Can Trump and Musk Make Up?

By Ron Paul

​Last week’s dramatic blowout between President Trump and his one-time top collaborator Elon Musk was shocking yet predictable. According to media reports, a cold war had been brewing between Musk’s people and Trump’s appointees and it was bound to break out into the open. It was only a matter of time.

On the campaign trail, Musk provided much energy and helped ramp up enthusiasm for Donald Trump. His support for Trump made him a lightning rod for Trump-haters and he saw his personal wealth take a hit for his troubles.

After Trump’s victory, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency project was truly revolutionary. Americans were able to see up close and in real time just how government operates. Not only did the billions and trillions of dollars spent by the federal government not achieve the stated goals, but much of the spending actually harmed the United States.

Americans were able to see that the “aid” they send overseas does not provide food and relief for those suffering through disasters but is actually used to create a global US empire encompassing everything from the media to military spending to non-profits.

Once USAID was targeted by DOGE, for example, we learned that 90 percent of the “independent” media in Ukraine was US government controlled. Other countries chimed in to say that much of their own “independent” media is propped up by the US government.

Foreign “journalists” paid by the US government are going to publish what the US government wants to be published. That is one reason Americans to this day are so ill-informed about Ukraine and what started the war. For example, how many Americans know that their own government staged a coup in Ukraine in 2014 that directly led to the disaster we have seen these past three years?

The message was there for anyone who wanted to see it: The United States is being undermined by a government that demands the right to intervene in every aspect of our lives – and of the lives of everyone on the planet. It is not sustainable.

In the end it was Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that broke it all apart.

The US House served up a massive funding bill that, as usual, blew up the national debt with more spending and promised that sometime down the road spending cuts would kick in and we would start saving money. We’ve seen this movie many times before.

In a post seen by over a hundred million people on his social media platform X, Elon Musk finally could hold his tongue no longer. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” he wrote. Within hours this break escalated seemingly beyond the point of no return and the Trump/Musk split was seemingly finalized.

Musk was no-doubt frustrated that despite all of the work he and his team did to uncover government waste, he hit a brick wall in a Washington that recoils from any attempt to shrink its size and level of interference in our lives.

Can Trump and Musk “make up” and find a way to work together in the future? After the smoke has cleared we can only hope for a return to the principles of DOGE and the idea that current levels of spending and debt are unsustainable. Surely both men can agree on that.