Apartheid Child Cuts Into Small Handed Man's Big Dance...and Peak into the Future?

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As annoying as Elon Musk is – and he is definitely The Most Annoying Man on Earth – he’s help given us an entertaining week and a realistic glimpse into Trump’s second term. Now that he’s attached to Donald Trump’s hip (or something), it is clear that he is one needy bro. His thirst for attention is deeper than Trump’s, so deep that he seems to think that Trump is willing to be eclipsed by someone else. Ha and double Ha, especially since Trump, for the first time in his life, actually has an official position of power, one that he actually earned for himself through winning the last election. The win is not a mandate, as Trump claims, but it is a win and, psychologically, that win is more important to Trump than all the money Musk represents, especially when you realize that what Trump loves about the presidency is the all the attention that he gets, attention he does not want to share.

So, I am quite okay, even amused, when Musk pulls shit like he did last week, especially since this debt limit/shutdown drama almost always turns out to be kabuki. Yes, Musk did get some good things stripped from the bill – particularly a small provision that would help control drug prices – as well as stuff that personally affects his business – a ban on investing in China – however, in doing so, he bogarted Trump so much that the public started calling him President Musk even before the Democrats and left-leaning pundits did. Bro can do as many stupid monkey dances as he wants, use all his children as shoulder props, none of that distracts from outshining The Boss.

The blowback from Musk killing the first funding bill – mostly through inciting a mob by posting shallow lies (an act he calls “The Will of the People”) – was so strong that after a second failed vote, the accusations that Musk controlled the GOP got really loud, forcing a lot of Republicans to pass the debt extension on third try, basically a “Fuck you!” to Musk.

Musk also fucked Trump by mucking up the process so much that Republicans didn’t even consider ditching the debt limit – one of Trump’s main demands, but a rule that conservative love to use as a lever. And while Democrats would like to see the debt limit gone, they are happy to keep it in place to help make another Trump tax cut for the rich much harder to realize.

Lastly, the public seems to be mostly fine with Musk’s dancing and constant need for attention when it’s The World’s Wealthiest Man playing idiot, but when bro starts fucking around in politics and is now The World’s Wealthiest Man Trying To Take Stuff Away From Us, perceptions start to change. Recent polls show that 57% of the public wants Musk to stay out of politics, while 37% are okay that he’s engaged. That 20-point gap means that he’d turned off Democrats, Indies, and Republicans, including Trump supporters.

Same survey also has 44% of Americans having an unfavorable view of Musk, which shows that while plenty of the 57% like the guy, they want him to stay out of politics. Nothing personal, as they say, just focus on Mars. In our celebrity obsessed age, anything that shows a wedge between politics and personality is a positive.

The Apartheid Child also did himself no favors by endorsing the far-right, neo-Nazi infested German political party AfD. As fucked up as this country is, an odd-looking, hyperactive, foreign tech weirdo who is also a Nazi is about as attractive as odd-looking, smarmy, Florida, teen-grabbing Attorney General candidate. Americans do have limits, I think.

Washington Post’s Dana Milbank has a great take on how Musk just gave us a preview of the next four years, which looks like more of the same infighting, ineptitude, and chaos we got in Trump’s first time around (it’s a free read). As frustrating as it was eight years ago to watch the government flail around, being that Trump was president, the chaos was a good thing. It made for so much sloppiness that the administration was easy to shut down in court. It kept Trump in a reactive state and away from planning, something that he is not good at anyway. It made for impulsive policy decisions, often made without consulting Republicans in Congress. All that made opposing him much easier than and those four years and not as bad as they could have been had he been an organizational master.

“But he’s stocking his administration with loyalists this time around!” Yes, he is, and they are loyalists to Trump and only Trump. See, Trump is infamous for hiring people who will follow him through the worst but stab each other in the back at their first opportunity to gain favor with the Boss. Even those who become temporary allies – Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, and Steve Bannon – will turn on each other when they sense the slightest opening.

“This time around” Trump is hiring hundreds of these self-serving loyalists, every single one of them anxious to be near The Boss and willing to do anything or sell anyone out to get there. What that means is petty infighting that slows and derails “progress,” decision-making silos that restrict information flow, institutional paranoia, mass anxiety, constant personnel turnover, and a lot of leaks to the press.

And for those of you who instinctively reacted to that last statement with “I sure hope you are right,” know that I’m basing what I write on observing four years of President Donald Trump and reading a lot about the dynamics of that administration, as well as knowing Trump’s biography. Donald Trump is not going to change who he is or how he goes about things. If anything, he will double-down on what he has been doing all his life.

So, Trump will do what he does and his upcoming administration will be a Trump administration. We know that. I’m thinking that the chaos level within that administration will be high, especially if carpetbaggers like Musk are lurking around. But even if the chaos level is a six rather than a ten (as compared to a one with Obama and a two with Biden), that still gives us plenty of opportunities to hamstring Trump and thwart his plans. Once again, it comes down to What Will We Do? as it always does.