I think some people are misinterpreting the Trump-Musk dynamic. [View all]
People seem to want to paint Trump as some sort of unwilling puppet of Musk, insisting that Musk is the true President in fact, calling him "President Musk," etc.
And that's a great way to troll Trump and get under his skin. But it's not really accurate, IMHO.
The paradoxical thing about Trump is that he absolutely loves power and being in charge, but he doesn't like being President.
He loves the adulation, the entourage, the idea that he can rename places at the blink of an eye or threaten to take over whatever sovereign land or throw the economic markets into an instant frenzy over tariff threats, and then instantly calm them like he's Jesus Christ by pulling back. It feeds his ego--which is insatiable, but still needs to be constantly fed.
He doesn't like being President not necessarily because he's lazy or stupid (although a very good argument could be made for him being both of those things), but rather because of the constraints put on the Presidency. The constitutional checks and balances from the other two branches. The oversights. The limits.
And most importantly of all, the President's duties towards the citizens. Trump has zero interest in helping the people, serving the people, protecting the people. He's 100% interested in helping only one person, and that's himself. And he has no interest at all in a government that has responsibility towards its own citizens.
So he's just as happy to get rid of that role of government. He wishes to govern by fiat and personal will, not a Constitutional mandate. He wants to be Emperor Trump, not President Trump.
Enter Elon Musk.
Musk gladly takes on the role of Trump's hatchet man, to destroy everything good that the government does for its citizens, so that all is left is a hollow shell that serves only to glorify him.
Trump himself lacks the wits and energy to do all this himself, so he basically outsourced it all to Musk, a man who happily feeds on chaos. And destroying government--like destroying Twitter--creates lots and lots and lots of chaos.
If this were Star Wars, think of Elon Musk as Grand Moff Tarkin, the ruthless commander of the Death Star who goes from planet to planet destroying everything in sight.
Meanwhile, Trump is Palpatine, with a little Jabba the Hutt mixed in.
No, actually a lot of Jabba the Hutt mixed in, if you know what I mean.
For now, it's a symbiotic relationship between Trump and Musk.
Could it turn sour? Will they turn on each other?
Knowing their egos and volatile personalities, most likely it will. I don't think we've reached that stage yet.
Right now, they're still very much a dangerous dyad working in concert with one another. A two-headed monster.
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