Donald Trump and Elon Musk must continue making progress together for good of the United States

Sky News AU

6 hours ago

The relationship between President Donald Trump and tech titan Elon Musk factors among the most consequential political relationships in American history and it must be repaired, quickly, for the good of the United States and the continued support of the Republican Party base.
There is too much at stake in America today for their division to disrupt the process of the MAGA movement in reversing the incredible harms that were wrought on the country and the world by the Biden Administration.
Five months into Trump's second term in the White House, he has taken the country by storm with a string of major accomplishments that, a year ago, most in the country despaired could never be achieved.
As a result, his approval rating has reached its highest point in months, Americans are expressing greater satisfaction with the direction of the country than at any time in recent history, and Democrats have fallen even deeper into disarray.
The public feud between the president and Musk threatens to upend the successes of the Trump Administration and create an opening for Democrats to regroup and take advantage of a fractured MAGA movement.
The rift originated from a spending bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, which Trump is now promoting and referring to as the 'big beautiful bill.'
It will soon go up for a vote in the Senate.
Just days after the president gave him a celebratory farewell at the Oval Office, Musk wrote on X, 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.'
In a subsequent post, Musk threatened that 'we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people' by supporting the bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House have closed ranks around the legislation, touting it as the best solution to reform government while extending Trump's tax cuts. But Musk's criticisms have emboldened other Republicans who believe the bill is anything but conservative and will only further help to bankrupt a nation that is already $37 trillion in debt.
Congressman Thomas Massie voted against the bill, along with three other House Republican colleagues, because it would add $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit and raise the debt ceiling by trillions.
Now, amid Musk's criticisms of the legislation, it appears to be "losing momentum" on the Senate side.
Musk took his criticisms beyond just the spending bill: He claimed that Trump was in the Epstein files and that's why they haven't been released to the public.
In response to the attacks, Trump said the relationship with Musk is over.
The impacts of the Trump-Musk relationship ending badly could be catastrophic. Musk's influence in today's MAGA movement cannot be overstated, and it should not be underappreciated.
The billionaire played a bigger role in electing Trump president than anyone other than Trump. His visibility on the campaign and in the administration, as well as his recent commitment to supporting and funding right-of-center candidates, has made him a superstar in the MAGA community.
Even Vice President JD Vance, a Trump loyalist, conceded in an interview that he "understands" Musk's frustration with the spending bill.
Musk was instrumental in convincing Trump to choose Vance as his running mate, and when the Trump-Musk spat spilled out into the open, Musk indicated support for a viewpoint circulating on X that Vance should take over as president.
Vance also knows that Elon's deep pockets could be critical in helping him clinch the MAGA mantel as the GOP candidate for president when Trump's second term concludes.
Musk's influence is not limited to donation-seeking politicians. A massive base of conservative supporters, many of them young voters, follow him zealously. Nearly 70 per cent of young men have a favorable view of Musk.
Now many of those supporters are defending Musk on X, and in the process criticising the president.
Ask an average voter to name one figure in the country who is most symbolic of the MAGA movement, and they will either name Trump… or Musk.
By publicly clashing, and forcing supporters to choose a side, Trump and Musk risk disunifying the Republican Party—and that's just what the Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media want.
Since Musk's first combative post on X challenging Trump's spending bill, the feud has dominated news coverage and commentary. At this moment, the country is no longer talking about the administration's tremendous wins at the southern border, its accomplishments in returning safety to America's streets, the de-weaponisation of our Department of Justice, or its courageous efforts to bring manufacturing back the United States.
Instead, the media can keep viewers' and readers' blood pressure high with incessant headlines about division, confusion, and 'chaos!'
While the Democratic Party may be foundering and at a loss for a strategy to defeat the GOP in 2028, this is the media's strategy: to distract the public from Trump's wins, while compelling Americans to feel anxious and exhausted by a constant perception that Washington is disorganised and full of mayhem.
Then, the Democrats can enter stage left and urge voters to elect them on the platform of an ostensible 'return to normalcy,' unity, and order.
The White House likely made a mistake by allowing Musk to have so much visibility in the administration at the beginning.
It was obvious from the start that while Trump and Musk were aligned on many fronts, there were many points of difference that would be impossible to reconcile despite their desire to collaborate. All of that, plus there were obvious concerns to be had about the risks and pitfalls of putting the world's most powerful man and the world's richest man in the same building from day to day.
But for Trump and Musk to end the relationship in this way, and to do so while trashing each other publicly no less, is a grave mistake. Both men have unique and vitally important abilities to offer the country.
Democrats significantly eroded the quality of life in the United States under the Biden Administration. More than 10 million illegal immigrants came through our open border, bringing drugs and crime. Millions of Americans worried about filling their cars with gas or buying groceries for their families due to inflation. Violent crime skyrocketed in American cities and towns. Leftists used lawfare to target and imprison their political enemies.
We cannot afford to return to those dark days.
Trump and Musk must bury the hatchet now and continue making progress together.