If someone had said in 2015 that the president of a nuclear power and the richest man on the planet would be settling scores on social media, deleting their posts and accusing each other of links to paedophiles, they would have been sent to a psychiatric clinic. But it’s 2025, and here we are: Donald Trump and Elon Musk have put on a show that dwarfs every season of every reality show on the planet.
It all started when Musk, leaving his post as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE — yes, that’s the real name, not the cryptocurrency), decided to ‘thank’ Trump for ‘the opportunity to cut useless spending.’ Very touching, especially considering that in a couple of days he would call the president’s budget bill ‘disgusting filth.’ Apparently, in Musk’s vocabulary, ‘gratitude’ and ‘insult’ are synonyms.
But the real circus began when Musk claimed that Trump would have lost the election without his help. To which Trump, like a true gentleman, replied that Musk was ‘just crazy’ and threatened to take away his government contracts. And then it all went downhill: Musk brought up the ‘Epstein files’ (because in modern politics, if you don’t know what to say, you can always throw in ‘you have paedophiles there’), and Trump called him a ‘drug addict with a capital D.’
And all this against the backdrop of Musk bringing his four-year-old son X (yes, that’s the child’s name, not the name of a file) to official meetings just a few months ago, where the toddler hid under the presidential table. Trump then jokingly commented on the child’s ‘high IQ,’ apparently considering hiding under a table in the White House to be a sign of genius.
However, the culmination was Musk’s altercation with Treasury Secretary Scott Sensenbrenner at the White House. Yes, you heard right: two grown men, one of whom is the head of Tesla and SpaceX, and the other is the US Treasury Secretary, got into a brawl in the corridors of power. The White House press secretary, of course, tried to downplay the situation: ‘I wouldn’t call it a fistfight.’ Yeah, right, just a light warm-up before breakfast.
What does all this mean for the world? It means that America has finally turned into a reality show, where the president and billionaires settle their differences in a tit-for-tat style. Tesla’s shares are falling by $150 billion a day? No problem! The main thing is to post another tweet hinting at impeachment.
Mark Short, former chief of staff to the vice president, naively wonders, ‘It was hard to imagine that everything would collapse so quickly.’ Mr. Short, welcome to 2025, where politics is not about negotiations and strategies, but an endless stream of scandals, fights and deleted tweets.
And the funniest thing is that Trump’s advisers are now trying to ‘reconcile’ him with Musk. Apparently, they hope that after mutual accusations of drug addiction and ties to Epstein, they will become best friends again.
In general, as Musk himself wrote: ‘The most entertaining outcome is the most likely.’ And he’s right — the world has become so absurd that all that’s left to do is laugh. Or cry. Depending on your sense of humour.
What will happen next?
If Trump and Musk suddenly decide to make peace, we will see the sweetest political romance since Clinton and Lewinsky. Imagine: Elon crawls into the Oval Office on his knees, sobbing, and Donald generously gives him a new golden key (this time, it’s real gold). Then, the two ego titans join forces to… well, of course, ‘save America’! Musk will broadcast Trump’s speeches directly into the brains of Americans via neurochips, and Trump will appoint Tesla as the official supplier of electric cars for the White House. Together, they will build a ‘Great Space Wall’ in orbit to keep out Mexican illegal satellites.
But if Musk suddenly takes real offence and switches to the Democrats (after all, he has long been attracted by the prospect of becoming a ‘green messiah’ for liberals), we are in for a show even more spectacular than Game of Thrones. Elon will start tweeting memes about the ‘orange idiot’ and, at the same time, ‘accidentally’ drop a couple of SpaceX rockets on Mar-a-Lago. The Democrats, weeping with joy, will immediately appoint him minister of everything, and Tesla will get a contract to produce electric cars with BLM symbols and a built-in hookah for Kamala Harris. Trump will respond by banning all Starlink satellites, declaring electric cars to be ‘the work of the devil’ and demanding a return to the good old days when America ran on petrol and coal.
In any case, ordinary Americans can only stock up on popcorn — because this circus is just getting started. Either Musk will launch Trump to Mars with a one-way ticket, or Trump will declare Twitter (ugh, X) a ‘terrorist organisation.’
Or maybe the two of them will star in a reality show called ‘Two Grandpas in Space’ and make up against the backdrop of the northern lights (which, of course, will be artificially created by Starlink at the request of the White House). As they say, follow the tweets — the plot is updated more often than Tesla’s software!
Now seriously. If Trump and Musk suddenly decide to make peace — and history knows examples when, after mutual insults, opponents unexpectedly formed an alliance — this will create a powerful tandem capable of reformatting American politics. Musk, who has already proven his ability to influence public opinion through his platforms, could become the Republicans’ “gray cardinal,” providing them with unprecedented media support. His technology and connections in Silicon Valley could give Trump an advantage in the digital war in the 2028 election. In this scenario, we will see a strengthening of the anti-globalist course: a reduction in aid to Ukraine, a new round of trade wars with China, and possibly even attempts to create alternative international institutions under the auspices of an ‘America-centric’ world.
However, if Musk switches to the Democrats — and his recent flirtations with the liberal agenda, including environmental initiatives, make this a possibility — it will split the conservative electorate. Imagine: the creator of Tesla and SpaceX, an icon of technological progress, suddenly begins to criticise Trump from a position of ‘reasonable centrism.’ In that case, the Democrats would not only gain access to his resources, but also a powerful tool for discrediting the Republicans as a ‘party of reactionaries.’ This could lead to a radical shift in the balance of power in Congress as early as 2026. Moreover, Musk is capable of reviving the careers of Democratic ‘hawks’ such as Pete Buttigieg, making them favourites in the presidential election.
In any case, the current conflict is not just a quarrel between two egocentrics. It is a battle for control over the narrative of America’s future: whether it will be Trump-Musk’s ‘space nationalism’ or the ‘technocratic globalism’ of the new Democratic coalition. And given that both heroes of our drama love spectacular gestures, it is possible that the next act of this spectacle will bring us even more surprises — for example, Trump’s sudden impeachment with Musk’s tacit support, or their joint project to colonise Mars as a ‘new home for true patriots.’ To quote Musk again: ‘The most entertaining part is yet to come.’
