For months, leftists have pushed the narrative that Elon Musk was the shadow president, the real power behind the curtain. “We didn’t vote for Elon Musk!” they cried on social media and in street protests, implying that his growing influence over public policy, whether through X, Tesla, SpaceX, or his brief stint heading the Department of Government Efficiency, was somehow undemocratic, dangerous, and unprecedented.
Well, now that Musk and President Donald Trump are locked in a very public, very messy war of words, that particular talking point has collapsed under its own weight.
This week, Musk and Trump went from political allies to billionaire ballistic enemies in a matter of hours, with attacks escalating over the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the sprawling piece of legislation that Trump backs and Musk opposes. Trump says Musk helped shape the bill. Musk says he never even saw it. Trump says Musk is just upset about EV subsidies being cut. Musk says the bill is a financial disaster that undermines all the work DOGE did to reduce government bloat.
And then it got personal — fast.
Trump took to X to suggest slashing all federal subsidies and contracts to Musk’s companies: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.” A stinging rebuke from a former ally.
Musk, in turn, didn’t mince words. He accused Trump of lying about his departure from DOGE, called for his impeachment, and even claimed, without evidence, that Trump’s name is in the Epstein files and that this is why they haven’t been released.
This is not how shadow governments behave.
This is not how puppet masters treat their marionettes.
If Musk ever was running the White House, he’s certainly been fired in spectacular fashion. The idea that he was ever really in charge is now laughable.
The truth is this: Elon Musk is not above politics. He’s in them now, deep in the mud like everyone else. And when billionaires enter the political arena, they lose the illusion of being untouchable geniuses floating above the fray. Musk has gone from revered innovator to cable-news feud fodder, and from technocrat to Twitter brawler.
It’s also worth noting how quickly the Left has shifted its tone. Remember when Musk was the face of authoritarian techno-dystopia, supposedly controlling everything from speech to subsidies? Now that he’s taking a blowtorch to Trump on the very platform he owns, where are those same voices? Suddenly, silence — or even applause. The Left may embrace him again, and quickly.
Musk is learning the hard way that politics isn’t physics. It’s not a clean equation. It’s dirty, personal, and often irrational. And Trump — well, Trump is a master of the battlefield. He builds you up until you’re useful. Then, if you cross him, he can burn you to the ground. That’s not new.
What is new is Musk learning it the hard way.
So to all the critics who insisted Musk was secretly calling the shots: You got your answer. Elon Musk was never in control of the White House. But today, it looks like he’s on the outside, bloodied, tweeting, and very much not running anything.
Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of Must Read Alaska.
“……..Trump is a master of the battlefield. He builds you up until you’re useful. Then, if you cross him, he can burn you to the ground……..”
That ought to attract a lot of good, qualified help.
Ha … good thing the sexually deviant pedocrats from the AuyopenJoe regime are available to rehire as long as DEI is reinstated
If I was the President and the whole world was calling me a pedophile, I would release every page of the Epstein files to prove I wasn’t in there.
Unless I was in there
This is no way to run a government. Hopefully the serious, competent folks will soon return and we can put this reality show behind us. We are now the laughingstock of the world. China and Russia are looking on with amusement, and licking their chops.
“Hopefully the serious, competent folks will soon return” seems like those folks are long dead. I get it that you might somehow think Biden was serious, he certainly wasn’t competent. Obama pretended to be serious and had a measure of competency regarding administrative nonsense, but had no fiscal or international competence. Russia invaded Ukraine under the Obama/Biden/Harris administrations, Putin knew when to invade and it was while incompetent people held the office of the President of the US. We may or may not be the laughingstock of the world, if we are it’s due to the policies that you and your ilk push. Want to invade the Ukraine…let’s wait until a political neophite is President. Want to invade Israel…let’s wait until a politically compromised individual with neurogical issues is President. Want to build a nuclear weapon and threaten the world with it…let’s wait until a political neophite is President and then when his neurogically challenged minion is in office we can have him give us BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of dollars to fund our terrorism.
So, yeah hopefully the serious, competent folks will soon return. Your guys have left us in a mess and if you believe the news lord help you. If you think Trump and Musk squabbling on X or whatever is the news, you’re missing the real news.
