Elon Musk is currently dismantling the U.S. federal government in an oligarchic coup, aided by President Donald Trump, an ongoing threat to the safety and security of the United States. The two billionaires claim to be battling “fraud” and “waste,” when it’s abundantly clear they’re just getting rid of federal agencies and programs they don’t like—agencies and programs authorized by Congress that can only be legally abolished by Congress.
But do you remember a few weeks ago, or even a few months ago, when people were predicting Musk and Trump would have some kind of alliance-ending blowout? Almost everyone agreed that it was just a matter of time before Trump would tire of Musk and the two would part ways in spectacularly brutal fashion. Many were predicting this even before the election in November, as endless reports have been leaked about how Musk has been getting too big for his britches. The headlines all seemed to be some version of Musk “annoying” Trump. But it simply hasn’t happened yet.
In fact, Fox News posted a clip on Friday of Musk and Trump sitting down together, a preview of an interview with Sean Hannity that won’t be airing until Tuesday. Trump insisted that it’s just the media trying to drive the two men apart and it won’t work.
“Elon called me, he said, you know, they’re trying to drive us apart. I said, absolutely,” Trump says in the clip. “You know, they said, we have breaking news, Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk… President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight at 8 o’clock. And I say, it’s just so obvious. They’re so bad at it.”
There’s a long history of Trump eviscerating former allies, which made a very dramatic split seem inevitable. Nobody enters Trump’s orbit and upstages him or pursues their own agenda, at least not without getting pushed aside and denigrated to no end. And yet, Musk has stolen the spotlight again and again without consequence. The most recent example was when Musk fielded questions about DOGE in the Oval Office last week while a hapless Trump looked on. Musk’s four-year-old son even seemed to make belittling comments to Trump, something the president had to endure with a facial expression that seemed to oscillate between a reluctant grin and a painful grimace.
But what’s happening? Why isn’t this relationship between the two men imploding as everyone assumed it would? The answer is that Musk and Trump both need each other very much. And while they may hate each other personally, it’s entirely possible that their marriage of necessity will last not just months, but years in order for both men to advance their fascistic interests.
Why do Trump and Musk need each other? For Musk, it now seems clear that he just enjoys wielding power. Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, currently worth about $394 billion according to Forbes, and is the leader of half a dozen companies. But corporate power is different from political power, and Musk essentially bought a ticket to be co-president with Trump when he dumped $277 million into the 2024 presidential election. That’s quite a neat trick for a man who’s not technically able to become president because he wasn’t born in the United States. Musk is originally from South Africa and the U.S. Constitution forbids anyone who isn’t a “natural born” citizen from holding the office. But the billionaire clearly found the next best thing in America’s now super-charged oligarchy.
For Trump, it’s clear that Musk’s political organizing and social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, serve a purpose long after the election. It’s easy for many Americans to forget that shadowy political money can still be spent immediately after an election has been decided. And Musk is using the political machine he established, including his America PAC, to wield power in ways that help Trump.
As one publicly known example, Musk helped get Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed by throwing his money and influence around to make it happen. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa had subtly indicated back in December that she might not vote to confirm Hegseth. Ernst served in the U.S. military, has told her story of being sexually assaulted in college, and has spoken about the culture of sexual assault that historically pervades the armed services. Hegseth was accused of sexual assault in 2017 and reached a $50,000 financial settlement with an unnamed woman according to the Associated Press, though he denies the allegations.
Musk has given millions to a group called Building America’s Future, which bought TV ad time in Iowa to pressure Ernst to vote for Hegseth, according to the Daily Caller. The ad, titled “Fighter,” called Hegseth a “patriot” and a “decorated combat veteran” who was a victim of the “deep state.” The ad ends by urging viewers to call their senator, who in Iowa would be Ernst.
Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine all voted against Hegseth, giving the senate a 50-50 vote, but he was ultimately confirmed as Defense Secretary when Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.
Then there’s Musk’s influence on X, the social media platform he purchased for about $44 billion back in late 2022. The site has been turned into an extremist platform, with some of the worst holocaust deniers and racists now pervading the For You page of even the most average users. And while that means it arguably has less influence, as regular people abandon X in droves, it still can be used to wield power as a way to excite far-right mobs into action. Sometimes that action comes in the form of legitimate political protest. Other times, it’s clear Musk’s followers are simply engaging in extremist harassment.
It’s no secret at this point that many politicians literally fear for their lives when Musk tweets about them. And when a Wall Street Journal reporter wrote about the DOGE team and racist tweets linked to a 25-year-old engineer, the journalist endured an onslaught of targeted harassment. The engineer resigned, only to be reinstated just a day later, according to Musk.
Using another weapon in his arsenal, Musk has threatened repeatedly to primary any politician, Republican and Democratic alike, who doesn’t share his worldview. And that threat has the ability to keep powerful people in line. Mitch McConnell dared to be the lone Republican to vote against Robert F. Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. But McConnell isn’t running for re-election, which seems to be the only reason he had some backbone. Musk can afford to lose one or two votes here or there, as we’ve seen, because Kennedy was still confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 52-48.
And these are just some of the actions by Musk we know about publicly. The U.S. political system is set up in such a way that much of the money is untraceable. We only know about a quarter of a billion dollars spent by Musk on the 2024 election thanks to leaks and financial disclosure forms for traditional political groups. There’s no telling how much more money he’s given to shady groups that don’t need to disclose their funding sources.
Trump needs the machine that Musk has built. And even if he one day decided he didn’t need Musk’s money anymore, the wealthiest man in the world, known for his vindictive nature, is a bad enemy to make. Musk could turn his millions of dipshit fans into opponents of Trump’s agenda with the flip of a switch. It may sound absurd to think any member of the MAGA cult could turn on Trump, but there are already far-right characters like the Hitler-praising Nick Fuentes who sometimes criticize Trump for not being sufficiently useful to their extremist cause on one issue or another.
And things are just going to go from bad to worse as the days and weeks drag on. Musk now has the ability to turn off government programs that don’t benefit him personally. The billionaire founder of SpaceX has literally billions of dollars in government contracts, and it would seem like a safe bet that every one of those programs is safe from the chopping block. Cancer research along with food and medicine for poor people around the world, on the other hand, can all go away.
Musk and Trump need each other to keep destroying the country. And while it’s entirely possible they have some falling out in the future, it seems they’ll be able to do so much more damage before that actually happens. And with Democrats largely pretending we’re not in the middle of a constitutional crisis, the damage is likely to be substantial.
Here’s what Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, spent her weekend tweeting about as thousands of federal workers have been illegally fired and fed-up Americans staged protests at Tesla dealerships across the country.
It is 3 degrees in Minnesota. No time to stay inside….especially if you need to clear your head…nothing better than some bright sunshine, snow, and a brisk wind! pic.twitter.com/SB6no9TnrL
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) February 16, 2025
Thanks, Amy. You’re really doing your part. Maybe you could treat this with a bit more seriousness and do what you can to stop Musk and Trump from tanking the U.S. economy and selling off the country for parts.
