Slap fight!


The spoiled brats are fighting. Musk went there:

Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate, Musk said in a post on X. He added: Such ingratitude.

Oh no! Tainting Trump’s victory is one of those things that’ll really piss him off.

So Trump fired back.

The Trump-Musk relationship may yet get worse. Hours after the feud kicked off, Trump threatened to punish Musk, posting on Truth Social: The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.

Not so fast! Musk is happy to punch himself in the face to spite Trump.

In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately

Are you not entertained?

The only good thing to come out of this will be the spectacle of their fan bases splitting and starting their own slapfights.

Comments

  1. gijoel says

    OMG, the leopards are eating each other’s faces. WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS??!!!!?

    If there’s one thing a narcissist hates more than anything else, it’s another narcissist.

  2. beholder says

    They’re sleeping in separate beds today, but they’ll make up tomorrow. I have faith that a love two truly awful people have for each other will prevail over all.

  3. John Morales says

    News cycle is all Trump all the Time. :|

    But this is indeed amusing. :)

  4. John Morales says

    Xposted from TIF: live coverage in the Guardian

    Extract from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/jun/05/donald-trump-travel-ban-elon-musk-joe-biden-friedrich-merz-us-politics-live-news-updates

    04.53 AEST
    Trump threatens to ‘terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts’
    Donald Trump is going on a tirade on Truth Social against Elon Musk, saying:
    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!
    In a separate post, Trump added:
    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!”

  5. numerobis says

    Trump has also withdrawn the nominee for NASA head who was likely to get a unanimous vote. But was a Musk ally.

    (No matter who runs NASA under Trump the agency is dead so it’s more of a curious fact than anything important.)

  6. birgerjohansson says

    Objection!
    Unlike Musk and Trump, Beavis and Butt-head could not be manipulated for evil! My exhibit is “Beavis And Butt-head Do America”.

  7. Akira MacKenzie says

    Now Elon’s claiming the reason the DoJ is withholding the Epstein Files is because Trump is named in them.

    Oh this will be fun!

  8. John Morales says

    Well, Reagan was the movie president, Trump is the reality-TV president.

  9. moonbat52 says

    To paraphrase Diana Prince of Themyscira, “Children, we’re ruled by children.”

  10. Ed Seedhouse says

    I must admit I didn’t expect that it would all fall apart quite so quickly…
    On the other hand, Trump is going to need a really big distraction here. Time to invade Canada?

  11. beholder says

    Now I’ll have to add, “CEO decommissions an entire crewed spaceflight platform for spite because he’s having an ugly fight with his boyfriend.” to the list of reasons why private spaceflight is a bad idea.

  12. JM says

    I’m surprised at the speed and force with which this blew up. As soon as Musk left Washington I knew the relationship would at least go cold, Trump is only interested in people who can do things for him right now and people who are talking to him in person. I expected Musk would have enough sense to keep his mouth shut and try to worm his way back in through DOGE. What we got was 2 teen age edge lords getting into a shouting match even if means talking about each others crime in public.

  13. JM says

    This brings up an interesting legal issue also. What happens when Musk is called to testify in the various DOGE lawsuits? Does the Trump DOJ try to protect him? Does he even accept their legal advice? The Trump DOJ might try to sacrifice Musk to cover for Trump, it would be risky to accept their advice. Does he get his own lawyers and just try to cover his own back? Does he turn against the Trump administration and testify that Trump ordered him to do things that turned out to be illegal? If he was smart enough to get written orders and legal advice that could be a huge weapon.
    It will also be interesting to see how this falls out, they worked closely long enough there are all kinds of ways this can blow up. How will MAGA split online? Does Trump reverse course on anything DOGE has done and try to write it off as a mistake Musk made? Trump is going to keep MAGA as a whole but Musk’s control of Twitter gives him a strong fan base. Will Trump remember the South African “refugees” and revoke their status?

  14. says

    I posted this on Joe My God, and I figure it’s relevant here too:

    I’ll be VERY surprised if this amounts to anything. Trump won’t do anything that will seriously damage Musk financially, and Musk won’t do anything that will get Trump impeached or even slow down the Republican pogrom.

    And no, I’m sure Musk won’t do ANY of the real work of forming a new political party. (It’s not like he’s ever shown any competence in that regard.) Note that he didn’t say he intended to do it, he just asked if he should on Xhitter. (And as one response to my comment added, he didn’t even ask if he should form that party, only if it was “time” for one.) And I’m pretty sure he won’t get a huge groundswell of Xhitter users calling for a third party, or for Trump’s removal.

