The Bromance can be dead, but the Republicans care that an intensive dispute between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk could live, leaving collateral damage in their path for weeks, months or even years.
The immediate cause is the centerpiece of the Trump agenda, the “great and beautiful bill”, which Musk is destroying public and privately. To try to kill legislation, he said he will spend money to expel Republican legislators who vote for her.
“He does not care about a F — about the Republicans or the RNC, or the chamber seats, or whatever,” said a musk advisor on Thursday in the midst of a social networks war between the president and the technological tycoon, who had never aligned with the Republican party until recent years. The advisor received anonymity to speak frankly about the explosion. “He will explode them, he will do it … I mean, we already know that the Republicans will lose the camera. The Senate will probably be fine, but Elon does not give him a S — about that thing of the party.”
Republican legislators care a lot, especially when it comes to their own seats and presidents of Congress, which would be in danger if Musk tried to expel them from power in the middle of the period of next year.
In interviews with legislators of the Republican Party and agents with ties with Congress, a clear issue emerged: Republicans should be afraid to climb through Trump or Musk, a difficult task when they are throwing mud, insults and threats to each other.
In short, other Republicans are like children trapped between parents in the middle of a possibly brutal divorce.
“I stay out,” said representative Don Bacon, who represents a competitive district of Nebraska. “There is a good verse in Proverbs: ‘Stay out of the fights.’ I stay out of this.”
But Trump’s allies are taking pictures to Musk for his comments about the president and even encouraging Trump to take measures against him.
“The people, including myself, recommends the president to draw all the contracts associated with Elon Musk and that the main investigations begin immediately,” said Steve Bannon, a White House advisor in Trump’s first mandate and a frequent critic of Musk.
In particular, said Bannon, the immigration status of musk born in South Africa, security authorization, drug abuse, the relationship with China and the “participation with the attempt to take President XI to the inauguration” should receive scrutiny.
Increasingly unpleasant per minute
Perhaps it was inevitable that the movie Trump-Musk-Musk-Trip end: How long can the most powerful man in the world and his richest man pretend that they are not in competition? But few in Washington could have predicted that the resulting hell would consume their professional and personal relationships so fast.
For Thursday afternoon, Musk retweeted a suggestion that Trump should be accused. In the previous hours, Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Musk for turning on his exclusive legislation, which would reduce taxes by $ 3.7 billion for a decade and cut the government’s expenditure by $ 1.3 billion, leaving a deficit of $ 2.4 billion, during the same period.
Musk and his allies erred before Trump’s suggestion and the White House officials that he was angry because the bill would kill tax benefits for electric vehicles, such as those manufactured by the Tesla company owned by Musk.
Musk spent $ 275 million in the 2024 elections, mainly to help choose Trump, according to campaign financing records, and Trump rewarded him with a high profile position as the face of the new government efficiency department. The role positioned Musk as the avatar of an impulse to cut the size and scope of the federal government, a role that made him a controversial figure when he seemed to delight in the workers of the FIRAS and the closing agencies. At one time, Musk wielded a false chainsaw in a stage to illustrate his publication as a chief cutter.
All that came to its last weekend when the two men held a press conference from the Chummy Oval Office to announce the Government’s Musk departure.
But now, Trump says that Musk was “using Delgado” as a special government employee and the leading player in Doge. In a real social position, Trump said that the easiest way to reduce more government expenses would be to cancel federal subsidies for Musk commercial companies.
Musk withdrew by choosing a scab that involves the retention of the Trump administration of some documents of his advertising advertising of records related to Jeffrey Epstein, an associate of powerful figures, including Trump, who died in prison after being accused of sexual trap of the minors. The Trump administration has published new information of these records, but most have already been public. Musk tweeted that Epstein files “include Trump’s name. Trump and Epstein met and Trump’s name appeared in the flight records of Epstein’s plane, but Trump has never been involved in Epstein’s abuse to minor girls.
Musk also predicted that the economy would be in recession in the second half of this year as a result of Trump’s policies.
The consequences
Just a few months ago, Musk said he would put $ 100 million in political committees associated with Trump. That money never arrived, and now he will not, said musk advisor.
In addition, Republicans have to worry about using large sums against them if they vote for Trump’s bill.
“He has gone,” said musk advisor about the money that was once assigned for the use of Trump. “It will become nuclear. It will support the Democrats if necessary, absolutely will.”
The Democrats observed Thursday’s contracts with joy.
“This is Christmas,” said an operation of the Democratic Party in a text message.
But even at a more substantive level, he gave some Trump adversaries hope that his agenda would sink under the weight of Musk’s threats.
“The most important thing that is happening here is that Musk is to kill this terrible bill. If he is willing to do it, then welcome,” said Simon Rosenberg, a democratic veteran. “This is doing enormous damage to Donald Trump. There is no version of this that is good for him. There is nothing positive for Trump. He looks weak and without feck, he cannot control his friend.”
That is the view from the left. The opinion of a Republican operation near the White House was that the episode underlines Trump’s independence from Musk, adding a note of optimism that the fight would end harmony.
“President Trump is the boss and there may be only one boss. In any case, this gives a blow to the target attempts of the Democrats to paint the president as a puppet of the richest man in the world,” said the operation, who was given anonymity to speak frankly about the two powerful men. “On the other hand, I could see both of them again in the oval again in a month, since it can only be the art of treatment.”
Some Republican strategists said the damage could be contained, but that it is not yet clear if that will happen.
“It depends on how long it arrives and how unpleasant it becomes,” said a former Trump campaign advisor who has candidates for Congress among his clients.
Representative Richard Hudson, RN.C., who presides over the campaign of the Chamber Republican Party and is in charge of protecting his 3 -seat margin in the Chamber, said he believes that the crack “will explode.”
But he asked if he thought Trump and Musk would invent, he simply shrugged.