Good job at summarizing the situation Steve-O.
Hey, I’ve voted for competent Republicans plenty of times in my life. But the clown show on stage right now is not that. Trump? Musk? ICE Barbie? Big Balz? The reptilian Miller? RFK? Breathtakingly bad in all except their narcissism, their sycophancy, and their obsequience. They’ve got to go.
When was the last time you voted for a Republican of any sort? The only sort of Republican you would ever support are the globalists that adhere to the WEF all-powerful State agenda.
Agreed. Good summary! Trump a ‘threat’ to democracy, when FBI/DOJ collude to hide/disinform via major news platforms (Twitter/FB), Russia Gate hoax, Biden Laptop, and Sr’s senility hidden for years? Politicized lawfare, then trying to force feed Kamala without a vote into the White House?
Libs need to only look in the mirror to see the real threats to democracy!
Yes Whidbey. Back to endless wars and infinite excuses as to why good policy cannot be implemented. “Competence”
You brainwashed sheep are stubborn.
Yeah, “serious competent folks” like a belligerently senile sock puppet president, a low-IQ prostitute posing as vice-president, a homosexual transportation secretary more concerned about ‘chest feeding’ his adopted son than national transportation, a FEMA director who made the Keystone Cops look like the model of efficiency, a Border Czar who did precisely zero to secure the border while facilitating the invasion of millions of illegal aliens, a mentally disturbed and gender-confused Public Health Services ‘admiral’, a Defense Secretary more concerned about racist and Marxist DEI policies than defense, a nuclear waste expert who was both a transvestite and a serial luggage thief, and a sexually deviant White House spokesmop who was consistently unable to answer questions from the press that deviated to the slightest degree from her pre-programmed talking points.
Yes, “serious and competent”, everyone.
There could be a video of Trump on Epstein Island in bed with two naked sixteen year old girls, one urinating on him while he’s wearing handcuffs, while some famous CEO is watching him doing God knows what to the other one, and we already know a MAGA grandma would say, “Well, we all knew he was not a perfect man. And the Democrats are worse.”
And sadly, the granny would actually be right.
For all his innumerable faults, when it comes to Trump, you only have hypothetical “could be” scenarios. With brain-dead Biden and the Cacklin’ Ho, we had reality to condemn them.
Fictional scenarios are meaningless.
And, if Trump was actually in the Epstein client list, you can be absolutely 10,000% sure the leftists would have released that information in 2024. They were in full possession of the information, and they would be more than willing to see a bunch of prominent democrats go down in flames in order to catch Trump. Tell me I am wrong, I dare you.
Yes, Chi- Coms decidedly liked Biden. Once bought, Joe stayed bought.
You referring to the pedocrats and TibetanPlateauJoe and his sexually deviant psychotic autopen regime? Give me AFing break.
Competent like who whidbey..?. Chuckie Schumer, Aoc, Lisa ,, Adam Schaffer, ha ha. You’re a joke. Brain washed joke at that.
Funny dog….sounds like you have stopped taking your medication.
Where are these “…serious, competent folks…” folks you speak of?
If they were actually working in the Federal Service, why is there any need whatsoever for any reform? Your very assertion is in direct conflict with reality.
Great article.
The Left is in freefall mode.
Big Tech has abandoned “climate change” because they need an exponential increase in power to run AI.
The masses 80/20 have pushed back in all the trannie hysteria.
The masses 80/20 have realized that “gender Affirming” surgery is actually genitalia mutilation of minors.
The masses 80/20 do not want open borders for uneducated third worlders.
The masses 80/20 want the uneducated third worlders, the majority of whom are in welfare, to be deported.
The masses 80/20 knew all along that “sharp as a tack” Biden was a manipulated buffoon.
I could go on – but won’t.
Virtually EVERYTHING the left and MSM have been telling us for the last 20 years has been LIES!…
Good points, Madam Downing. May we also agree that Elon Musk, for all his noteworthy entrepreneurial successes (and setbacks), is neither a statesman nor a diplomat. In the simplest manner of speaking, Musk is not a willing team player; rather, he is a vain, temperamental, flighty character who could never last long in Donald Trump’s administration – too much friction.
