The Trump-Musk faux 'feud': Did we all just get Punk'd?

The South African

a day ago

In case you didn't know, that fancy French word 'faux' (pronounced 'foe' in English, 'faw' in French) means fake or false.
Thanks to Ashton Kutcher, you're probably familiar with the meaning of Punk'd .
And what we just witnessed last week may have been, what grifters (con artists) call, 'a play', or 'a work'; a hustle. A con. In short, we may have just been 'punked' by US President Donald Trump and 'mad genius' Elon Musk.
In a previous article, I asked if Trump was role-playing, or merely playing all of us. It's starting to look more and more likely that it's both.
An old East African proverb says: 'When (two) elephants clash, it is the grass that suffers.'
If the two elephants are Trump and Musk, no prizes for guessing who's the grass in that metaphor.
Last week, Musk posted a 'big bomb' revelation on X that implicated Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
He later deleted that post – and other posts related to the accusation, including one calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced by JD Vance.
In the meantime, Big Don has threatened 'disrespectful' Musk with 'serious consequences' if he interferes with the spending bill or 'punishes any Republicans who vote for it', Trump told NBC News on Saturday – without specifying what those consequences would be.
He also apparently said he had 'no desire' to repair his relationship with the South Africa-born Tesla and SpaceX chief, and 'no intention of speaking to him.'
The accusations against Trump posted by Musk last week have prompted calls from the likes of ex-Trump advisor, Steve Bannon to deport Musk (but to where, many are asking?)
Bannon also not only called for Trump to sign an EO to seize Musk's SpaceX company but also spilt the beans in an interview with the Washington Post about the punch-up Musk allegedly had with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the White House corridors of power. (No, that did not lead to Musk's black eye).
Reportedly, Donald Trump and Elon Musk's friendship imploded well before the Tesla CEO fired off that series of scathing X posts last week.
According to the Washington Post , before the fallout escalated, Trump was still trying to make sense of Musk's public attacks, liasing with close confidants and acquaintances, and at one point, Trump was supposedly overheard by insiders saying Musk was 'a big-time drug addict'.
(Which is odd, because last month, at an Oval Office farewell ceremony for Elon – who has stepped down as head of DOGE – Trump specifically said he was unaware of Musk's addiction when it was exposed in a damning surprise report by the New York Times .)
The Post also reported that the President told insiders Musk's addiction and physical fight with Treasury Secretary Bessent was 'too much'.
However, Trump recently came out and apparently denied the physical altercation between Musk and Bessent, saying there was an argument but no fight.
Not everybody's buying this Trump-Musk 'clash' as authentic. Many, particularly on the left, believe that what we witnessed last week could all be 'a political act.'
Even staunch Trump/Musk supporters are crying foul.
Legal analyst Lionel (Nation) is convinced this was all some kind of coordinated, distracting 'Psyop'. Something to take all the attention off the many controversial issues plaguing Trump right now. 'All of this, in public?' He said. 'Come on…it's a distraction.'
'Look how it just took all of the attention, all of the focus, from the left to the right', he pointed out. 'The game is rigged. You know it. Anybody who's even paying remote attention to this knows what's going on. They can feel it. The headlines are a distraction. They're the rodeo clown, the outrage cycles, all choreographed.'
'And beneath the surface of this, the elites are playing an entirely different game', he added. 'They love distraction, they love confusion.'
Then he used an expression, an allegory he's used many times before. He leaned into the camera and said, 'It's wrestling.' (Comparing it to rigged, choreographed, WWE -type wrestling matches.)
To which he might've added, 'Bread and Circuses'; a strategy that's worked for distracting, placating and manipulating the populous since the days of ancient Rome.
But a distraction from what? Trump's controversial bill? His failing negotiations with Russia, China, Iran and Israel?
What I'm wondering at this point…is this the only political Kabuki theatre act we've seen coming out of the White House?
Think back to the little drama that unfolded in the Oval Office during Zelensky's visit.
Who in that room was involved in that spat?
