Are you willing to bet that, in leaving the government, he willingly gave up any illegal back-door access that was placed there?
That’s possible though massively illegal.
And so?
This is what makes me think that the big feud is theater and the two lovebros might reconcile to even more public hoopla and headlines.
IME when you break up with someone in a permanently acrimonious way, you say a few things that are truly beyond the pale and unforgivable. IOW you burn your bridges. But if this is a Hollywood-style breakup for the cameras, can a makeup be far behind?
Please tell me this is wrong and that the rift is permanent…
And that Elon is going to go live in Russia and be Putin’s new boytoy. Please.
Well, in the before times, one could be prosecuted for that sort of thing.
If all this is theater, then who do you think created the plan and convinced them to go along? With what goal in mind compelling enough for them to agree? Unless you’re gonna tell me that they conceived and executed all of this themselves.
Okay…that’s good. Feeling better now.
The New York Times says that Trump’s decision not to appoint Musk’s associate as NASA head sparked the breakup.
Is this a confession that he bought votes or is he just trying to argue that it was his charisma?
And I think that’s how Trump will ultimately get Musk. Musk may be the richest person in the world, but that’s peanuts compared to the US government. Trump is going to turn the DOJ loose on Musk, and take everything he has.
Pour Encourager les autres.
Gift link
…
Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump did not have a feud five days ago and might not have a feud five days from now. Until proved otherwise, all of this is theater. Think of it as the political version of professional wrestling. For a few hours, everyone was diverted by the spectacle of a brawl between the world’s richest man and its most powerful person.…
It was only a few days ago that Mr. Musk announced he was done in Washington and returning to his companies. But the demands of show business are relentless. For all the apparent split between him and the president, Thursday showed again just how much like Mr. Trump the entrepreneur has become. They are competing for our attention.
…
I have a feeling this is what’s going in. 
Please, just let me have this one thing.
I still have my questions above.
Any hypothesis that this was all a theatrical distraction in which both parties were conscious deliberate actors is a non-starter. There is zero possibility — zero point zero zero zero to infinity — that Trump willingly participates in a stunt in which he is insulted and denigrated.
The media observers who speculate about this stuff have been watching too many political potboilers in which the stories depend on complex multilayered conspiracies pursued by brilliant strategists. The Trump administration is not House of Cards. It’s House of Gormless Shitgoblins.
It’s so hard to tell because neither of them act or speak like normal human beings. " A disgusting abomination"? That juvenile, redundant comment might have actually been lifted from my eighth grade journal. Trump’s uncharacteristic restraint smacks of ulterior motives, and in all it seems too stoopid to be real. For that matter, Vlad seems full of shite too.
Yeah, I’m inclined to agree. This really isn’t, and never was, 4D chess.
The BBC’s radio news early this morning reported on EM’s proposed new party (perhaps misled by his ‘80% in the middle’ remark) as ‘centrist’.
Ego-centrist, perhaps…
Musk would just buy El Salvador.
This.
Certainly not four-dimensional chess. More like street-level improv. Like theatrical wrestling, that looks like a fight to the death when it’s intention mixed with improvisation.
I want to be wrong. I hope I am wrong. I want Elon to move into Putin’s Love Shack.
P.S. I’m sure you can’t possibly apply the words conscious and deliberate to either Trump or Musk. Trusk? Mrump?
I think this will settle down into a sullen detente.
Musk is right about the bill, but said public stuff due to sour grapes on not getting more of his own pork in the sausage.
Trump won’t easily forgive the comments about not winning the election by himself, but will try to forget, fail, and be sulky. No one is getting purged.
But it is not performative. You know anyone with egos this big? Humour and subtlety are not their strong suits.
Both tried to use the other and figured they came out ahead. Both thought the other person would appreciate them more than they actually do. Both recall the Chinese expression that “the friendship of a public official is as thin as paper”.
This publicity is mainstream media catnip. Ultimately it benefits neither Trump, Musk or the Republicans and both boxers will be hustled back to their stools in the corner. Unless they wrestle at the Roman Colisseum, which would also be cool, and Zuck could referee.