TrumpMusk fight creates unprecedented elite power struggle in the US

It is hard to find a historic or contemporary precedent for the battle raging between Donald Trump, the president of the United States, and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. 

There may be a couple of examples that come close, but nothing that quite captures the current moment. 

For instance, in 2017, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rounded up his profligate cousins and businessmen at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton for a royal shakedown. They got into line quickly.

And almost two decades before, Russian President Vladimir Putin managed to bend the oligarchs who got rich off post-Soviet capitalism to his will. 

On its surface, the Trump-Musk feud seems to be over policy. 

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

The Tesla chief and former head of DOGE attacked Trump’s tax bill this week as a “disgusting abomination”. Musk was channelling the concerns of deficit hawks in the US, who worry the bill will add trillions to the US debt pile at a time when the dollar has weakened and demand for more US debt is looking stretched. 

Trump, who has positioned the bill as a do-or-die piece of legislation, said on Thursday during a meeting in the Oval Office with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, that “I’d rather have Elon criticise me than the bill,” adding later, “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.” 

Then it got nasty. 

Within hours, Musk was on X calling for Trump’s impeachment, to be replaced by Vice President JD Vance. The vice president himself was catapulted to power in part by Peter Thiel, a billionaire tech entrepreneur who mentored and groomed Vance's career in politics. 

He threatened to form a new political party and stop ferrying Nasa astronauts into space. He said Trump would have lost the US presidential election without his endorsement. And for good measure, insinuated that Trump was linked to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. 

Trump fired back. He suggested Musk was attacking the bill, not out of patriotic fervour, but because he had snatched away perks for electric vehicles from which Tesla benefits. 

“Elon was wearing thin,” Trump said. 

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!” Trump said in another post on Thursday night, threatening to leverage the power of the presidency against Musk’s business empire, which includes Tesla and SpaceX. 

Tesla shares dropped about 14 percent on Thursday amid the spat. According to Bloomberg’s billionaires index, Musk’s net worth plunged $34bn that day.

Tesla was trading up around five percent on Friday. 

Silicon Valley vs 'America First' nationalists

The Trump-Musk feud is a decidedly American affair - partly performative, very populist, and made for social media. And on that note, Musk has been posting on X, the social media platform he bought before the US election, and Trump has been posting on Truth Social - owned by Trump Media & Technology Group - that was purposely built as a right-leaning competitor to X before Musk bought it. 

Of course, the US is no stranger to elite power struggles capturing the public’s attention, particularly during its rambunctious, early years as a republic. 

Aaron Burr, a former vice president, famously killed Alexander Hamilton, the one-time treasury secretary, in a dual in 1804. A century later, Teddy Roosevelt rode a populist “trust busting” wave that pitted him against the gilded elite, making men like JD Rockefeller his foe. 

But the Trump-Musk feud has key differences. 

The two men had forged an unprecedented alliance that, to a point, symbolised a broader one between Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs and crypto bros on one side, and working-class "America First" nationalists on the other. 

While some media reports say that allies of the two men are urging both to reconcile, the standard bearers of "America First" nationalism appear to be egging Trump on and savouring Musk’s fall from grace.  

Steve Bannon, a former Trump advisor whose podcast WarRoom advocates for "America First" positions, called on Trump to seize Musk’s company SpaceX and examine the billionaire’s immigration status. Musk was born in South Africa. 

Bannon himself was critical of Trump’s tax bill, but he was one of the few supporters who called for tax hikes on the wealthy. 

“You’re going to have a few of the tech bros and the crypto crowd stick with Elon because you have the cult of Elon. But MAGA will 100% back Trump. You aren’t going to have a person in MAGA who will buy a Tesla,” Bannon said. 

But Musk donated over $250m to Trump’s 2024 campaign and has made clear he has no qualms about deploying his cash against those who turn on him within the Republican Party. 

On Thursday night, Musk wrote, “some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years…”

Do Musk and Trump have options?

Trump has a history of engaging in brutal public spats, only to mend fences later.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vance both lambasted Trump during his 2016 run for the White House. But the key difference here is that neither of these men had the deep pockets of the world’s richest man to endure a battle with the president. 

To an extent, Musk is a country unto himself. His technology, like Starlink, is hovering over battlefields in Ukraine, while his company ferries Nasa astronauts into space. The knowledge he has gained of Trump's family and the inner workings of the White House would make him a valuable catch for any foreign leader, including US allies. 

More broadly speaking, the feud is likely to reaffirm a perception among American friends and foes that something within the US system is cracking. 

In less than one day, the president of the US threatened on social media to use the power of his office against a comrade-turned-foe, while the world’s richest man called for his impeachment. 

Many observers said the bonhomie between Trump and his former “first buddy” was bound to implode eventually, given both men’s power and outsized egos. 

Musk also felt his investment in Trump’s campaign wasn’t paying off, reports suggest. 

In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk tried to block OpenAI from building one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence data centres in Abu Dhabi. Trump and his aides rejected Musk’s bid to cancel the deal in favour of his AI company. 

On Wednesday, Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire friend of Musk, suggested Trump pulled his nomination to run Nasa because of his ties to Musk.

Things could get ugly if the feud refuses to die down, and the president has several institutions that could be weaponised against Musk and his businesses. Trump has not been shy about using state leverage to settle old scores since his return to power.

However, Musk has pockets deep enough to make mid-term elections an uphill battle for Trump and his loyalists. 

If the gloves come off, the world will have a front row seat to an unprecedented battle between the world's most powerful politician and the world's richest man, as it all plays out in real time on social media. 

middleeasteye.net