We've got Trump, the award-winning reality TV producer-presenter. JD Vance, the award-winning writer-producer. And Volodymyr Zelensky, the award-winning actor-comedian… who once actually played the Ukrainian President in a highly successful comedy TV series.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking…?
To what end, you might ask? To confuse Putin, with mixed signals.
What happened with SA President Cyril Ramaphosa and his entourage in the Oval Office a few weeks ago also kinda qualifies as a 'show' …or at least a 'show-and-tell'. (Except, in Ramaphosa's case, unlike Zelensky, I don't think Cyril was given the script or invited to the dress rehearsal.)
However, not everyone thinks that this recent break-up between Trump and Musk is role-playing political 'theatre'. Some believe it's not only a genuine fallout, but one that was inevitable…and predictable.
On 18 May this year, in an interview with Full Measure's Sharyl Attkisson, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie made what has turned out to be an accurate prediction.
He said, 'That's the real untold story here, I think we may be on a collision course.'
Wearing a mini, digital, debt clock (that he designed) on his lapel (ticking up the nation's $36 trillion tab in real time), Massie explained what he saw coming; 'I think there's three cars coming together at an intersection, and they don't realize they're going to hit', he said.
'One of them is Congress, with Mike Johnson. Trump, obviously, is one of these cars…maybe he's the train . And then there's another car, which is DOGE.'
'And I don't think Elon Musk is going to suffer these fools once he finds out how foolish or duplicitous they are', Massie said. 'You don't land rockets backwards. You don't get cars to drive themselves on the interstate, by ignoring the fools that you're working with', he added.
Massie has supported Musk's condemnation of the 'Big Beautiful Bill', calling it a 'suicide pact that will spend us into oblivion.'
Here's what worries me…
Ever seen a great, satirical, dark comedy called… Wag the Dog ? Starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman?
It's the story of how, shortly before a national election, the president's advisor and spin doctor (De Niro) teams up with a Hollywood producer (Hoffman) on fabricating a war…to cover up a Presidential sex scandal.
If that story sounds familiar…it's because it eerily, prophetically, predicted a real-life scandal, starring two main characters – named President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
The film was released in 1997, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal broke in January 1998. (A scandal that, believe it or not, was kinda predicted in the early '90s by our very own Zulu sangoma, author and 'diviner', the late great Credo Mutwa, in a documentary called A Voice in the Wilderness.)
When the heat from the Lewinsky scandal reached fever pitch, then-president Bill Clinton went and bombed Afghanistan and Sudan with airstrikes in August 1998 – allegedly as a response to the Kenya-Tanzania bombings of American embassies. Of course, the attack temporarily took attention off his affair with Lewinsky…and the DNA evidence on that darn blue dress.
Many from the public and several publications accused Clinton of authorising the airstrikes to detract from his sex scandal, with at least one outlet describing it as Clinton 'Wagging the Dog.' Clinton doubled down and followed up by bombing Iraq in December that same year.
Why do I bring this up?
Well, because, like Trends analyst, Gerald Celente often says…
And in case you haven't noticed, the US economy, Trump's presidency, his big beautiful bill, negotiations with Russia, Israel, Iran and tariffs on China…are all failing. Due in no small part to the fact that, on just about every issue and policy, Trump seems to be flip-flopping more often than a click beetle on crack.
Trump's bases are loaded (to use a baseball term). He needs a big public distraction from the Epstein files, the spending bill crisis, a defiant and non-compliant Netanyahu, a faltering peace deal with Russia-Ukraine and failing tariff wars with China – among other damaging scandals, sagas and challenges.
For a while back there, it looked like that distraction might come in the form of a possible war with Russia, China, Yemen, Iran or North Korea (and the jury's still out on all 5).
Instead, he may have just gotten his big, beautiful, welcomed distraction…with the sudden recent outbreak of violent riots in LA.
Let us know by leaving a comment below or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1.
Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.