I immediately questioned Musk’s leadership appointment and approach at DOGE. Instead, that position should be filled by an accomplished forensic accountant who possesses the tenacity, personality, and battle experiences of a Marine Corps gunnery sergeant. We might need to wait for the Millennial Kingdom to find such a talent in government.
Musk lost me when he laid off thousands of IRS employees, some of whom he could have re-directed to go after the fraud on the expense side (non-profits, NGOs, green energy scams, etc.). And, like Munchkin previously told Trump, these people are your accounts receivable department- you need them if you are serious about a balanced budget.
I vote Republican because I expect the Republicans to be the fiscal conservatives who want a balanced budget. Trump, a Democrat for most of his life, is a massive disappointment when it comes to spending.
WE SIMPLY CAN NOT HAVE $2 TRILLION DOLLAR BUDGET DEFICITS, PER YEAR!
Our $37 trillion dollar debt requires $1 trillion in interest payments per year!
The credit rating of the USA has now been down graded because of this reckless spending. This, in turn, means we will have even higher interest rates as we go ever deeper into debt.
This problem does not get easier to solve the deeper we go into debt!
Biden was reckless in his spending and he devalued the US dollar by about 20%. Expect more inflation if the Republicans can not get their act together.
If Republicans can not be the adults, what the hell good are they? Musk is right. Musk gave Trump $280 million dollars to help win the election, Trump should show some gratitude.
If the Republicans continue this reckless conduct I will urge Musk to spend millions to toss out all the members of Congress who vote for this pork fest- that will include Begich, who voted for this bill in the House. Reckless, stupid, and unacceptable!
So nice to watch the lions eating their young.
In case you were confused, CMAN, we aren’t talking about abortion in this article.
But we already know you enjoy watching mothers butcher their offspring, that is why we laugh at you leftists. Loser.
The fact that you took as much time as you did to get on here and hurl insults at someone you know nothing about speaks volumes. Congratulations.
Good piece, Suzanne. But I have a different take on this. I think this is a theatrical departure by Musk, coordinated by Trump to look like a war of words and major breakdown between two billionaires. This staged drama is designed to confuse the liberal press and Democrat Party, and cause them to look the other way, while Trump continues to push his agenda on rehabilitating critical fossil fuel and mineral development. This public spat also gives Musk an opportunity to get his EV industry back to major profitability by getting Democrats to buy more Teslas. It’s a made for TV drama, produced and directed by Donald Trump, starring Elon Musk. A high level and very entertaining show about the most powerful politician in the world vs. the world’s richest man. Instead of, “you’re fired,” it’s a reality version of, “we’re laughing.”
Yesssss. This is all part of The Plan.
I can’t believe I didn’t anticipate this.
It was so obvious.
Just part of one, big beautiful Plan.
Not left or MAGA. This one is squarely on Trump. He allowed Musk more access than any non-cabinet member in history and it burned him Just say he made a mistake. Please.
I find this political theatre or shall I say kayfabe, to be pretty amusing.
Now the brain dead lefties will think Elon is on their side again and will continue buying his cars and demand the release of the Epstein files, thinking they will finally “get Trump”.
Our president is playing tennis and the attention of the normie sheep is the tennis ball.
Isn’t the left amazing!! First they love Elon. Then they hate him. And now they love him again. Simply AMAZING!!! They can change their minds faster than I change my underwear!!! Hey, we love Elon!! No!! We hate Elon!! No!!! We love Elon!! Now will they vote for Elon for President?
This “feud” is a political ploy – “The Art of the Deal” style advanced strategy. Elon Musk is now Trump heir apparent – the Anti-Trump, if you will. Elon campaigns on “finishing the job” while Trump takes heat for all the conservative politics the left can’t stand and tries to persuade the muddled middle to join them in hating. BRILLIANT. I would prefer that the President promote our Party and Veep Vance, but as we learn more about Musk, the better he looks. In the end of all this DJT and spacey-X EM are friends.
