d\u00a0Mother Jones,<\/em>\u00a0October 21, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

[21]<\/a>\u00a0David Smith, \u201cThe silence of Donald Trump: how Twitter\u2019s ban is cramping his style,\u201d\u00a0The Guardian,<\/em>\u00a0October 9, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

[22]<\/a>\u00a0Cat Zakrzewski & Rachel Lerman, \u201cTrump files class action lawsuits targeting Facebook, Google and Twitter over \u2018censorship\u2019 of conservatives,\u201d\u00a0The Washington Post,<\/em>\u00a0July 7, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

[23]<\/a>\u00a0Reuters, \u201cDonald Trump asks Florida judge to force Twitter to reinstate account,\u201d\u00a0The Guardian,<\/em>\u00a0October 2, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

[24]<\/a>\u00a0Adam Liptak, \u201cTrump Suits Against Tech Giants Face Steep First Amendment Hurdles,\u201d\u00a0The New York Times,<\/em>\u00a0July 12, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

[25]<\/a>\u00a0Clare Duffy, \u201c\u2018Your body, my choice\u2019: Attacks on women surge on social media following election,\u201d\u00a0CNN Business,<\/em>\u00a0November 12, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[26]<\/a>\u00a0Isabelle Frances Wright & Moustafa Ayad, \u201c\u2018Your body, my choice:\u2019 Hate and harassment towards women spreads online,\u201d\u00a0Institute for Strategic Dialogue,\u00a0<\/em>November 8, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[27]<\/a>\u00a0Dana Mattioli, Joe Palazzolo & Emily Glazer, \u201cInside Elon Musk\u2019s Hands-On Push to Win 800,000 Voters for Trump,\u201d\u00a0The Wall Street Journal,<\/em>\u00a0August 12, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[28]<\/a>\u00a0Jake Horton, Mark Poynting & Lucy Gilder, \u201cTrump\u2019s chat with Musk on X fact-checked,\u201d\u00a0BBC News<\/em>, August 13, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[29]<\/a>\u00a0Joan E. Greve, \u201cTrump revisits most divisive talking points in rambling interview with Musk,\u201d\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>, August 13, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[30]<\/a>\u00a0Palm Playbook<\/em>, August 13, 2024; Maya Mehrara, \u201cTrump Campaign Claims A Billion People Listened to His Elon Musk Interview,\u201d\u00a0Newsweek,<\/em>\u00a0August 14, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[31]<\/a>\u00a0Brittany Gibson, \u201cTrump\u2019s interview with Musk devolves into yet another X catastrophe,\u201d\u00a0Politico,<\/em>\u00a0August 12, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[32]<\/a>\u00a0Philipp Elliott, \u201cMusk Interview Showed Trump Doesn\u2019t Know How to Run Against Harris,\u201d\u00a0Time,<\/em>\u00a0August 13, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[33]<\/a>\u00a0Alia Shoaib, \u201cDonald Trump Reveals Why He Sounded \u2018Strange\u2019 During Elon Musk Interview,\u201d\u00a0Newsweek,<\/em>\u00a0August 14, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[34]<\/a>\u00a0ibid<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[35]<\/a>\u00a0Tiago Rogero, \u201cBrazilian court orders suspension of Elon Musk\u2019s X after it missed deadline,\u201d\u00a0The Guardian,\u00a0<\/em>August 31, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[36]<\/a>\u00a0Reuters, \u201cBrazil\u2019s top court imposes new fine before allowing X to resume service,\u201d\u00a0Reuters,<\/em>\u00a0September 28, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[37]<\/a>\u00a0Jess Bidgood, \u201cWhy Trump\u2019s Unity Picks Are Not Very Unifying,\u201d\u00a0The New York Times,\u00a0<\/em>September 4, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[38]<\/a>\u00a0Theodore Schleifer, \u201cWho Are the Biggest Donors to Trump and Harris?\u201d\u00a0The New York Times,\u00a0<\/em>September 1, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[39]<\/a>\u00a0Jacob Gallagher, \u201cElon Musk\u2019s Giant Leap,\u201d\u00a0The New York Times,<\/em>\u00a0October 7, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[40]<\/a>\u00a0Sidney Blumenthal, \u201cA week before the election, Trump will hold his most unsettling spectacle yet,\u201d\u00a0The Guardian,<\/em>\u00a0October 18, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[41]<\/a>\u00a0Holly Patrick, \u201cTucker Carlson falsely brands Kamala Harris \u2018Samoan-Malaysian\u2019 during bizarre Donald Trump rally warmup,\u201d\u00a0The Independent,<\/em>\u00a0October 28, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[42]<\/a>\u00a0Ari Levy & Lora Kolodny, \u201cElon Musk is $70 billion richer since Trump victory due to Tesla stock surge,\u201d\u00a0CNBC,<\/em>\u00a0November 11, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[43]<\/a>\u00a0Gregory Krieg, \u201cTrump loyalists spew racist, vulgar attacks at Harris and Democrats at New York City rally,\u201d\u00a0CNN Politics,<\/em>\u00a0October 27, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[44]<\/a>\u00a0Donald J. Trump on\u00a0X<\/em>, November 10, 2024; Kate Sulivan, Manu Raju & Sam Fossum, \u201cTrump calls on GOP senators vying to be majority leader to agree to recess appointments,\u201d\u00a0CNN Politics,<\/em>\u00a0November 10, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[45]<\/a>\u00a0Eric Lipton, David A. Fahrenthold, Aaron Krolik and Kirsten Grind, \u201cU.S. Agencies Fund, and Fight With, Elon Musk. A Trump Presidency Could Give Him Power Over Them.