  15. billseymour says

    Trump himself said that sometimes you just have to let children fight. 8-)

    (OK, he was talking about Ukraine vs. Russia; but the statement seems to apply here, too.)

  16. stuffin says

    More distraction, Trump loves this kind of stuff. Am I the only one not enjoying this (even though I should be). Meanwhile America going in reverse speeds up. I see nothing getting in the way of Trump’s hostile takeover of America. Banning visitors from other countries, stopping students from coming to America, continued rewriting of American history and next up the Senate passing Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. There will be more reality TV stuff regarding the bill, Trump loving it, but it will pass mostly intact. Now he has people who despise him watching in awe as he and Musk bite each other’s face. He has turned America into the world Wrestling Federation.

  17. Reginald Selkirk says

    @17

    What happens when Musk is called to testify in the various DOGE lawsuits?

    The Trump admin brings up Musk’s out of control drug use and places all the blame on him. Two birds get stoned. ‽

  18. Reginald Selkirk says

    Elon Musk Reportedly Owes Donald Trump a Colossal Sum of Money

    Billionaire Elon Musk reportedly still owes president Donald Trump an eye-watering $100 million out of the $300 million he committed to get the reality TV star elected.

    That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, which reports that now that the bromance between the two has seemingly ground to a halt, Musk isn’t keeping the cash flowing. Trump’s advisors said that the latest $100 million check hasn’t arrived yet, in perhaps the most concrete sign yet of a widening rift between the two larger-than-life figures…

  19. Hemidactylus says

    Musk went to a different there escalating from the OP. He’s talking about Trump’s alleged presence in the Epstein files:
    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930703865801810022

    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!

    I have no power, but am relishing two of the most powerful jackasses engage in a mutually assured meltdown spiral. Popcorn!

  20. Hemidactylus says

    Oh it’s getting uglier. I wondered about Elon’s immigrant past earlier today and if that might get weaponized. Of course Bannon went there (watching Luke Beasley’s take on Youtube so hat tip):

    https://thehill.com/homenews/5335724-trump-bannon-immigration-musk/

    MAGA insider and former White House adviser Steve Bannon called on President Trump to investigate Elon Musk’s immigration status and deport the South African tech billionaire after the bitter implosion of the president’s relationship with Musk on Thursday.

    “They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately,” Bannon, a frequent critic of Musk, told The New York Times on Thursday.

    The SpaceX Dragon ISS thing is concerning fallout. Don’t true nationalists ummm… nationalize companies.

  21. says

    Two thin-skinned, emotionally immature, smugly ignorant egomaniacs can’t share a room without ending up at each other’s throats. What a surprise.

    Anyone with a modicum of intelligence could have predicted this would happen… which, of course, is why neither Trump nor Musk saw it coming.

  22. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Rando: “Weird they’re showing Swan Lake on Fox right now.”

    Wired – Musk’s feud with Trump wipes $152 billion off Tesla’s market cap

    Tesla’s stock is now down roughly 14 percent at the time of writing, which is the biggest single-day hit to its market cap in years. Trump’s crypto coin is down nearly 10 percent.
    […]
    [“]he should be deported from the country immediately,” Bannon said. It has been reported that Musk may have lied on his visa forms

    George Pearkes: “This all gets even better: crypto is getting lit up. [Bitcoin and Ethereum crashing.]”

    EmptyWheel: “If Elon banned Trump, he has unbanned him now.”
    Replies to one such suspension screenshot immediately refuted it—a tell being that it said “Twitter”, indicating it was old.

    Joshua Friedman (ColumbiaMag): “The feud crashed Truth Social.”

    ‪Adam Sternbergh (NYT): “Must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away.”

    ‪Julian Sanchez: “‘I was this pedophile’s biggest supporter until he was personally mean to me’ seems like a bit of an own goal.”

  23. Hemidactylus says

    “Things are accelerating quicker than a Tesla Plaid!” me on Discord.

    I’ll show myself out now…maybe. This seems a weird and unprecedented day in a several months arc of those.

  24. John Morales says

    “This is yet another good example of why men are too emotional to be in leadership — Charlotte Clymer”

    Heh heh heh. Too true.

  25. John Morales says

    [meta]

    chrislawson, I concede I am not versed in history to that degree.

    So, I asked the bubbly chatbot, which I found helpful and informative; care to rate its responsiveness?

