Meltdown

Meltdown

Mr. Trump’s political advisers are preparing for a possible drawn-out war against Mr. Musk in which allies of both men in tech and politics are forced to choose sides, according to one person close to the president who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.

 

“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”

-             The unlikely alliance between Trump and Musk breaks down in a rapid and public fashion. – NY Times

 

Gregg Wall (6-6-25)

 

A political marriage of convenience, greed, and lust for power... soon finds itself in an unmarked, shallow grave. 

 

Who suffers?  

 

Answer:  The American people, the poor, disenfranchised citizens globally, per the usual.  If Mr. Musk is correct and the U.S. owes one of the nastiest, malign, morally bankrupt presidencies in the nation's history... to Musk's donations... well, Mr. Musk has a great deal to answer for.

 

Thursday afternoon, this week, saw the mother of all meltdowns between POTUS Trump and his benefactor, Elon Musk.  The second arrangements were made between these two men, that Musk would spend hundreds of millions on the GOP and in support of Trump’s second term election, this breakdown, this meltdown was seemingly destined to occur. Hypothetical speculation on my part: Musk may have felt entitled to access to the President with the ability to steer Trump’s agenda, executive orders, and legislation, once Musk’s extraordinary campaign contributions were made?  And Musk’s early experiences, post-election, with Trump and the Trump administration certainly would have fed those expectations.  Musk, per the Washington Post, spent $288 million in 2024 and takes credit for Trump’s win… going so far, as to accuse Trump of showing a lack of “gratitude.”  Trump, on the other hand, was never going to give Musk that kind power and had noted previously that a tremendous source of Musk’s wealth was derived from government contracts and support.  Shorthand, for anyone paying attention, that the POTUS had leverage over Musk.  And then came DOGE.  The President’s team appears to have given Musk just enough rope to hang himself with, ready to take credit or distance itself depending upon the outcome.  When the DOGE didn’t produce the trillion or trillions in savings, but instead, angered members of the cabinet and congress, enraged thousands of laid off federal workers, and upset Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid recipients… the administration watched Musk swing.  Perhaps relieved?  The initial fanfare that Musk was greeted with at the White House began to taper off and fade.

 

The damage done to Musk, his reputation are, at least for the moment, incalculable; but it’s not inconceivable that DOGE and Musk’s adventures in politics could end up costing the billionaire, ultimately, Tesla, gov contracts, and considerable sums in terms of legal fees (as Musk, possibly, is called upon to defend his actions, behavior, and allegations of drug abuse to shareholders, maybe even to the government).  

 

Fast forward to Thursday afternoon, June 5^th, and Tesla stock plummets, after Trump questions whether or not Musk and the president will remain friends.  Followed by allegations in writing over social media platforms, that Trump is tied to Epstein, Musk is pulling his rockets, Musk wants to start a new third party for 80% of Americans, and later, agreement to the idea that Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vance (Vance is the protégé of Peter Thiel, yet another supervillain in the eyes of some).  Trump in return salvos suggests: Musk’s gov contracts could be cancelled, as a result - Tesla stocks further their descent; Trump had actually fired Musk from his White House job; and Steve Bannon joins the battle to suggest Musk be investigated, required to submit to drug testing, his security clearance stripped, and ultimately, be deported.  Trump had also accused Musk of going off on his signature legislation, BBB, because all the Tesla subsidies and EV benefits would be stripped away going forward.  Musk, on the other hand, states he’s concerned about the debt generated by BBB, with zero mention of the biggest source of BBB debt: tax cuts for the wealthy.  Possibly factoring into all this, Musk is said to have taken out sizable loans against his Tesla stock.  With the Tesla stock cratering Thursday, some 14%, this may have added to Musk’s anxiety and stress.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lost in all the excitement, and popcorn grazing by political junkies, was what did any of this have to do with a United States in terminal decline, swimming in national debt, and with sixty percent of Americans who can’t meet their basic needs.

 

The answer, of course, is everything.  For here on full display is the perfect example of the masters of the universe, the billionaires, the monopolists, the egomaniacs, the corporatist, the fascist technocracy, and the failed libertarian paradigm that have revealed the United States as entirely unexceptional, entirely incapable of change & reform.  Here, for all the world to see, are two entirely human specimens, basically an evolutionary dead end… the embodiment of the billionaire class and oligarchy that have destroyed the United States, its middle class, and the nation’s reputation.  But Musk and Trump are more than an evolutionary dead end, because of the power they wield, and their willingness manipulate the public, both are highly dangerous, acting upon their every whim without filter in highly dangerous times.  In the first nearly five months of Trump’s second term, much like the first, the president has achieved little except demonstrating his and his cabinet’s preternatural greed, lies, and gross incompetence.  Everything these two men have touched in the last five months has turned to ash.  See our US economy teetering towards recession, a failed tariffs war that has exposed America’s Achilles' heal – her national debt, and pushed the bottom 60% deeper into economic hardship & recession.

 

Musk is absolutely scary… why would any country in their right mind privatize government, or, by way of example, America’s space program and hand it over to an alleged drug addict with possible, emotional and psychological challenges?  And what have they achieved?  DOGE is a bust in its stated goal, rooting out fraud and saving the taxpayer money…  obviously, DOGE’s true aim was to consolidate power, the privatization of government, attack regulatory agencies investigating Musk's empire, the gutting of social programs and the transfer of greater data and wealth to a predatory few (and here, Musk & Trump appear to have enjoyed some success).  And Trump?  He certainly hasn’t achieved much of anything either: prices down, affordability, reining in the military, the DOD, empire, debt & deficits, controlling and ending wars and genocide?  Trump is an abject failure, a fraud.  Instead, the elderly Trump feeds his political base hate, misogyny, racism, xenophobia, ICE raids, attacks on higher education, alienates the world and allies, and seeks to consolidate his own power.  Far too many Trump supporters are perfectly willing to lap it up. 

 

As for the tens of millions of Americans who voted for Musk and Trump ...   In the hopes that their lives and their children’s lives would improve, no different than when Dems are in power, their dreams and prayers are dashed.  Or, like so many white males, who can never admit they are wrong, they are engaged in mental gymnastics and lies they tell themselves and others to justify their continued support for an obvious problem in the Oval Office.  A failure who appears to be in the White House for three reasons: to do the SV oligarchy’s and Israel’s bidding, self-enrichment, and to seek revenge.  That is to say, Trump’s and Musk’s rabid fanboy base are entirely delusional or perfectly fine with the oligarchy’s illegitimate designs.  At the end of the day, Musk & Trump are the personification of what America has become: morally bankrupt; spiritually destitute; stuck in the quicksand of a failing libertarian economy; a government that’s been busted out and looted with $41 trillion in national debt; a grossly overextended empire; a badly abused & trashed US dollar; saddled with a parasitic oligarchy, that is pure overhead, a drain upon the nation; a failed state.  Musk & Trump are representatives of our self-centered oligarchy, a growing cancer…  as lethal & self-destructive as our empire and the monopolies that operate with complete impunity.  Meanwhile, the US dollar is presently & increasingly being shunned, along with US investments & markets.  America, and its proxy in the Middle East, truly are pariah nations and we have criminals like Musk, Trump, GOP & Dem leadership to thank for that.  The amount of resources America’s oligarchy consumes (i.e. pure overhead)… in terms of government welfare, a billionaire tax code, privatization, subsides, and the transfer & redistribution of wages and wealth from our rigged economy… are a huge drag upon the American economy & weighs heavily upon the American people.

 

Like Rome, France, England, and Russia before it, America appears to be yet another empire destined for the grave. 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2025