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ABC News
36 minutes ago
- ABC News
As John Pesutto faces bankruptcy, the Victorian Liberals struggle to unite
So much of politics is the art of compromise. It's an art form the Victorian Liberals seem unwilling, or unable, to practice as the party once again rips itself apart over the fate of former leader John Pesutto. Unless Mr Pesutto can stump up $2.3 million in the coming weeks, he'll be bankrupted and expelled from state parliament, after he was successfully sued for defamation by his colleague Moira Deeming. On Friday, Mr Pesutto was served an official bankruptcy notice, giving him a 21-day deadline to come up with the money. The Hawthorn MP is desperately trying to raise the money and secure a loan. A proposal for the party to provide that loan still hasn't been landed and is proving a new lightning rod for division and anger. But Mr Pesutto's very public demise is about much more than his defamation defeat — it is about control of the heart of the party. At its core, this contest is about the ideological direction of the Victorian Liberals and is the culmination of years of internal infighting. It's about whether the Liberals are still a "broad church", a term so often used to describe the party. The ABC has spoken to more than a dozen Liberal MPs past and present as well as party figures, who wished to speak anonymously to frankly discuss the state of the party. None, from either side of a widening factional divide, say the opposition is presenting itself as a credible alternative government, despite myriad challenges facing Victorians. The state party room is characterised by personal animus, a focus on petty internal disputes and a desperation to control the party. "It's all about promoting self above the party and the values it can bring to the state or country." After more than a decade in opposition, some Liberals believe MPs are gripped by "institutional opposition", where the only mission goal is internal control. In a sign of just how widespread the rancour is, MPs loyal to both Mr Pesutto and Ms Deeming described the other as a "terrorist" intent on damaging the party just to get their way. Those supporting Ms Deeming think Mr Pesutto should take his medicine and leave parliament if he cannot pay the money. While those behind Mr Pesutto, including former Premier Jeff Kennett, say the party must support a man who was acting in his capacity as leader. "Can you imagine the Labor Party allowing one of their own to be bankrupted,'' Mr Kennett recently wrote to the party's powerful administrative committee, who may decide on a loan for Mr Pesutto. "There are only two questions you need to answer. What is in the best interests of the party? What must we do to give ourselves any chance of winning the state election?" The saga started in early 2023. Ms Pesutto tried to expel Ms Deeming, an outspoken first-term MP, over her attendance at an anti-trans-rights rally. The event, entitled Let Women Speak and categorised by supporters as a women's rights event, was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. But Mr Pesutto's expulsion attempts backfired, and a court ultimately found he had defamed Ms Deeming on multiple occasions by conveying that she associated with neo-Nazis. In suing Mr Pesutto, Ms Deeming threw out the rule book and disrupted the status quo. "They want someone like me to quit,'' Ms Deeming said in a recent online interview with Club Grubbery, a website started to "provide a voice for all those adversely impacted by the COVID madness". Both Ms Deeming and Mr Pesutto declined to be interviewed for this story. Even with the emphatic court win — $315,000 in damages and $2.3 million in legal costs — Ms Deeming wants total victory. She recently said she had "no idea" why Mr Pesutto remained a Liberal party member. It's a view shared by loud voices outside the state party room, as well as some within. "He tried to silence a woman — don't we already have a problem with women voters?" another said. Mr Pesutto won Hawthorn by 1,500 votes at the 2022 election, returning to parliament after losing his once safe seat to Labor in 2018. The threat now comes from teal independents — Hawthorn sits within the federal seat of Kooyong and the area is one of the strongest for federal MP Monique Ryan. "We can't have a by-election, if we do, we'll get smashed, then we lose all momentum for 2026,'' a senior, despairing, Liberal said. At the heart of this problem is a culture where the Victorian Liberal Party, and many who represent it, are more concerned with internal victories than representing the people. Ms Deeming doesn't like the current direction of the party. She says it has "crashed into the rocks". She wants the party to be more conservative and supports recruiting people that share her views into the party to steer its direction. "We need to take back ownership of the party of the centre right,'' Ms Deeming told Club Grubbery. "We have to get really mercenary about [it], we have to get completely brutal." It's this sort of rhetoric that angers, and frightens, other Liberals — especially from the moderate side who have been railing against a "lurch for the right" for more than a decade. There have been well-publicised efforts and allegations of branch stacking, with operatives targeting Mormon groups and other conservative Christian groups for Liberal membership. In recent times, members of micro-conservative parties who have run for parliament have tried to join the Victorian Liberal Party. Political experts, strategists and indeed some within the Liberal Party know this sort of conservative politics does not wash well with