    Q: I saw this: “Poor Elon. Thought he was Göring. Turns out he was Röhm.”
    summarise how the allusive references are applicable, if they are, and how not so if not

    A: The comparison invokes two prominent figures of Nazi Germany: Hermann Göring and Ernst Röhm. Göring was a high-ranking Nazi official who remained in Hitler’s inner circle until the end, wielding significant power. Röhm, on the other hand, was the leader of the SA (Sturmabteilung) and was ultimately purged during the Night of the Long Knives when he became a liability to Hitler.

    The implication of the statement is that Elon Musk may have perceived himself as a Göring-like figure—powerful, indispensable, and entrenched in influence—but instead, he ended up like Röhm: discarded when he was no longer useful or became a political inconvenience.

    Whether the analogy holds depends on the specifics of Musk’s situation. If he has been sidelined or politically undermined, the Röhm comparison may be apt. However, if he retains significant influence and autonomy, the parallel to Göring might still be more relevant. The statement is ultimately a critique of perceived self-importance versus actual political survival.

  26. John Morales says

    [obs, it missed the higher-level implication, that being that analogies to Nazi Germany are apt]

  27. raven says

    This shows what we’ve been finding out all along.

    .1. Elon Musk isn’t very intelligent.

    Even though on paper he has a lot of money, Trump is still president, and still has a military of 2.9 million people, assorted thug Federal police forces, the IRS, and 70 million voters (minus the few who regret voting for him).

    Trump has the vast majority of the power. He is the Godzilla in this room and Elon Musk is a mouse.
    In any conflict, Trump is going to win.

    .2. Elon Musk has a long history as an uber Control Freak. He is off the charts on being a Control Freak.

    Elon Musk’s Daughter Vivian Says He’s a “Delusional and …

    futurism.com
    https://futurism.com › the-byte › vivian-wilson-slams-elo…
    Nov 9, 2024 — “You’re upset because at the end of the day everyone around you knows you as a delusional and grubby little control freak who hasn’t matured as …

    This lack of emotional maturity with a Control Freak obsession is going to be ultimately self destructive.

    His breeding stock isn’t happy with him to say the least, all 4 or so of them.
    His oldest daughter Vivian hasn’t had anything good to say since he declared her “dead”.
    Everyone else who has ever dealt with him.

  28. John Morales says

    “In any conflict, Trump is going to win.”

    Nah. In a contest of bribery, Mu$k can outspend Trump by a shitload.

    (Pollies are not all that expensive, data shows)

  29. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Laffy: “Musk has now unfollowed Charlie Kirk.”

    Aaron Rupar: “Musk has unfollowed Stephen Miller.”

    Matt Novak (Gizmodo): “Musk now says SpaceX won’t decommission Dragon, which shuttles astronauts to the International Space Station.”

    Eric Columbus:

    The Polish Foreign Minister from the top rope.

    Musk (Mar 9): my Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.

    Radoslaw Sikorski: The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider, we will be forced to look for other suppliers.

    Musk: Be quiet, small man […] there is no substitute for Starlink.

    Sikorski (Jun 5): See, big man, politics is harder than you thought.

     
    Will Oremus (WaPo): “Still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that today wasn’t Friday.”

    ‪James McLeod (The Guardian):

    In one sense, I wasted many years of my life posting on Twitter.

    In another sense, every second of it was preparing me for understanding and appreciating the moment we now live in.

    ‪Leah Greenberg (Indivisible):

    Wikipedia: an idiot plot is one which is “kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot”, and where the story would quickly end, or possibly not even happen, if this were not the case.

    Anna Bower (Lawfare):

    Note that Musk has a filing due **tomorrow** in the SEC’s ongoing civil lawsuit over his 2022 purchase of Twitter.

    The complaint alleges that Musk failed to timely disclose his initial Twitter stake, allowing him to later buy additional shares at artificially low prices.

    As this motion for an extension of time suggests [link], the parties have asked the judge to allow more time for Musk to respond. But no ruling from the judge yet. This motion for an extension of time for Musk to respond was just filed **today** by the way.

    Rando: “Gee, wondering what may have happened to suddenly file for the extension.”
     
    Rando: “Who’s the administrator of DOGE now?”
    Anna Bower: “I think we can finally exclude a key suspect. (Maybe)”

  30. says

    while politicians are cheap as hell and deep pockets usually win, a CIA worth of poisoners and sadists can make a difference. a gajillion doubloon military can make a difference. mvfk is just uncharismatic enough that if tvnkp had him disappeared by ICE, just enough USians would be ok with it that the dictator flex might not harm shitler’s political standing too badly. u kno he’s running the math, or having somebody more capable run it for him.

  31. StevoR says

    So if SpaceX isn’t transporting astronauts to and from the Intrnational Space Statation as of now – who will?

