Donald J. Trump Vs Elon Musk

It’s A Mismatch, And Musk Knows It

NOTE: Elon Musk has since had a phone call with Trump and apologized. What do you think of Elon's outburst? Leave a thought in the comments.

Elon Musk recently launched a surprise X attack on Donald Trump, presumably because he is upset about the Big, Beautiful Bill’s excessive spending and lack of fiscal responsibility.

“I’m sorry,” Musk posted on X, “but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

In another post, Musk wrote, "Congress is making America bankrupt," and that the bill will leave American taxpayers under the weight of a "crushingly unsustainable debt."

Musk is a staunch advocate of free speech and is entitled to his opinion. Many would agree that the U.S. has a big, ugly deficit problem.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget claims the proposed legislation would increase the federal deficit by $2.5 trillion over 10 years.

Not everyone agrees, nor should they. Debate is the lifeblood of free speech.

Trump spokesperson Caroline Leavitt addressed Musk’s discontent with, “Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it."

Trump’s the President of the United States. Musk is not. Recommending legislation is Trump’s job–his duty–as the elected leader of the country. Musk wasn't elected to head DOGE, he was working at Trump’s pleasure.

Musk went on to post–posts that he has since deleted–that the president’s name appears in unreleased Jeffrey Epstein files, and that’s why the files haven’t been made public.

"@RealDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files," Musk wrote on X. "That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!"

Musk followed the post with another, "Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out."

Indeed, the truth will come out and part of it is that Musk went from DOGE hero to teenage tantrum at the drop of a hat. The outcome was more adolescent than anything, and, in the end, it will hurt Musk’s reputation far more than Trump’s.

What caused Musk’s sudden fall from grace?

The Machine Vs The Man

Donald Trump understands human psychology better than almost any psychologist. How else could he be so successful as a businessman, a media personality, and a politician?

Elon Musk is a wildly successful tech businessman and engineer. But he doesn't understand people like Trump, and he knows it.

In his 2021 opening monologue for Saturday Night Live, Musk said: "To anyone who I’ve offended [with my Twitter posts], I just want to say I reinvented electric cars, and I'm sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?"

At a TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Canada, Musk admitted that as he was growing up, “the social cues were not intuitive.”

Musk was talking about his experiences growing up with Asperger's syndrome. That’s right, Elon Musk is on the autism spectrum.

“I would just tend to take things very literally … but then that turned out to be wrong—[people were not] simply saying exactly what they mean, there's all sorts of other things that are meant, and [it] took me a while to figure that out,” Musk said.

Asked about a potential link between his companies’ success and Asperger’s, Musk admitted it is “certainly possible” that the condition may be valuable from a technology standpoint.

“I found it rewarding to spend all night programming computers, just by myself. … But I think that is not normal,” Musk said.

Musk also said that he became “obsessed” with physics and trying to figure out the meaning of life.

Politics is a deeply social activity because it is carried out by living, psychological beings. Technology is not alive. If Musk–highly successful in the technology realm–desires to be seen as socially adept, he won’t get there by studying physics.

Musk craves a human connection that technology can never give him. Why else would he host Saturday Night Live and seek the camera in interviews and while standing in the Oval Office?

“Saying ain’t doin’,” as the saying goes. No matter how desperately Musk craves it, he will never be as socially adept as Donald Trump–not even close.

Musk may eventually send a man to Mars, but he will never understand humanity the way Donald Trump does.

It’s sad. Something human is missing in Musk. He seems to have more in common with machines than men.

Hope For Musk

At the end of the day, Elon Musk is a human being. He may be slow–otherwise he never would have mentioned Epstein and Trump in the same post–but he catches on.

The Epstein-Trump connection was a bridge too far. It was absurd.

“It is totally inconceivable that there would be something incriminating about Trump in the Epstein files and yet the Democrats kept that information to themselves for all these years,” Matt Walsh posted on X.

“Sure,” Walsh continued, “you can say that they are also incriminated in the files. But so what? They would have just released the part that incriminated Trump. Release that part and destroy or redact the rest. Does anyone think the Dems are above pulling a move like that?

Walsh’s conclusion: “The only possible reason they didn’t release the dirt on Trump is that there is no dirt to release. Trump is the most thoroughly vetted politician in American history. There is no corner of his life that his enemies haven’t ripped open for public view. And yet they’ve kept THIS a secret? Absurd.”

The fact that Musk tried to muddy Trump’s name by associating it with Epstein was a childish maneuver. That doesn't mean that Musk hasn't done a great service to the United States by helping Trump get elected and taking charge of DOGE.

It also doesn't mean that Musk is incapable of eating a bite of Humble Pie.

Joe Weisenthal spotted a post on X that showed as much. “An account with 184 followers has achieved de-escalation between two of the most powerful people in the world.”

In the thread, an X’er called Alaska wrote that Musk and Trump should back off and cool down.

Musk read the post and replied, “Good advice.” He then backed down on decommissioning the SpaceX rocket Dragon.

Bottom line: Musk should stick to tech. He doesn't have what it takes to navigate the Swamp. Donald Trump does.