Victorian voters. It is part of the reason Mr Pesutto tried to remove Ms Deeming from the party room. He wanted to assure Victorians his party would not get caught up in culture wars. In a recent interview with the ABC, Mr Pesutto didn't back down. "I was determined, and I remain so now, that I want the Liberal Party to be, and to be seen to be, a party that is broad-based, mainstream, inclusive and can appeal to all Victorians — no matter who you are, whether you own a home or you rent, regardless of how you identify,'' he said. Moira Deeming entered parliament after the 2022 state election following a controversial preselection. Ironically, she won support of moderates in the party as part of a factional war with the other local candidate, one not based on any sort of ideology. As a local councillor, Ms Deeming had pushed back against transgender people accessing women's toilets and playing women's sport, an issue she does not retreat from. When Scott Morrison was prime minister, his office intervened in Victoria to ensure that Ms Deeming was not preselected for a federal seat in 2022 because her views were too distracting from the federal campaign. "Women and girls are suffering in Victoria because this government cannot or will not define what a female is, and as a result every woman and every girl in Victoria has lost the right to enjoy female-only sports, female-only change rooms and countless other female-only activities,'' Ms Deeming said in her first speech to parliament, naming the issue as a priority. It angered several MPs who wanted the opposition to focus on toppling the Labor government. So when Ms Deeming helped organise the Let Women Speak rally on the steps of state parliament, Mr Pesutto pounced. Mr Pesutto had miscalculated how many people within the party shared Ms Deeming's concerns about trans rights. It has cost him dearly. Ms Deeming has found support far and wide within Liberal circles, including from high profile figures such as Peta Credlin, the former chief of staff to Prime Minister Tony Abbott turned Sky News host. Hilton Grugeon, a successful property developer from NSW, also came to her aid and bankrolled her legal case. It's the multi-million dollar loan from him that is causing so much pain for the Victorian Liberals. The saga has taken an incredible personal toll on both MPs. Ms Deeming has often spoken about the trauma it has caused her and her family. Her supporters reluctantly admit that Mr Pesutto and his backers have done well to paint Mr Pesutto as the victim in this sorry episode. But they remain unwavering in the direction the party must take. Since 1982, the Liberal Party has won just two out of 12 elections from opposition, and was returned only once in 1996 under Jeff Kennett. Neither Mr Kennett, who won in 1992, nor Ted Baillieu, who won in 2010, were social conservatives. "The federal election showed that, despite the Liberals enjoying the significant advantage of the unpopular Allan Labor government, Victorians are deeply sceptical of the party's brand in this state,'' Monash University politics professor Paul Strangio said. "The current saga will only reinforce the public's misgivings about the Liberals being a viable alternative governing party.'' Professor Strangio has been watching Victorian politics for decades, and holds grave fears for the Liberal party and what its dysfunction means for the state. Without robust competition for office, there is a risk of declining standards of government. "Victoria was the bedrock of the post-war Menzies-inspired Liberal Party. He insisted that the party's creed ought not to be in any way reactionary. Today that tradition has been effectively bankrupted," he said. "The party in Victoria has dying roots, is riven by philosophical and personality-based animosities, is short on talent and politically inept." Professor Strangio said there was a serious test for current Opposition Leader Brad Battin in this conflict — the new leader has remained tight-lipped on picking a side, provoking anger that he is not doing more to resolve the issue. "He looks like a bystander; he looks like he is washing his hands of a situation that effectively amounts to a proxy war over the direction of his party. It's not tenable for a leader to remain publicly mute in these circumstances,'' Professor Strangio said. "It raises the issue of what kind of premier he would make. How much authority would he actually wield over his party? Who is really in control?" Professor Strangio said the fascination with culture wars and the promotion of deeply socially conservative policies is a fundamental miscalculation by some Liberals. It puts them out of alignment with the sensibility of the majority of Victorians. Equally misguided is the idea that these types of concerns and attitudes resonate with outer suburban voters. "'These are demographically complex, socially and culturally-diverse communities. Aggressive conservatism doesn't speak to them, if anything, it alienates them," he said. Professor Strangio said with its record of chronic underperformance, there was a serious case for some form of federal intervention in the Victorian Liberal Party. But those in the party say an intervention is too difficult and that it would not solve the biggest issue — the personal hostility between state MPs. Finding a compromise is proving difficult. A GoFundMe for Mr Pesutto has raised $212,562 and has now been closed as he works to secure a loan to cover the costs. Other major donations are understood to have been committed privately. A plan has been cooked up for the Liberal party or one of its fundraising arms to provide a loan to him to cover the costs. At