    Boeing with their Starliner that stranded the last pair it sent up for safety reasons? Putin’s Russian Soyuz?

    Has Musk just stranded Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov
    Alexey Zubritsky and Jonny Kim there trapped in space? (Station.)

    Also at what point will treason or sedition laws be applied? To both Trump and Musk.

  32. StevoR says

    Incidentally, I don’t think Trump being inthe Epstein files should come a s any greta surprise given his long history of rape accusations, sleazy comenst about hios own daughter, previuously known footage and photos of him with Epstein, ad nauseam.

    Most folks already knew the eviul, greedy, selfish, slimey ornage turd was almost certainly a rapist and very likely a pedo but then some people still preferred to vote or effectively vote (cough, beholder, Vicar, cough) for him anyhow. Becoz, y’know competent realtively young woman of colour and former prosecutor of sex crimes among other crimes who was a moderate centrist – but in USA terms leftwing and an elderly, ugly obvioulsy dementing, sleazy convicted criminal witha long list of rape accusations, sleazy commenst, associations with Epstein etc. both equally bad unsuitable candidates for POTUS in their warped minds – somehow.

    Still cannot get how. Just What. The..?!

    (& NO it ain’t Gaza becoz Trump is and was known to be many times worse there too.)

  33. StevoR says

    ^ How the fuck did that last line get bolded? Would swear I didn’t add the code for that..

  34. StevoR says

    @37. John Morales : Also in a contest of who has more outright wealth and $$$ – Musk wins. At least for now.

  35. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: StevoR @42:

    How the fuck did that last line get bolded?

    Weird.
    If I write “aaa” below with only an opening b tag (no slashed closing tag), and add whitespace to terminate the paragraph, the bold stops at it’s end. I expected that. But the LAST paragraph gets phantom bolding! And every paragraph in between is normal.

    So you forgot to close the bold that you intentionally coded and kept writing.

    aaa

    bbb

    ccc

    ddd

  36. silvrhalide says

    It’s like Christmas came early.

    @36 I wouldn’t bet heavily on IRS cooperation with Cheetolini. The IRS was targeted in particular by Trump and DOGE.
    DOGE raided the IRS data systems. I wouldn’t expect Muskrat to share, particularly under the current circumstances.

  37. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Interesting. The html source keeps the intentional opening b tag within the first paragraph tag. The blog creates a closing b tag within the final paragraph at the end in a misguided attempt to fix it.

    <p><b>aaa</p>
    <p>bbb</p>
    <p>ccc</p>
    <p>ddd</b></p>

    Firefox mangles the html further trying to make sense of THAT.
    <p><b>aaa</b></p>
    <b>
    <p>bbb</p>
    <p>ccc</p>
    </b>
    <p><b>ddd</b></p>

    ‘Inline’ bold tags aren’t allowed to enclose ‘block’ paragraphs like that.

  38. says

    This reminds me less of Germany in June 1934 (the Röhm/Göring dustup) than just about a hundred years ago, in a much larger nation, somewhat to the east of Berlin. Those two “revolutionary reactionaries” remind me more of Stalin and Trotsky. But:

    • Which parallels which?

    • Are icepicks covered by recent changes in import tariffs?

  39. StevoR says

    Can Musk actually legally cancel spaceflights such as the Crew Dragon ISS flights that SpaceX are already contracted and obliged to fly? That simply must be a massive breach of contract laws surely? Must come with some pretty severe penalties & would expect the SpaceX agreement with NASA to say he can’t just do that?

    Could Trump declare an emergency and nationalise SpaceX taking it over or at least forcing it to do what it previously agreed to do? Could Trump take that away from Musk and give control of SpaceX to someone else? Of course, Trump being in charge of them ain’t necessarily much better in terms of having stability and a competent trustworthy reasonable CEO..

  40. StevoR says

    @44. & #46. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain : Ah. Okay, thx.

    I do suck at typing. Should’ve spellchecked in word or previewed I know. Sorry folks.

  41. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: StevoR: Musk backed down on Dragon @38. Would be nice if he weren’t in a position to issue such threats, ofc. We’ve seen how Musk’s DOGE has treated contracts.

  42. microraptor says

    Rump thinks he’s in control, but Muskrat’s DOGE has by this point probably got control of al the government payrolls, so once Rump’s troops find out they’re not getting paid ever again there’s going to be mass revolting.

    Also, I am just laughing at Rump’s threats to nationalize all/some of Muskrat’s companies like a communist.

