Elon Musk can easily use Donald Trump's greatest advantage against him

Elon Musk can easily use Donald Trump's greatest advantage against him
Trump isn't fooling anyone by saying Elon Musk's "not going to be president"

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published December 24, 2024 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) The more Donald Trump denies he's being controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, who purchased the president-elect with over $250 million in campaign spending this year, the less anyone believes him. Last week's spending battle was complex in the details, but not in the main takeaway: The Tesla CEO is leading the aging and tired Trump by the nose. Trump's sole ask of congressional Republicans going into budget negotiations was to end the debt ceiling, at least for a couple of years, to spare him the headache of negotiating it while in office. Then Musk started flipping out on Twitter about all manner of line items, seemingly spun up by random social media users named after feline waste products. Both Trump and the GOP meekly followed suit, nearly bringing government to a halt while scrambling to cut a bunch of stuff to appease Musk, who didn't even understand most of the arguments he was making.

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Trump's advanced age contributes to suspicions that he is being puppeteered by Musk, who is 25 years younger than the official president-elect. Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., joined the discourse, releasing a video with her dog snoring as she said, "Republicans don’t know who their daddy is."

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No telling how this all plays out, except that it will be chaotic. Despite Trump's victory in November, there have been strong signs for months that his cult-like grip on his followers is loosening. The Republican National Convention was a dud, and Trump's speech was a low point. One gets the strong impression that the MAGA masses are interested in a younger, more dynamic leader. While Musk seems like an odd pick, it's also true that the billionaire gets exponentially more engagement online than Trump does. When it comes to controlling GOP leaders, Musk has a real advantage. Trump's favorite tool to keep politicians in line, threatening to run a primary opponent, makes even more sense for Musk, who can offer any such person limitless financial resources.

The silver lining in all of this is that Trump and Musk are both mean-spirited narcissists. They'll struggle to avoid conflict if pitted in a "who's more powerful?" contest. Such a fight can only demobilize the GOP base as people take sides in this increasingly ugly fight. Consider how much battles like "Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton" or "Should Biden drop out?" weakened the Democratic coalition. A Musk vs. Trump battle will do the same to the GOP and could be worse since way more people in the mix are cantankerous jerks. .............................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/12/24/elon-musk-can-easily-use-donald-greatest-advantage-against-him/