the time of writing, a proposal has not been put to the administrative committee who will decide. Mr Battin is a member of the panel along with elected volunteers from the membership. He's now understood to be supportive of some rescue package. Anything to avoid a messy by-election that could present questions for his leadership. There has been some reticence from the party to get involved. When Mr Pesutto first moved on Ms Deeming, the admin wing of the party was essentially told to butt out, as it was a matter for the party room. It's why there's some reluctance, and in some members, complete resistance to helping out Mr Pesutto. "He was pig-headed then, and now he wants our help,'' one senior figure said. The personal animosity is party-wide, not just confined to the MPs. Mr Battin did not create the mess but has to deal with it. It's distracting him from his work of trying to end 12 years in the political wilderness for the Victorian opposition. He wants it resolved and is quietly trying to do so, although publicly he is staying tight-lipped. Even if he can resolve this matter, the challenge remains to try and unify a fractured party room. If Mr Pesutto is bailed out by the party, it will only incense Ms Deeming and her group. But if Mr Pesutto is bankrupted, the party will be just as angry. And there is Ms Deeming's upper house preselection. Among the MPs and party figures canvassed for this story was a view that Ms Deeming would lose preselection for next year's election. If that occurs, you can bet the party infighting will ramp up again. And that will be even closer to polling day.
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Trump threatens Musk with 'serious consequences' in spending bill row
US President Donald Trump threatened his former advisor Elon Musk with "serious consequences" Saturday if the tech billionaire seeks to punish Republicans who vote for a controversial spending bill. The comments by Trump to NBC News come after the relationship between the world's most powerful person and the world's richest imploded in bitter and spectacular fashion this week. The blistering break-up -- largely carried out on social media before a riveted public on Thursday -- was ignited by Musk's harsh criticism of Trump's so-called "big, beautiful" spending bill, which is currently before Congress. Some lawmakers who were against the bill had called on Musk -- one of the Republican Party's biggest financial backers in last year's presidential election -- to fund primary challenges against Republicans who voted for the legislation. "He'll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that," Trump, who also branded Musk "disrespectful," told NBC News on Saturday, without specifying what those consequences would be. He also said he had "no" desire to repair his relationship with the South African-born Tesla and SpaceX chief, and that he has "no intention of speaking to him." Just last week, Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But their relationship cracked within days as Musk described as an "abomination" the spending bill that, if passed by Congress, could define Trump's second term in office. Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe and from, there the row detonated, leaving Washington stunned. With real political and economic risks to their falling out, both had appeared to inch back from the brink on Friday, with Trump telling reporters "I just wish him well," and Musk responding on X: "Likewise." - 'Old news' - Trump spoke to NBC Saturday after Musk deleted one of the explosive allegations he had made during their fallout, linking the president with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Musk had alleged that the Republican leader is featured in unreleased government files on former associates of Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while he faced sex trafficking charges. The Trump administration has acknowledged it is reviewing tens of thousands of documents, videos and investigative material that his "MAGA" movement says will unmask public figures complicit in Epstein's crimes. Trump was named in a trove of deposition and statements linked to Epstein that were unsealed by a New York judge in early 2024. The president has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case. "Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files," Musk posted on his social media platform, X. "That is the real reason they have not been made public." Musk did not reveal which files he was talking about and offered no evidence for his claim. He initially doubled down on the claim, writing in a follow-up message: "Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out." However, he appeared to have deleted both tweets by Saturday morning. Trump dismissed the claim as "old news" in his comments to NBC on Saturday, adding: "Even Epstein's lawyer said I had nothing to do with it." Supporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump's "Make America Great Again" base allege that Epstein's associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others. They point the finger at Democrats and Hollywood celebrities, although not at Trump himself. No official source has ever confirmed that the president appears in any of the as yet unreleased material. Trump knew and socialized with Epstein but has denied spending time on Little Saint James, the private redoubt in the US Virgin Islands where prosecutors alleged Epstein trafficked underage girls for sex. "Terrific guy," Trump, who was Epstein's neighbor in both Florida and New York, said in an early 2000s profile of the financier. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."