  43. chrislawson says

    The US President has access to orders of magnitude more money and power than the even wealthiest people in the world. And Musk’s personal wealth is the financial equivalent of vaporware. Tesla lost $150b in market cap yesterday. If that had been real wealth as opposed to manipulated market value, it would have required something like scuttling 10 brand new aircraft carriers over the Marianas Trench.

  44. fergl says

    “You’re just a big poo”. “Oh yeah? Well you’re a bigger poo ha ha.”

  45. John Morales says

    Oh, yeah, in the poorhouse, as chrislawson notes.

    From Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2025/06/05/elon-musk-becomes-27-billion-poorer-as-trump-quarrel-eats-into-net-worth/

    Key Facts

    Musk’s net worth fell below $400 billion Thursday afternoon, sliding by $26.7 billion to $388 billion, according to Forbes’ estimates.

    The plunge came as shares of Tesla cratered as Musk and Trump’s beef escalated.

    Tesla stock declined 14%, or $47 per share, to $285 in an otherwise flat day for the market.

    A majority of the losses came after Musk and Trump hurled insults at one another, including Musk claiming Trump would not have secured a second term without his backing and Trump accusing Musk of having “Trump derangement syndrome.”

    Tesla stock fell to its lowest level in four weeks, trading more than 40% below its all-time high set in December as investors flooded into the stock on bets Musk’s support for Trump may boost the highly regulated company in its autonomous driving initiatives.

    (A puny $388 billion! pah!)

  46. rietpluim says

    Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT
     
    Very confusing. Musk wrote something that may actually be true. I’m not familiar with that.

  47. StevoR says

    @ ^ John Morales : Tonight’s episode of Planet America. Another good ep of an often very informative show. Just seen on telly earlier tonight.

    @ 50. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain : “Re: StevoR: Musk backed down on Dragon @38. Would be nice if he weren’t in a position to issue such threats, ofc. We’ve seen how Musk’s DOGE has treated contracts.”

    Phew. Good to hear. Thanks again.

    @51. microraptor : ” ..once Rump’s troops find out they’re not getting paid ever again there’s going to be mass revolting.”

    Going to be? They’re already pretty revolting now – & I’m not (just) talking about their appearance.

  48. mordred says

    Seems some of Dumofs inner asskiss-circle try to influence him to deescalate the situation and schedule a call with the Twit. Looks like it works as well as convincing Dumpf to act like an adult always does.

    If I still believed in my family’s god I’d light a shitload of candles and pray that this ends with Musk broke and Dumpf having a hard attack.

  49. billseymour says

    On this morning’s Today show, Savannah Guthrie just compared Trump and Musk to “seventh-grade girls”.

  50. Reginald Selkirk says

    @48 StevoR

    Can Musk actually legally cancel spaceflights such as the Crew Dragon ISS flights that SpaceX are already contracted and obliged to fly? That simply must be a massive breach of contract laws surely? …

    Contract law? What is contract law to Elon Musk? How many suppliers has he failed to pay?

  51. Kagehi says

    And, its not like Trump can read contract law, or follows it either. As for SpaceX cutting and running from NASA.. As someone else said, its basically dead anyway. The designs Musk keeps trying to get off the ground are worthless – we have known for freaking years that short of using freaking nuclear engines, and the issues that involves, no “standard fuel” rocket is capable, no matter how you make it, to deliver the kinds of payloads Musk is promising, and repeatedly failing to deliver. Just making the rocket bigger actually produces no net gain, at all, with diminishing returns as you scale up. And, he is doing it in the stupidest way possible – by repeatedly blowing up expensive equipment, trying to “fix problems”, instead of what NASA sensibly did in the past, and working on the individual parts, and doing lots and lots of iterative tests, before ever putting it all together and having it, usually, work the first freaking time (and at far less cost when your design only breaks once or twice, and you need to make adjustments, not dozens of times, over and over again).

    Yeah, we have a delivery vehicle for “people”, but we are literally, once again, in a bloody space race, and we have Trump and Musk involved, at the literal worst freaking time possible, while China, being helped by Russia, is looking to move towards a freaking base in the moons south pole craters (where we know there is water, the magnetometer runs past it show a huge mess of some sort of metal we might have use of there too, and neither of those nations (not that Trump would either), give a flying fuck about international treaties saying you can’t “own” the bloody moon. We’ll ignore the idiocy that this is, like Musk’s delusions, for an eventual run to Mars, but we are “supposed to be” landing a mission for the moon, while Trump is gutting the government, and funneling all the money to himself and billionaires, and Musk is pushing bad engineering on our space program, by 2027… Yeah, that is going to f-ing happen.

