Apr.14

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Musk Goes Where No Man Has Gone Before

The first law of Trumpism is that anybody who upstages Donald Trump gets pushed out of the picture. The second law of Trumpism is that anyone who criticizes Trump gets exiled permanently. Yet one person, Elon Musk, seems to be able to defy all the laws of Trumpism, sort of like defying the law of gravity. And Musk is increasingly cocksure of himself and defiant of these basic laws. So far it has worked but, as they say in the financial world, past performance is no guarantee of what will happen in the future.

Here are several specific examples of where Musk has gone far beyond where any mere mortal could go. He has taken positions in opposition to what Trump wants—and lived to tell the tale. Could it be that Musk has now accumulated so much power that Trump is genuinely afraid of him?

• Tariffs: Trump's biggest hobby horse at the moment is tariffs, and the number one point man on that is trade counselor Peter Navarro. Navarro has never seen a tariff he didn't like—unless it was too small. Musk doesn't like tariffs, possibly due to the fact that Tesla, SpaceX, and his other companies import many parts from China, and they will now be subject to a 145% tariff. This will cost Musk big time. He even said he hopes the U.S. and E.U. will get to a zero-tariff situation, something not the case now due to Trump's arbitrary imposition of a 10% tariff on all imports from the E.U. Musk has lashed out at Navarro personally, saying he is "truly a moron." No one else could say that about a close Trump adviser and get away with it.
  
  
• NASA: Trump wants to cut the NASA science budget by half. His interest in real estate goes only so far up. It does not reach the moon and he is certainly not interested in Trump Tower Mars. Musk's SpaceX company is NASA's biggest contractor and he reaps billions from it. He has little interest in seeing these contracts disappear into the thin Martian air. When Trump's cuts were announced, Musk tweeted that they were "troubling," at least to his bottom line. Oh, and by the way, Musk has long had a chummy relationship with Trump's pick to run NASA, Jared Isaacman, who just happens to be a big investor in SpaceX. Odd.
  
  
• The Cabinet: Musk is often the star at cabinet meetings, even though he is not even a government employee, let alone a cabinet member. He also likes to give the actual members marching orders. In particular, he has told Secretary of State Marco Rubio where to cut at the State Department. Before the cabinet was set, Musk pushed for Howard Lutnick as SoS, but Trump vetoed that. Lutnick got commerce though, as a consolation prize. It is rumored, however, that his cabinet days are numbered.
  
  
• The Senate: Back in November, Senate Republicans had to choose a new leader to replace Mitch McConnell, who decided not to run for another term as leader of the conference. Musk actively supported Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). Trump, however, probably realized that Scott would lose the race so he carefully avoided endorsing anyone in the race. In the end, that was a good call, since Sen. John Thune (R-SD) won the job with ease.
  
  
• Foreign Affairs: Generally, U.S. politicians avoid taking stands during foreign elections, but Musk is not actually a politician. So he actively supported the neo-Nazi-friendly AfD Party in the German elections. That did not sit well with the Germans, to put it mildly. Trump was much more careful and stayed out of the German elections entirely. In the U.K., Musk is now supporting the far-right Brexiteer Nigel Farage, even though Trump has become a fan of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Trump has said that eventually Musk should go back to making cars, but so far hasn't sent him packing. But as Musk gets bolder and bolder about criticizing Trump's policies or personnel or sticking his nose in places where it is not welcome, that day could come, possibly sooner rather than later. (V)