Trump vs. Musk

A(nother) Republican civil war

I’ve been expecting a Republican civil war for quite a while. On several occasions, it looked like civil war might be breaking out, but Trump always steamrolled his intraparty opposition. It’s hard to maintain a civil war when both sides profess to love Trump, and Trump leads one side.

But over the last day or so, Elon Musk has attacked Trump more directly than almost anyone within the party has had the guts to do since 2016. Even Nikki Haley tiptoed around Trump’s deep character flaws and record in the 2024 Republican primaries, calling him “the right president at the right time” along offering tepid criticism that Trump was “thin-skinned and easily distracted… didn’t do anything on fiscal policy… really spent a lot of money,” and was “weak in the knees when it comes to Ukraine.”

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Musk’s problems with the Trump Administration go back to April when he and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent got into a shouting match that Steve Bannon told the Daily Mail got physical.

Bessent reportedly told Musk, “You promised us a trillion dollars (in cuts), and now you're at like $100 billion, and nobody can find anything, what are you doing?”

“And that's when Elon got physical,” Bannon said. “It's a sore subject with him. It wasn't an argument, it was a physical confrontation. Elon basically shoved him.”

Fast-forward to May and Musk stepped down from DOGE amid rising unpopularity and unfriendly rulings towards DOGE’s work from a number of judges. On the way out, Musk launched a full-scale assault on Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which not only would increase the deficit much more than Musk had managed to cut, also cuts the electric vehicle tax credit.

One thing led to another and Musk called the bill a “disgusting abomination” and threatened to form a third party. Trump fired back with a threat to cancel Musk’s government contracts, an irony noted by many of the victims of DOGE’s cuts. Not to be silenced, Musk was last seen alleging that “Trump is in the Epstein files” and calling for Trump’s (third) impeachment.

The irony in this looming and potential Republican civil war is that neither side is really Republican. Donald Trump only joined the Republican Party in 2012, and Elon Musk has come to the GOP even more recently. Neither accepts most traditional Republican and/or conservative principles. Musk is assumed to be a libertarian while Trump is a wannabe authoritarian.

These days, however, the Republican Party is firmly on Trump’s side. No Trump position or statement is too inane, illegal, or extreme to drive a wedge between The Donald and Republicans. But in a closely divided Congress, Musk need only win over a handful of Republican converts to sink the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

Is anyone on Elon’s side? Well, Thomas Massie seems to be. The spending hardliner seems to have found an ally in Musk’s newfound opposition to the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Massie was one of only two House Republicans who voted against the bill, which passed by only two votes, which doesn’t put Elon any closer to victory.

For conservatives, there really is no upside. The “Big, Beautiful Bill” is a bad bill that deserves to fail, but even if Musk wins this battle, there are a great number of red flags around the billionaire’s political beliefs. At least, as a native South African, he’s no more likely to become president than Trump is to win a third term.

In situations like this, I’m often reminded of Henry Kissinger’s musing about the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, “It's a pity both sides can't lose.” Unfortunately, both sides won’t lose, and I’d put my money on Trump to emerge victorious. The Teflon Don keeps surviving even though he’s been assumed to be down and out too many times to count. People who think they can control Trump usually find their career dissipation lights going into high gear.

Still, Musk has shown more spine in the past few days than the rest of the GOP has shown in the past decade. It’s difficult not to cheer for the guy who seems to have seen the light, that Trump and the MAGA Republicans are gaslighting the entire country.

If not cheering for him, I’ll at least sit back enjoy the show.