    We can, instead, look forward to 2027 being the real start of the plot for the streamed TV show “For all Man Kind”. Only, we will be likely completely screwing it up, and not just desperately trying to catch up to Russia (or rather China+Russia in this case), but probably begging the EU (assuming Trump isn’t still in office), several years after the fact, for a ride up there, because we won’t have any way, or hope, to get there ourselves any more.

    Not sure how loud I should be screaming at this point any more.

  52. cheerfulcharlie says

    From the Daily Beast
    “I have seen these pictures. I know that these pictures exist and I can describe them,” Wolff alleged. “There are about a dozen of them. The ones I specifically remember is the two of them with topless girls of an uncertain age sitting on Trump’s lap. And then Trump standing there with a stain on the front of his pants and three or four girls kind of bent over in laughter—

  53. says

    Re: the Epstein files. No shit Trump is in there. We have pictures and videos of Trump and Epstein together; it’s absolutely no fucking secret. Well, except to the MAGAt cult members…

  54. HidariMak says

    I’d rather see these two exchange blows than chickens or dogs. I’d feel sorry for the chickens or dogs being hurt.

  55. Akira MacKenzie says

    It looks like Alex Jones has turned on Trump and is siding with Elon.

  56. robro says

    Saw a clip of AOC walking toward a building being asked about the Trump/Musk feud. Her response: “On man, the girls are fighting, aren’t they.”

    Autobot Silverwynde @ #64 — Indeed it’s been indisputable that Trump was hanging out with Epstein and his girls. The question is whether he had sex with any underage girls. My assumption is probably, but obviously Trump and company would want to suppress proof of that fact. It’s one thing for him to assault adult women and cheat on his wife, but sex with minors would be a tough pill for the preachers to cover up. Although I’m sure there are plenty of them that would write it off as “boys will be boys.”

  57. seachange says

    Technically correct is the best kind of correct.

    Contract law says something or some service is given in consideration for money or something else of specific countable value.

    If the subsidies in terms of USD is promised to Musk’s companies that are contracted and Trump cancels them, then Trump is in default. Musk is entitled to deny the services he and his companies can provide, and goods that he and his companies owns in response.

    If Musk promises to donate to Trump’s campaign, this miraculously, is not a contract.
    Because it is, apparently, it is… free speech (a kind of free speech that belongs to currency and only currency itself) that applies here. Our grifty bribeitty bribe bribzers on our Supreme Court say so. He can keep his 100 million USD, and nothing is ‘owed’, silly headlines notwithstanding.

  58. Reginald Selkirk says

    Conspiracy Theorists Think the Elon-Trump Feud Is Just a Ruse to Expose the Real Pedophiles

    Elon Musk dropped a bombshell in his new feud with Donald Trump on Thursday, claiming the president is “in the Epstein files,” a reference to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The billionaire claimed it was why the files hadn’t yet been released, despite ongoing and increasingly desperate promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi. But conspiracy theorists are too smart to believe Trump was actually in cahoots with Epstein. In fact, they believe the entire war of words between the president and the Tesla CEO is all a ruse to finally expose the real pedophiles. Or something.

    Conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza, the director of the discredited “documentary” 2000 Mules, posted to X on Thursday that perhaps the fight between these two men was actually the start of something much bigger.

    “Is this some sort of perverse scheme to force the release of the Epstein files?” D’Souza wrote. “How great it would be to have a horde of bad guys publicly exposed. Then Trump and Elon break out the champagne. Elon says, ‘Told you I could get Democrats to scream for that list.’ Laughter!”

    Obviously, D’Souza’s logic here doesn’t make any sense. The Trump administration doesn’t need Democrats to get upset for any files to be released. The attorney general said they would be released, and instead, she invited a bunch of far-right weirdos to the White House back in February to hold up binders with no new information in them…

  59. says

    While many are entertained by these two narcissists insulting each other I am with Raging Bee. I do not foresee any substantive change coming from any of this. The MN (malignant narcississt) is still POTUS, Musk is and always will be a greedy, selfish asswipe, and the GOP is still running the country into the ground.

    The important stuff has not changed.

  60. Pierce R. Butler says

    John Morales @ # 33, quoting “the bubbly chatbot” [huh?]: Göring was a high-ranking Nazi official who remained in Hitler’s inner circle until the end…

    The “bc” fails to note that in the last week or so of Reich3, Göring lost AH’s trust (mostly by saying out loud that possibly Germany could lose) and Himmler took his place as officially designated successor (not that anybody else really wanted that role by then).

    Perhaps you should seek more reliable sources.

  61. John Morales says

    Pierce, I did not ask for a comprehensive essay, I just wanted the gist, and chrislawson has confirmed that was it.

