When we left you on Friday the bombs were bursting in air.
Trump with a salvo:
“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!”
Replied Musk:
“Go ahead, make my day.”
Steve Bannon suggested that Musk be deported..and that his property be seized by the government.
Jacobin, a ‘democratic socialist’ magazine, piled on:
”We should immediately nationalize SpaceX and Starlink.”
Musk had previously told Bannon to (do something vulgar to himself in a disgusting way.)
On Saturday, the sniping continued.
Trump (asked about Musk possibly going over to the Democrats):
“If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that…He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that.”
Newsweek:
Musk, as part of the war of words that erupted on Thursday, asked his followers on X if they thought that America needed a new, third party to rival the Democrats and Republicans, with over 80 percent of respondents saying “Yes.”
He’s a “big time drug addict,” Trump replied.
Late night, stand-up comedians have never had so much to work with. John Oliver:
“ …these two men are real housewives. Both of them have hair that’s expensive and wrong. Both have sketchy business ventures I don’t fully understand. They both spend far too much time online, and if either of them isn’t the center of attention for a single second, they will die.”
We wonder what the old Republicans would have made of it. What would Dwight Eisenhower have said? Would he even talk to people like Musk, Bannon and Trump? Or would he regard them as low-lifes, unworthy of serious conversation?
But now the Republican Party is dominated by them. And it creates an identity crisis. What does the party stand for? Does it have any real principles? Is it nothing more than patriotic wind…empty slogans…jackass policies…and knees that jerk at the sound of immigrant voices?
Are they just Democrats…without the woke?
There are three major divisions in the Republican Party. There are MAGA Trumpistas who follow the Big Man and will vote for whatever Trump wants. But there are also the RINOs who are so close to Democrats that they will oppose any significant cuts to either social or military budgets. And there are a few ‘conservatives’ who, in the dark of night, still hear those old hymns — calling for less government spending, balanced budgets and lower debt. A few might even recall the voice of Ronald Reagan saying that ‘government is the problem, not the solution.’ And now they might wonder how many new problems are embedded in the 1000+ pages of Big, Beautiful Budget Abomination, BBBA.
With the exception of the ‘conservatives,’ all of them are essentially “democratic socialists,” ready to give an elected jefe all the power he needs to rebuild the world the way they want it. Put up trade barriers? Seize a privately-owned business? Run up a $60 trillion debt? Send in the National Guard! Sure, why not?
The whole idea of one BBBA was bad strategy; the more things you stuff into it, the less likely you are to get everyone’s approval. And the immediate problem for Trump’s Big, beautiful, budget abomination BBBA, is that it needs almost all Republicans to go along with it, or it won’t get through Congress.
The deal — like so many of those promised by DJT — doesn’t get done. No deal in Gaza. No deal in the Ukraine. No deal on ‘reciprocal tariffs.’ No budget deal in Congress. And no deal with Elon Musk.
And so, the ‘clash of the Titans’ continues. It is Chronos vs. Zeus…Indra vs. Vritra…Stalin vs. Hitler — now on display, blow by blow.
So far, it is more like a girl fight in a high school corridor than Gettysburg or Stalingrad. Hair gets pulled. Clothes are torn. And the gawkers stand around and hope for a glimpse of flesh. But nobody really gets hurt…
…while the catastrophe of US finances grows closer.
Stay tuned.
Regards,
 |
Bill Bonner,
For The Daily Reckoning Australia