ABC News
18 hours ago
- ABC News
Will Trump or Musk be able to hold back while flirting with mutually assured destruction?
Donald Trump sees himself as a world-class negotiator and deal maker — he will now need to bring all those skills to reach a ceasefire deal — not in Ukraine nor Gaza — but with Elon Musk. Musk now presents a real crisis for the Trump presidency. He's wealthy, powerful, unpredictable and he believes he's been wronged. And he knows a lot about the president and his family. This feud — carried out in real time on X — has captivated Americans. As one person posted on Musk's own online social media platform on Friday morning, when there was a lull in the abuse between the two: "What time do Trump and Musk wake up?" These are dangerous times for Donald Trump. Like a married couple, for the past year Musk and Trump have been with each other when the guests have left the dinner party. As each world leader has left the White House, as each influential member of Congress has shaken hands and left, these two have been left to do their own private debrief in the Oval Office. The relationship was so close that on one occasion when Trump was having a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump reportedly said to Zelenskyy words to the effect, "There's someone here I want you to say hello to," and handed the phone to Musk. A puzzled Ukrainian president was suddenly speaking to the world's richest man. That's how close Trump and Musk were during their political marriage. But now the divorce has come through and they're fighting about their legacies. Musk is trying to convince the world that he wanted to slash the US's crippling budget but that Trump sold out America by pushing a bill — the bill Trump likes to call "One Big Beautiful Bill" — through the House of Representatives. Trump is trying to convince the world that Musk is an erratic and unpredictable character, and that he's bitter because his bill cut subsidies to electric vehicles — which hit Musk's Tesla business — and that Trump asked him to leave. In recent weeks, Trump has had to have some fascinating calls — including with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, and with Chinese President Xi Jinping to bring an end to Trump's tariff war on the United States's trading partners. As wily as those two men are, he may need greater skills of persuasion — or threat — with Elon Musk. Within a few days of their split's fallout, Musk was threatening to support the impeachment of Trump, to support Vice-President JD Vance taking over and to withdraw funding for Trump's candidates in the mid-term election. Trump, for his part, was threatening to end government contracts enjoyed by Musk's Space X company. It's often said that information is power. If that's the case, these two have unparalleled information about each other. They have accessed each other's lives for more than a year. They know each other's families. They know each other's family problems. They know each other's business interests. They know each other's vulnerabilities — personal and business. On top of the power of information that comes with access, they both have raw power. Through his total control of agencies, Trump can access any tax or regulatory information on Musk and his businesses. Trump has shown he will use legal and regulatory powers to pursue his personal and political enemies. This makes Musk extremely vulnerable. Trump understands fully the power of his words from the Oval Office — this week within five minutes of him saying that he thought his friendship with Musk was over, Wall Street started selling Tesla shares. Then, when Trump began suggesting that he would end Musk's various government contracts, Wall Street panicked. Within an hour, Tesla shares had dived 14 per cent. Donald Trump had wiped billions off Musk's wealth. But Musk does not have the personality type to take this sort of thing calmly. He, too, has power — although his is not the ability to hit Trump's many financial interests (that he knows of) but rather to damage him politically. Like Musk, Trump is also vulnerable. Musk has the raw power that comes from being the world's richest man. He has his mass distribution publishing platform, X. By spending so much time with Trump and his family in both the White House — and for a time seemingly to live in Trump's Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago — Musk would have knowledge of the Trump family's business dealings. It appears as if Trump decided some weeks ago that Musk was not long for the White House — that it was a matter of how to extricate Musk from the Oval Office without too much pain. Musk's behaviour became erratic. Those wild images of him waving a chainsaw and shouting that this was what he was using to cut government spending went down badly with many of those who had voted for Trump, particularly veterans who were suddenly losing entitlements. Then Musk made what appeared to be a Nazi salute. This, coupled with his strong support for Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, made many Americans concerned about Musk's real views. When Musk, in a reference to