    What do you find unreliable about that gist, rather than incomplete?
    Is it any way misleading?

  62. John Morales says

    Another take from someone whose humour is even more desiccated than mine, though he’s actually an expert at financial stuff.

    (Mind you, his speech is so deliberate, I do 1.3x to watch it — and it’s worth it for me)

  63. Pierce R. Butler says

    John Morales @ # 73: Is it any way misleading?

    Y’know, if anybody else had posted something as literally wrong as “… until the end…”, you would chew on their ear until the end of the thread or the world, whichever came first.

  64. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Time: “as of early Saturday morning, Musk’s Epstein-related post was no longer showing […] it’s not the only post of Musk’s that has been deleted. Another inflammatory post from Thursday, which saw Musk respond ‘yes,’ endorsing a message that said ‘Trump should be impeached'”

  65. Reginald Selkirk says

    Trump says Elon Musk will face ‘serious consequences’ if he backs Democratic candidates

    President Donald Trump told NBC News on Saturday that Elon Musk would see “serious consequences” if he backs Democratic candidates who challenge Republicans supporting the “big, beautiful bill.”

    “If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker in a phone interview.

    “He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” he continued, without giving specifics on what that would look like…

    That sounds like a threat to use political office for partisan purposes.

  66. John Morales says

    Pierce @78, Y’know, if anybody else had posted something as literally wrong as “… until the end…”, you would chew on their ear until the end of the thread or the world, whichever came first.

    Heh heh heh. No, I do not know that, because it’s a falsehood’

    Specifically, you are quite wrong; it depends on the circumstances applicable and the context at hand.

    This is what I sought: “The implication of the statement is that Elon Musk may have perceived himself as a Göring-like figure—powerful, indispensable, and entrenched in influence—but instead, he ended up like Röhm: discarded when he was no longer useful or became a political inconvenience.”

    The gist.

    Now, I do think you are being facetious, since clearly “the last week or so of Reich3” is basically the end.
    Pointlessly provocative, and I reckon it’s because your ego is hurt that the bot did its job so very well and concisely.

    (It functioned as intended, and it bugs you)

  67. John Morales says

    [the unfortunately elided bit in the quotation @82]

    “… Trump drew more support overall, with 28 percent backing him compared to just 8 percent for Musk.”

    So Trump had a 28:8 lead in approval, a clear plurality, favouring Trump.

    Clearly, they are not both on the nose to the same degree.

  68. John Morales says

    Opinion piece in Vox: https://www.vox.com/politics/415876/elon-musk-donald-trump-money-midterms-third-party

    It begins thus:

    How the Musk-Trump blowup ends, nobody knows.

    Most commentary gives President Donald Trump the advantage. But Elon Musk’s willingness to spend his fortune on elections gives him one distinct advantage — the ability to drive a brittle party system into chaos and loosen Trump’s hold on it.

    Thus far, Musk has raised two electoral threats. First, his opposition to Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill has raised the specter of his funding primary challenges against Republicans who vote to support the legislation. Second, he has raised the possibility of starting a new political party. There are limits to how much Musk can actually reshape the political landscape — but the underlying conditions of our politics make it uniquely vulnerable to disruption.

    The threat of Musk-funded primaries might ring a little hollow. Trump will almost certainly still be beloved by core Republican voters in 2026. Musk can fund primary challengers, but in a low-information, low-turnout environment of mostly Trump-loving loyal partisans, he is unlikely to succeed.

    However, in the November 2026 midterm elections, Musk could have much more impact for much less money. All he needs to do is fund a few spoiler third-party candidates in a few key swing states and districts. In so doing, he would exploit the vulnerability that has been hiding in plain sight for a while — the wafer-thin closeness of national elections.

  69. raven says

    PS I expect there will be blood in the streets before long.

    One day, the armed ICE thugs are going to be surrounded by a crowd and start shooting them. No one knows who they are except they probably aren’t well trained or particularly well screened people.

    I wrote this two days ago.

    It’s already happening, the blood in the streets.

    .1. A crowd in SoCal surrounded an ICE gang.
    They threw flash bang grenades at them to get away.

    .2. I saw a video where some citizens were photographing them with their cell phones. The ICE pulled out their weapons and pointed them at them.

    .3. The deputy head of ICE, Tom Homan has just claimed he is calling up the California National Guard.
    Oh Cthulhu, not this again.

    This all brings back old memories and not good ones at that.
    I never saw much violence during the anti-Vietnam war protests but it wasn’t zero either.
    One night some creeps yelled at us. No big deal. Then they started throwing rocks.