“Elon Musk is now Trump heir apparent”
Musk can’t be president; he was born in Africa. He do plenty from ‘outside’ that role, but sit in the big chair in the Oval Office? Not.
Meh.
Turns out if you let an independently wealthy person look at the books and sees how perverted and diseased the public ledgers are, they get disgusted. The biggest problem is that America is just under $38 trillion in debt and runs a just under $3 trillion deficit every year.
Elon has nothing to do with it, he spread the curtain on how terrible the situation is. His answer is to import 10 million Indians into America every year until there are enough heartbeats to make the debt seem manageable. This works great for India because they have 30 million excess males reach adulthood every year. Its catastrophic for the West because we don’t need excess males from foreign populations that lie about their credentials so endemically that companies like Apple automatically filter resumes from India.
This isn’t politics, its the rape and destruction of the country. Future generations have to pay off the debt. The floodgates have been opened to allow in as many as possible to spread the debt over enough people as possible.
This is the same exact thing that happened to the Roman Empire, the French Empire, the British Empire, the Mongol Empire, the Portuguese 3mpire, the Spanish Empire.
America has been eaten away from the inside. This is a natural cycle of Empires, this is the first time in history that the public knew it was happening ahead of time and stopped caring.
*I dont like elon musk. He wasn’t going to actually fix anything. He was of the tempermant to sperg out on twitter for 10 hours and give other people the ability to explain how bad things really are to the public*
Musk and his ilk are transhumanists. They believe they can push human “evolution” through a blending of machine and man, and thereby create a new creature. They have no morality and no basis of morality. And like the many who have come before they think they can be god. They will all fall and wither like blades of grass before Him. There is nothing new under the sun.
George Soros is going to have to hold off dark money USAID laundered payouts to ANTIFA666ots until it’s determined whether or not terrorizing Tesla advances the goals of the femocrats
That Downing allows your words to soil her site is surprising.
Suzanne is pretty tolerant of everyone’s views. As long as you are not aggressive, and lay off the profanity.
She lets you spout your Jewish Blood Libel.
I don’t care about personalities. What I care about is my cost of living, illegal immigration and domestic terrorism. Everything else is news media BS.
One of the things that makes Musk successful is the ability to take on an insane amount of personal and professional risk. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it does happen.
Outcome this time around is galvanizing a real appetite for budget cutting for the first time in decades. Even Princess is making noises in that direction. From that standpoint, this has been a very successful, albeit uncomfortable episode. I think we are going to be ok. And I think there are going to be some substantial cuts.
Note that the BBB is not the only vehicle for cuts. The House is floating a rescission bill that may or may not pass as a test case. There will be another one after Aug 18, 45 days from the end of the Fiscal Year. Whether the second one is passed or not, the proposed cuts WILL go into effect. Why? Because you can’t force spending FY 2025 $$$ in FY 2026 which starts Oct 1. It is called a pocket rescission, something not tried before. Should be a fun fall. Cheers –
Still, imagine if we had biden or harris in office now. We wouldn’t know about any of the fraud, or misuse of government funds and I bet it would be 10x worse than what Trump is doing now.
I believe when fraud is found someone gets charged with a crime. Real Ak do you have any receipts for any crimes committed?
Of course he doesn’t. How any intelligent Alaskan can imagine Biden fraud but ignore the worst corruption ever in our history spells a certain death to American democracy.
Got the receipts to back up your assertion there, Manny?
Ignoring what corruption, exactly?
Good points! It’s all a process. Both good & bad. We’ll see where it goes. But I’ll take this turmoil any day over that other alternative of a President Biden again or a President Harris. No thank you!
Musk is still my favorite oligarch. But his falling out with Trump is no surprise to me. With all his billions fairly well secured, he stepped aside from his ventures to dabble in politics and government. It’s no surprise that the deep state has fought back, as well as the ugly reality of Congressional politics. While a half-trillionaire (!) can pretty much do as he pleases in business and in culture, I think he may have met his match in politics. Money and genius also require temperament and patience to overcome the monstrosity of Washington DC.