the Holocaust, told AFD supporters that there was "too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that" and that the party's anti-immigration policies were "the best hope for Germany" it only heightened those concerns. Then reports began appearing about clashes between Musk and senior members of Trump's cabinet. Whether they were authorised by Trump or the White House or were from disenchanted members of Trump's cabinet is not clear, but what is clear is that a steady stream of leaks began appearing against Musk. One of the more damaging was that Musk had a blazing row in one cabinet meeting with Marco Rubio, the secretary of state. The report said that Trump allowed the fight to go for some time, before intervening to stop it — by siding with Rubio. Then came reports of a clash witnessed by many between Musk and Scott Bessent, the well-liked secretary of the Treasury. Musk had shouted at Bessent in a corridor that Bessent was not cutting enough staff from his department quickly enough, at which point Bessent reportedly shouted back: "F*** off!" The leaks all appeared well sourced, and the White House did not vigorously deny them. Someone, it seems, was out to get Musk, apparently preparing the ground for his political execution. Then came perhaps the most devastating leak of all — details of Musk's alleged erratic behaviour, and drug use, since joining Trump's campaign to return to the White House. The New York Times reported: "As Elon Musk became one of Donald J. Trump's closest allies last year, leading raucous rallies and donating about $[US]275 million [$423 million] to help him win the presidency, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities. "Mr Musk's drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anaesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he travelled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it. "It is unclear whether Mr. Musk, 53, was taking drugs when he became a fixture at the White House this year and was handed the power to slash the federal bureaucracy. But he has exhibited erratic behaviour, insulting cabinet members, gesturing like a Nazi and garbling his answers in a staged interview. "At the same time, Mr. Musk's family life has grown increasingly tumultuous as he has negotiated overlapping romantic relationships and private legal battles involving his growing brood of children, according to documents and interviews." This was now going well beyond the narrative that Musk was difficult to work with. This was creating the impression that Musk was erratic and unpredictable. Musk strongly denied The New York Times story: "To be clear, I am NOT taking drugs! The New York Times was lying their a... off," Musk insisted. "I tried prescription ketamine a few years ago and said so on X, so this not even news. It helps for getting out of dark mental holes, but haven't taken it since then." Whatever the truth of it all, Musk's reputation was taking a belting — and however wealthy and powerful is, Musk would have known that his reputation was bleeding. How many big investment houses want to put money behind somebody who, when they google his name, "ketamine" comes up? So the break-up was inevitable. Musk says it was his decision, that his role as head of DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency — had come to a natural end. Trump has a different version — he says he asked Musk to leave. Whoever is telling the truth, the couple gathered in the Oval Office to announce their separation. Both tried to put their best face on it — not an easy task for Musk, looking dishevelled and with a black eye which he claimed he received while playing with his son. As part of this apparently amicable divorce, Trump opened a box and handed Musk a golden "key to the White House". But, unmistakably, the chemistry which the two had always shared was gone. It had all the authenticity of a married couple who can barely look at each other announcing their divorce and saying: "We remain good friends, we just grew apart, and we will always put the interests of the children first." That didn't last long. Within days, Musk could not help himself. He began posting on X his concerns about Trump's signature budget bill, which Musk says will push the United States towards bankruptcy by its massive increase in the country's debt levels. This was a direct challenge to Trump, who has pressured Republicans to officially name the bill "One Big Beautiful Bill". But Trump did something he rarely does: He sat back and did not take the bait. All Trump's instincts are to lash out at anybody that he thinks might be criticising him, but with Musk he stayed quiet. By the hour, Musk's tweets gathered impact. Finally, he went so far as to urge Americans to contact their members of Congress to lobby them to "Kill the Bill". Some Republicans backed Musk, which would have concerned Trump. The Trump side began fighting back, initially through Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, who Trump nominated to ensure the bill went through the House — which it has — and now to try to shepherd it through the Senate. Although the Republicans control