Elon Musk just killed Donald Trump's honeymoon

[marmar]

Elon Musk just killed Donald Trump's honeymoon
We are seeing is an emerging crack in the GOP coalition

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published December 20, 2024 9:09AM (EST)


(Salon) Back in 2016, the whole country was left in shock when celebrity businessman Donald Trump managed to take over the Republican Party and win the presidential election. At the time there was quite a bit of resistance within the GOP establishment due to the fact that Trump had not run as an ordinary conservative but rather as a populist demagogue. They had no idea that their voters were so hungry for his message. Gone were all the usual paeans to small government and family values and even his strong advocacy for expanding the military was coupled with a discordant isolationist stance that harkened back to the pre-WWII America First movement. (Trump had no idea about that history — he thought he came up with it himself.)

....(snip)....

That's never been clearer than this week when Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., presented the bipartisan continuing resolution to fund the government until March and all hell broke loose in the House. Those rascally, back bench Tea Party/Freedom Caucus ideologues finally got the leader they've been waiting for and his name is Elon Musk, the richest man in the world.

....(snip)....

That didn't work out the way they planned it. Trump thought he had cleverly boxed Elon Musk out of real power by creating a powerless "commission" for him and his sidekick Vivek Ramaswamy to come up with enormous spending cuts to reduce the federal government by as much as a third, which he knows won't happen. However, Trump has essentially empowered Musk to speak for him by having him by his side every minute for the last three months. And seeing as he's the richest man in the world who owns a major social media platform, he has plenty of power all on his own.

....(snip)....

Trump then came up with what he thought was a clever idea to take control by demanding that they only pass a bill if it also delayed or eliminated the debt ceiling, which just showed how out of touch he is with the dynamic in the House. (As I said, Trump has a lot of spending to do and he doesn't want the debt ceiling hanging over his head.) But if President Elon's accomplices in the Freedom Caucus are on a crusade against more government spending, why in the world would they agree to eliminate the debt ceiling? ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/12/20/elon-musk-just-donald-honeymoon/

[C_U_L8R]

1. May have even killed the inauguration

With the government closed, who's gonna set up the staging, send out the invites, work security, cook the meals, pay the bands, etc etc ???

[bsiebs]

2. Elon, Bezos, Zuckerberg, et al can pay for it all...

… the return they get for that investment will be phenomenal…

[MadLinguist]

4. Melania will get right on it

Her event planner is swimming in bux from the last inauguration bombast. It'll be a cinch

[Wiz Imp]

5. "But if President Elon's accomplices in the Freedom Caucus are on a crusade against more government spending, why in

the world would they agree to eliminate the debt ceiling?"

Duh! Maybe because they aren't really on a crusade against more government spending? They are on a crusade to give even more and bigger tax cuts to billionaires.

[AllaN01Bear]

6. and the rest of us shall live on the streets .

[Nasruddin]

10. Missed the target

Musk wants a shutdown. This is so similar to what he did at twitter. Eliminate large amounts of fed activity and leave some services considered really essential behind. Then never restart any of them.

[not fooled]

14. Of course they want to eliminate the debt ceiling

Then they can carry out their plan to spend like drunken sailors on tax cuts and enriching their cronies, without constraint. Later, they can point to the debt and demand the elimination of any remaining programs for the rest of us.

[Wiz Imp]

15. And they want the debt ceiling eliminated under Biden so they can always claim it was under Democrats that it was

eliminated allowing debt to explode unchecked. It won't work. Democrats will not agree to it now.

[lonely bird]

7. No, he didn't

His cultists believe Trump can do no wrong. Musk is far smarter than Trump. As long as Musk fakes fawning over Trump he can do whatever he wants.

Beyond that? I cannot write what I want to write.

[valleyrogue]

18. That is damning Musk with faint praise. Musk is insane and an idiot to boot.

Don't be fooled by his obscene wealth.

[lonely bird]

23. Oh, rest assured I am not fooled by his wealth

He is a salesman just like Trump is but he handles his “brand” meaning himself better than Trump does.

[live love laugh]

9. They're "business" men.

[Jerry2144]

11. But Convicted Felon Trump is still a honey wagon

minus the tanker truck. Contents, only.

[patphil]

12. They may actually succeed in causing the Trump Administration to crash and burn prior to Trump's inauguration.

That'd be a first.

Trump needs to break with Musk before Musk breaks Trump.
I suggest Trump's day one activities include arresting Musk for seditious activities. It's more important for him to neuter Musk than anything else on his agenda right now, and Musk has had a lot of meetings with foreign leaders that could be used to charge him with conveying defense information to them.
It might be a railroad job, but that's what Trump is all about. False charges, shame trial, and long prison sentence is just what Trump needs to do to block Musk's takeover of the US government.
Anyone who thinks that Musk is a serious threat just needs to listen to what Musk is saying. He's talking like he already runs the show.

[kimbutgar]

13. I hope when that relationship implodes muskrat will speak out how they fixed the election in orange Hitler's favor!

[patphil]

16. That's always been a thought in the background. Why is Musk so close to Trump?

Does he have the goods on him, like Putin does?

[Dulcinea]

19. Elonia controls the purse strings.

He who has the gold makes the rules.

[Scrivener7]

22. Because he bought him the election.

[rampartd]

17. musk represents a "cabal" of like minded billionaires

they seem to have lost confidence in j d vance and sent musk to keep an eye n their investments.

[Dulcinea]

20. Interesting that Hillbilly Vanilli has been so quickly sidelined.

If/when the McFelon shuffles off this mortal coil, Vance won't be able to keep the scam going. He lacks Trump's salesmanship & ability to sway the masses.

[prodigitalson]

21. an autistic billionaire space bro with zero impulse control basically well behaved 13 year old boy

which is to say a not very well behaved human overall and an octogenarian autocrat who is basically a poorly behaved 8 year old boy which is to say even worse...

I don't know exactly what kind of boy rfk jr is but he's one too