I & I Editorial BoardWhenever President Donald Trump does something that confounds his biggest supporters, the common response is: “Well, Trump is playing 4D chess.”
Some posited that this is what was going on after Trump’s initial response to Elon Musk’s bashing of the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
On Wednesday, for example, Newsmax TV’s Carl Higbie suggested that “Trump might be working in tandem with Elon here to tank his own bill in a 4D chess move.”
To Higbie, it was like Sherlock Holmes’ dog that didn’t bark. “How many people in Trump’s political career have come out against something he wants, and he hasn’t obliterated them?”
He went on: “Maybe Trump is also reading the country that’s not thrilled about massive deficits and saying, ‘Ooh, maybe I shouldn’t have settled for what Congress gave me, so let’s put Congress in the hot seat and force it back to the drawing board.’”
PJ Media’s Matt Margolis was willing to entertain the notion. “As wild as it sounds,” he wrote, “Higbie’s theory deserves a closer look.”
That was then.
What started as a post on X from Musk on Tuesday – saying that “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it” – turned into an all-out war by Thursday.
At a press conference Thursday morning, Trump said he was “disappointed” in Musk and then alleged that Musk only started complaining about the bill after learning that it cut taxpayer subsidies for EVs.
Musk then posted on X that “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” adding “such ingratitude.”
Trump then posted on Truth Social that “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
Later, he posted that “the easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Musk then started posting things like “The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year,” saying “yes” to a post that called for Trump to be impeached, and that “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”
And Musk dropped this whopper: “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
After which, Trump appeared to try to calm the waters a bit, saying, “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.”
This isn’t 4D chess – not that we have any idea what 4D chess means.
But maybe it’s 5D chess – the kind of chess that can warp reality in such a way as to make liberals’ heads explode.
Hear us out. The left hates Trump and Musk about equally. When they were working together, the hatred toward them was turbocharged.
But what happens when Trump starts bashing Musk for being a leech? (A claim repeated endlessly by Musk critics.) Does that mean Trump is right? But how can that be, when everything Trump says is a lie?
Then Musk turns around and starts bashing Trump in ways the left has been doing for eons. But Musk can’t be trusted, either!
How can both Musk and Trump be right when they are both evil and wrong and always lie about everything!?!?!? Illogical!!! Illogical!!!
It reminds us of a classic “Star Trek” episode in which the Enterprise crew defeats a bunch of androids using wild illogic.
Of course, the simpler explanation is that Trump has an unmatched ability to turn former allies into enemies, of which Musk is, apparently, just the latest. And that none of this really matters in the long run.
Norman, coordinate!
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
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“Here us out.” Really? Did not expect to see this grammatical error on I&I.
Trump & Musk are behaving like spoiled children.
Thanks for catching that typo!
Logic is like a beautiful flower… that smells bad. -Mr. Spock
I have a feeling that the imbroglio between Trump and Musk is an intentional fabrication by them.
I believe, and I think President Trump agreed, that Elon, in order to overcome the firebombings and decreases in Tesla sales, manufactured his Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) attitude.
In other words this was a strategic plan by both men who knew that-unfair as it is-the only way to overcome the TDS by Elon’s detractors is to conceive of a plan where both men are on the outs.
If so, this is a masterpiece of duplicity which was-most naturally-spread by the media.
This was the only way to get the word out everywhere to make sure that those idiots that firebombed and didn’t buy Tesla’s anymore would see it..
I’ll always be grateful to Elon, especially for Twitter and for his patriotic attitudes-and especially for him turning right-from Canada-into the US.
Whether these two men ever make peace I don’t know-but thank both of you for the memories.
Amen & I agree & share your gratefulness.
Yup.
Do you think Trump has an unmatched ability to turn friends into enemies that would be your TDS and confirmation bias because to an observer it would look like Trump has the unmatched ability to turn enemies into friends
I think this is just a distraction from Palatir. You couple that with the BBB ban on states passing any laws on Ai we are done Reps and Dems. People were starting to see how bad this is but along comes this feud and noone is even mentioning it anymore.
Remember, Trump’s favorite author is Sun-Tzu.
It’s inconceivable that Musk wouldn’t understand the limits of Trumps power over the long corrupt congress. Since this kerfuffle works out in Elons favor and Trumps forte is outwitting his opponents this all seems like shadow puppet theater.
Haha – perfect. I love the smoke coming out from his head. Do you think that Elon’s new humanoid Tesla robots will do that if they get stressed out?