The bromance between Elon Musk and Donald Trump might be enough to put us off our breakfast most mornings, but on reflection, we should be grateful. Not grateful for them in their capacity to lead or inspire. But grateful for their gargantuan egos, which will surely be their undoing.
Watching this relationship play out in real time, is like observing one of the less complex and nuanced Shakespearean tragedies. It’s so utterly predictable what will end up happening. (In fact, I’m sure the Bard would be insulted at me drawing parallels).
Let’s start with the fact that Donald Trump has never been an intellect. For all he claims to be “a very stable genius”, this has never been the reason why American voters flocked to him.
Trump’s brilliance as a politician is in identifying the issues that scare voters the most– job security, borders, American values being under threat, etc– and capitalising on that fear in a relentless way. Despite being a trust-fund billionaire, Trump has always been masterful at making disillusioned Americans (and people globally) believe that he is a man of the people.
On the flip side, sits Elon Musk– an incredibly smart, pretty sinister, oddball. Watching him at Trump’s inauguration festivities demonstrated this perfectly. His speech, in which he so clearly wanted to galvanise the people, was both unnerving and deeply uninspiring. A twice given Nazi salute might have elicited headlines, but it did not elicit the excitement of those in the audience.
Of course, this dynamic– Trump as the charismatic idiot and Musk as the disturbing genius, might have resulted in Trump’s decisive election win, but will surely end in acrimony, when it’s so evident that both want top dog status.
And it’s clear that the media is toying with this tussle.
Last week, TIME Magazine appeared to troll the President when they published an edition with Elon Musk on the cover, sitting behind the President’s Resolute Desk. When probed about his reaction to the cover at a press conference, Trump said scathingly, “Is TIME Magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that”.
If Trump’s orange tan wasn’t so industrially powerful, we would have surely seen his face turn green with envy.
Elon’s ego for the record, is hardly miniscule. Let’s remember this is a man who purchased Twitter (now X) for $44 billion in 2022 just to have a platform to spout his own toxic bile. He has also used X to allegedly create fake accounts to praise himself.
Under Musk’s helm, X is now worth a meagre $9.4 billion, a 79% decrease from the purchase price.
Right now, Trump needs Musk. Musk propped up his entire election campaign, spending more than a quarter of a billion dollars to back Trump and other Republican candidates. He was the largest donor in the 2024 election cycle to either party, Federal Election Commission filings show.
And he was, as we know, handsomely rewarded with a plum role, leading the new Department of Government Efficiency, a team within Trump’s administration.
But with both men leading for themselves with minimal ideology, the odds are that this soul-sucking marriage will quickly dissolve into one of worst divorces we’ve ever witnessed. And when marriages disintegrate so badly, there’s rarely harmonious outcomes.
Will there be collateral damage? Yes. Could they tear each other apart? I’d put money on it.
And could that end up being the silver lining of hope for a new direction post apocalypse? Well, that’s what I’m holding out for. And I’m strapping myself in with popcorn till then.