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The Trump presidency has been different than anything that most people expected. There aren’t troops on the streets. Trump’s mass deportation is more like a steady trickle. The warnings of immediate authoritarianism and doom have not come true.
Instead, it is as if we are all living in a far-right think tank’s fantasy. From the attempted government funding freeze to illegal hacks of government agencies by the world’s richest man, the first three weeks of the Trump administration have been more like a gathering storm. The clouds are dark overhead, but until it hits the ground many Americans won’t be paying attention.
Elon Musk has unprecedented power as a private citizen in the federal government. Musk is running wild, and Donald Trump doesn’t seem to know and appears afraid to challenge the world’s richest man.
Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair reported:
But other Republicans I spoke to said Trump can’t––or won’t––challenge Musk because Trump understands Musk’s unprecedented power. Musk is reportedly worth nearly $400 billion and has more than 216 million followers on X. (Trump has less than half that follower count on X, plus an audience of 8.8 million on Truth Social.)
“How can he say no to Elon?” a former Trump campaign staffer said. “You think he wants to go to war with him?”
Donald Trump has already driven the Republican bus off of the cliff multiple times. People forget that although Trump has won two presidential elections, he has been responsible for many more Republican defeats and underperformance over the past decade.
Now, Trump finds himself a hostage on a Republican bus driven by Elon Musk that is going 100 miles an hour around turns on an icy road heading for a mountain top.
The Republican Party is heading for disaster because of Elon Musk. Democrats are mounting a resistance that is growing stronger and more effective by the day.
The actual backlash will arrive when Musk’s dream of slashing government spending hits the wallets of the American people.
The storm is still brewing, and it is only a matter of time until Trump and the Republican Party crash and burn, thanks to Elon Musk.
What do you think? Is Trump afraid of Musk? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