the Senate, as well as the House, some of the more conservative senators agree with Musk that this bill — with its huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans — will push the US towards bankruptcy. The Republicans hold the Senate by only a slim margin. It will only take three Republicans to vote against the bill to defeat it. This would be a huge blow to the centrepiece of Trump's economic policy. Johnson dropped something that would have outraged Musk. He suggested Musk was opposing the bill not because he was committed to the US cutting its deficit but because it cut subsidies to electric vehicles — the mainstay of the Tesla business — and was therefore hitting Elon Musk's business interests. This went against everything that Trump and the White House had been saying for a year. Trump had often told his rallies that Musk was in fact losing money by concentrating on the political world and was doing it selflessly as he wanted to "make America great again". So now, through Johnson, Musk was being re-cast from the great American MAGA patriot to the selfish businessman only concerned about his own wealth. Seemingly outraged by what he saw as an attempt to undermine him personally rather than address the issue of the deficit, Musk doubled down, calling the bill "a disgusting abomination". All this became too much for Trump. He finally entered the fight, repeating not just the claim that Musk was upset about losing the electric vehicle subsidies but that Trump had asked Musk to leave his position. Trump was saying that he had essentially terminated Musk's role. For someone with a sense of self-worth as large as Musk's, the suggestion that Trump had essentially told him "you're fired!" — for which Trump was famous on his reality TV show The Apprentice — would have outraged him. Not many people can fire the world's richest man. Donald Trump was now saying that he had. And so Musk went ballistic. What he did next crossed a line beyond which he could never salvage any relationship with Trump or this White House. He seems to have realised that himself, beginning his post on X with both a sense of threat and glee: As far as the White House was concerned, Elon Musk was now a political terrorist — he had gone rogue and was out of control, seemingly prepared to push for the destruction of Donald Trump. Signing off with "Have a nice day, DJT!" (Donald J Trump), Musk had linked Trump to an investigation into a criminal sex trafficking operation which involved many high-profile people and centred on Jeffrey Epstein, the now-dead US financier. Trump had famously been photographed with Epstein, but so had many people who had been part of the New York finance and celebrity worlds of the 1980s and 90s. Where this now goes is anybody's guess. Neither of these two men operates according to convention of generally accepted rules. US media have reported that various mediators were trying to set up a ceasefire phone call, but Trump has failed in his phone call attempts to get ceasefires in Ukraine and Gaza and there's no suggestion that he will be any more successful in ending this "war" with Elon Musk. Musk has been on the inside of the Trump presidency — and the Trump family — for almost a year. He's had access to moments with the family when the cameras are not around and nobody is recording what is being said. If Donald Trump has personal, sexual or financial skeletons, Musk may well know what they are and where they are. Trump, for his part, has had insights into Elon Musk that few others have. If the reports of Musk being erratic and drug-fuelled during Trump's campaign are true, Trump would know about them. Like Musk, Trump has had insights into Musk's business and private life that few others would have had. The reason this battle is epic is that both men have raw power. Both men have the ability to destroy or wound each other. Both men are natural pugilists. Both men believe backing down is for wimps, part of the modern curse of "woke" culture. This is the ultimate clash of political power with financial power. In this modern age, which will win? Who will win? And which side does Vice-President JD Vance take? Does he show loyalty to his commander-in-chief, who hand-picked him to be his deputy? Or does he show loyalty to Elon Musk, one of the tech oligarchs with whom Vance has spent so much time cultivating? After all, these tech billionaires, who famously sat in the front row of Trump's inauguration in front of key figures who would sit in Trump's cabinet, can bankroll a "Vance 2028" campaign. Can Vance somehow keep both men onside when those two men are now clearly trying to wound the other? As to where this goes from here, Trump has become the most powerful man in the world — for the second time — by never taking a step back. Musk has become the most wealthy man in the world by overriding any obstacles put in his way. The key question now is this: Does the natural instinct of each man in this Shakespearean drama to attack their opponents and exact revenge when they feel they have been criticised outweigh the reality that each man is flirting with mutually assured destruction?
