Trump-Musk bromance is over. What does it tell about male friendships?
Donald Trump and Elon Musk's BFF act has turned out to be more star-crossed than Starlinked. Like the Sholay duo, Trump and Musk had once thumbed their noses at the world and said 'Tere liye le lenge sab se dushmani (I'll take on the world for you),' as they took on their liberal foes everywhere.
Their fallout should have been a clash of titans. Instead, as they trade insults on social media, it feels like we are watching petulant teenage Ninja Turtles.
'Such ingratitude,' complained Musk, who had spent almost $300 million on the US election that brought Trump back to the White House. 'Very disappointed in Elon,' retorted Trump. The mother of one of Musk's children offered Trump breakup advice.
So is it all about money? Trump thinks Musk is upset because he cut EV subsidies that affect Musk's bottom line. Musk says Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill is a 'disgusting abomination' that would add billions to the federal deficit, making a mockery of DOGE or the Department of Government Efficiency's attempts to slash spending.
Either way, the Big Beautiful Bromance seems over. The X-factor in the Trump presidency is now an ex-factor jokes one meme. But they might patch up overnight as well. Trump seems to have neither permanent friends nor enemies. He befriends, unfriends and re-friends at will. But then again, we live in a world of social media where the word 'friend' itself has been rendered meaningless.
While the implications of the Odd Couple fallout are being analysed in detail, it is fascinating what this says about what has happened to our idea of friendship. Especially male friendships. True friendship requires vulnerability, something men are never encouraged to show. In the landmark Hindi film Dosti (1964) about the friendship between two physically handicapped boys, the vulnerability is visible. But mostly it's hidden. Our greatest films about male friendship are about tough guys with soft centres like Veeru and Jai.
True friendship is supposed to stand the test of time, whether it's 3 Idiots (2009) or Dil Chahta Hai (2001). These are friends who are thrown together by circumstance, bond over ideals, drift apart and come back together. But the litmus test of true friendship is betrayal and forgiveness because, to paraphrase another Hindi film, zindagi na milegi dobara. 'Think of me at my best,' James Steerforth tells David Copperfield in Charles Dickens' novel right before he runs off with Copperfield's childhood sweetheart.
At the heart of these great friendship stories lie weighty questions like E M Forster wondering, 'If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.' Dante, he says, placed Brutus and Cassius in the lowest rungs of Hell because they betrayed their friend Julius Caesar rather than Rome.
So et tu, Elon? Not really, because Trump and Musk's model of friendship is reflective of the times we live in. They MAGA-ed it up for the cameras, even sharing AI-generated videos of themselves grooving to Stayin' Alive. We all know Instagram couples who need to 'perform' their relationships in the public eye to show how they are made-for-each-other. Then they break up, delete their old posts, and begin anew with someone else as if the past never existed. Jai and Veeru friendship was for the long haul. The Trump-Musk friendship is for a generation with a short attention span.
Many had probably forgotten that in 2016, Musk had said Trump didn't 'have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.' In January 2022, Trump called Musk one of the world's 'great geniuses' comparable to Thomas Edison. By July, he called him a 'bulls*** artist'. But none of that mattered when, in February this year, Musk tweeted 'I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man.' The BBC said Trump sounded like a 'spurned lover' as he talked about the fallout. Musk responded on X with one word: Whatever. Even a Balaji soap opera relationship does not have so many twists and turns.
When the richest person in the world and the most powerful person break up publicly and messily, the internet brings out the popcorn. One meme had Narendra Modi offering to mediate just as Trump claimed he mediated between India and Pakistan. It would all be funnier if both their coming together and breaking apart didn't have consequences for the rest of the world.
But was this ever really friendship or just a relationship of convenience, more dostana than dosti?
Roy is a novelist and the author of Don't Let Him Know
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