A full-scale public brawl emerged this week between President Donald Trump and his erstwhile fair-haired boy, Elon Musk. Although the media have tended to portray this as little more than a head-on collision of two giant egos, the question arises whether it is being steered as part of a broader destabilization of the Trump presidency, by those who are unhappy with his one-on-one diplomacy with President Putin and President Xi, and his search for peace in Ukraine.
The leading public elements are as follows:
• Musk attacked Trump’s beloved “Big Beautiful Bill” as a “disgusting abomination,” charging it would increase the budget deficit and drive the U.S. further into debt.
• Trump retaliated by saying Musk “just went crazy,” and cited a New York Times article on Musk’s reported daily use of ketamine—although Musk clarified he only took it every other week for depression. Ketamine “is abused for its ability to produce dissociative sensations and hallucinations,” according to the DEA.
• Trump further attacked Musk by saying that the government could save money by cancelling millions of deals with Musk companies. Musk responded that he would decommission the Dragon spaceship, which is the primary means of getting astronauts to the ISS, but he then retracted his threat.