\u201d\u00a0The New York Times,<\/em>\u00a0October 20, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[46]<\/a>\u00a0Donald J. Trump, Person of the Year interview with Eric Cortellessa, Alex Altman, Massimo Calabresi and Sam Jacobs,\u00a0Time,<\/em>\u00a0December 12, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[47]<\/a>\u00a0Simmone Shah & Leslie Dickstein, \u201cFact-Checking What Donald Trump Said in His 2024 Person of the Year Interview With TIME,\u201d\u00a0Time,\u00a0<\/em>December 12, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[48]<\/a>\u00a0Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan, \u201cTop Trump Aide Accused of Asking for Money to \u2018Promote\u2019 Potential Appointees,\u201d\u00a0The New York Times,\u00a0<\/em>November 26, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[49]<\/a>\u00a0Alex Woodward, \u201cMusk is fighting with top Trump adviser on cabinet picks as Tesla CEO\u2019s influence grows,\u201d\u00a0The Independent,\u00a0<\/em>November 18, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[50]<\/a>\u00a0Alan Rappeport & Maggie Habermann, \u201cTrump taps investor Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary,\u201d\u00a0The New York Times,\u00a0<\/em>November 22, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[51]<\/a>\u00a0Ana Swanson & Alan Rappeport, \u201cTrump Taps Wall St. Executive Howard Lutnick for Commerce Secretary,\u201d ,\u201d\u00a0The New York Times,\u00a0<\/em>November 19, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[52]<\/a>\u00a0Theodore Schleifer, \u201cElon Musk Gets a Crash Course in How Trumpworld Works,\u201d\u00a0The New York Times,\u00a0<\/em>November 22, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[53]<\/a>\u00a0Elon Musk & Vivek Ramaswamy, \u201cThe DOGE Plan to Reform Government,\u201d\u00a0The Wall Street Journal,<\/em>\u00a0November 20, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[54]<\/a>\u00a0Glenn Kessler, \u201c\u2018DOGE\u2019 tweets illustrate an almost impossible budget-cutting agenda,\u201d\u00a0The Washington Post,<\/em>\u00a0November 26, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[55]<\/a>\u00a0Anand Giridharadas, \u201cTrump\u2019s paramonetary forces,\u201d\u00a0The.Ink,<\/em>\u00a0November 29, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[56]<\/a>\u00a0Ruth Ben-Ghiat, \u201cElon Musk: A New and Sinister Force in Government,\u201c\u00a0Lucid,<\/em>\u00a0December 20, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[57]<\/a>\u00a0Kari Paul, \u201cElon Musk reportedly forced Twitter algorithm to boost his tweets after Super Bowl flop,\u201d\u00a0The Guardian,<\/em>\u00a0February 15, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

[58]<\/a>\u00a0Philip Elliott, \u201cWhat Trump Said About Elon Musk in his TIME Person of the Year Interview,\u201d\u00a0Time,<\/em>\u00a0December 12, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

[59]<\/a>\u00a0Michel Martin, Janaya Williams & Milton Guevara, \u201cSen. Warren urges Trump to hold Musk accountable for conflicts of interest,\u201d\u00a0Oregon Public Broadcasting<\/em>, December 20, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Now that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are rivals and enemies, with Musk trying to form a political party that will defeat Trump\u2019s Republicans in the 2026 elections, it is time to look back at the dramatic course of their tormented relationship, which moved from antagonists to close friends and then into sworn enemies. There […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2775","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.AVNERFALK.NET\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.AVNERFALK.NET\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.AVNERFALK.NET\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.AVNERFALK.NET\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.AVNERFALK.NET\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.AVNERFALK.NET\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.AVNERFALK.NET\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}