He has certainly left his mark in Washington no matter what he does next, starting with fixing twitter (which was the beginning of the end of the woke’s cultural monopoly), and then investing lots of money and time in helping Trump get re-elected. His work at DOGE may or may not endure – it certainly opened a lot of eyes to the extent of the waste, fraud, and corruption going on in the national bureaucracy.
I want to see him return to Space X, Starlink, Tesla, X, xAI, Neuralink, and all things beyond, which are better suited for his unique genius. I also want him and Trump to repair their relationship. I think they eventually will.
“Trump is a master of the battlefield.” Suzanne, when did you become a comedy writer? Is this part of your new satire series? An Alaskan Babylon Bee?
Trump has been outmaneuvered by Putin, Xi, Iran, the terrorists in charge of Syria, the Houthis, Zelenskyy, the members of the Supreme Court he appointed, and many others. He’s failed to even remotely balance the budget. He’s failed to rebuild healthcare. He’s failed to return much manufacturing (oh but there are so many promises of investment! But few details…). Yet y’all think he’s some sort of 4D chess playing genius?
But hey, at least Trump has managed to really go after the most vulnerable group in the nation – undocumented immigrants, and convinced y’all that every one of them is a child raping murderer (yes, a few are).
Trump is not a conservative. He is not a Republican. He’s not making America Great Again.
FUR, you give away your real political self-identification when you use the radical left’s weasel phrase “undocumented immigrants” instead of calling them what they REALLY are, “illegal alien invaders”.
Don’t look now, but your extreme radical leftist slip is showing.
Haha! I knew someone would bite on that bit of bait. “Illegal alien invaders”, yup, bunch of baby killing animals, every one of them. You are so right.
It gets better the more you read his posts.
You’re largely irrelevant Jefferson.
You’re largely an arrogant /////, Manny.
Oh, and also irrelevant.
Really?
Based on what standard?
I find Jefferson to be a valuable and important contribution to the MRAK community, even if I do not always agree with his perspective.
Fed up: Trump may not be as conservative, nor as Republican, nor as good — as you WISH that he would be. More importantly, though, he is a far, far better president than Kamala Harris would have been. We suffered through the disaster of Joe Biden, but have escaped an even greater calamity.
Don’t forget this distinction, because ‘we the people’ of these United States undoubtedly deserve the leaders that we get. Let us be grateful that we did not deserve the presidency of Kamala Harris. Our glass is at least half full.
Kamala Harris would have been a terrible president, no doubt. But I’m not entirely sure she would have been any worse than the buffoon we have now. At this point, I may be willing to give her a shot. I do not think she could do any worse than Trump. But hey, maybe the Trump economy will recover when he TACOs again and allows free trade to reign – you remember “free trade”, a foundational tenant of the Republican Party?
This entire world is an absurd comedy. Our current political theatre has been the most entertaining ever!
For you, this may be difficult to watch, but for people like me with nothing to lose, it is hilarious and engaging!
Enjoy the show!
You have the most honest response on here. Maybe a little nihilistic, but honest.
NeoCon, RINO much?
You must have tea with Jubilee and Yundt.
Let me guess – you’re a Free Trader, Open Borders, Ukraine war guy.
You’d prefer Jeb Bush as president.
We didn’t vote for Musk, that’s true. We didn’t vote for the thousands of regulators and administrators who run the government either.
I dont remember voting for Jill and Hunter, but they ran the country for years.
We vote the candidate. The winner has the prerogative to pick his staff.
It’s not hard, except for liberals.
The most powerful man and earth and the richest man on earth had a spat?
No! Can’t be.
Both have valid points. The bill is top laden with pork and we’re headed into fiscal oblivion. However, sadly, political reality says this is a good start.
Why Musk threw a hissy fit and made the Epstein crack surprises me. If there was any truth to it the democrats would have run with it long ago. That’s gonna be hard for him to walk back.
Using your “logic”, it would be equally “reasonable” to claim that if there was no truth to it, Trump would’ve released the full, unredacted files long before now. Same goes for if Bill Clinton had been involved, as the long-suffering Clinton-Derangement-Syndrome-afflicted far right has asserted.