    I did see a huge number of photos and news video of National Guard troops with their tanks and armored personnel carriers in the streets. They were there to make sure we weren’t there.

  70. raven says

    More or less everyone who is watching the ICE raids, which are about as unprofessional as they get, thinks they are deliberately trying to provoke the citizens into rioting.

    So they can call out the National Guard and beat up, arrest, and shoot a whole lot of us.

    This is partially, just to intimidate and subjugate the population.
    And so they can declare martial law and cancel the next few decades of elections.

    It is a good idea to nonvioloently oppose ICE but violence should be right out. Unarmed civilians can’t out-violence armed thugs like ICE.

  71. raven says

    NBCnews right now.

    Live updates: Trump to deploy National Guard in L.A. over governor’s objection
    California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the move is unnecessary and will escalate tensions after limited protests over federal immigration raids in the Los Angeles area.
    and
    President Donald Trump tonight signed a memo to federalize 2,000 National Guardsmen, arguing the deployment is necessary to combat what the White House says is the “lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” in Los Angeles. The move comes over the objection of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has said it will erode trust and escalate tensions.

    Well, here we are.

    Just like old times.

    The English language doesn’t have the words to express my contempt for these fascist thugs.

  72. raven says

    More.

    Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News the president can “call forth” guardsmen who would otherwise report to a state’s governor. Trump has the authority to do this under limited circumstances, she said.

    “These operations are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States,” Leavitt said.

    This is of questionable legality.

    The California National Guard reports to the governor of California, which is Gavin Newsom.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom said the step was unnecessary, arguing the move is “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions” and that there is “currently no unmet need.”

    The governor called the fascists on it.
    It remains to be seen if he will do anything else though.
    Newsom isn’t the worst governor but he isn’t the best either. I’ve never noticed that he has anything like a spine.

    A copy of the memo shows the administration is seeking to deploy at least 2,000 Guardsmen for 60 days or a period of time determined by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

    Hegseth “may employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property in any number determined appropriate in his discretion,” the memo states.

    This definitely isn’t legal.

    Under the Posse Comitatus act, the US military can’t be used for domestic law enforcement.
    And the Defense Secretary doesn’t have discretionary powers to employ the US military against the US people.

    What Trump and the GOP are doing here is trying to set up a dictatorial police state.

    They are trying to condition the US population to get used to seeing armed thugs everywhere.

    It’s never worked yet but who knows, maybe it will this time.
    49% of the population voted for this trash drump.

  73. Pierce R. Butler says

    John Morales @ # 81 – let me fix your last line:

    It functioned as intended: it bugs you

    For crysake.

    … clearly “the last week or so of Reich3” is basically the end.

    When you need two fuzzy adverbs in 12 words, reconsider your argument. Because if that’s all you got…

    Bonus tip: a “quip” fails if you have to explain it. We don’t have a word (sfaik – maybe you could help?) for needing to use a cutesy-nym chatbot for explication. Autocrater, maybe.

    Meta: please spend some time with a therapist.

  74. John Morales says

    Pierce, are you indulging in attempted slap-fighting?

    “When you need two fuzzy adverbs in 12 words, reconsider your argument. Because if that’s all you got…”

    Again: it’s all I wanted, and all I needed. So yeah.

    Your peeve amuses me, I get it; for you, it’s personal.

    Meta: please spend some time with a therapist.

    How’s that working for you? :)

  75. KG says

    raven, it probably is hard for current non-aged people to imagine how dire the 60s-70s situation was in the USA.
    But it most certainly was worse than the current one. — John Morales@87

    In some respects, yes*: the Vietnam War and the backlash against civil rights legislation produced a very high level of conflict, and more street clashes and police violence than we’ve seen yet in the 2020s. But even once Nixon became President, there was no threat of the establishment of a dictatorship, as there quite clearly is now. And when it turned out that Nixon had committed actual crimes (that pale before what Trump does every day), most of the Republican Party turned against him, and forced him to resign.

    *I do remember those times, dating my “political awakening” from 1966-8, although I wasn’t in the USA.

  76. rorschach says

    “raven, it probably is hard for current non-aged people to imagine how dire the 60s-70s situation was in the USA.
    But it most certainly was worse than the current one.”

    Worth keeping in mind that they are working off a list here for Project2025, and they’re not finished yet. Once the Big Beautiful Bill passes, the judiciary is effectively neutralised, and Trump can do whatever he wants. This National Guard stuff and Hegseth the alcoholic ex FoxNews guy swinging his Marines dick around is all just foreplay.
    I wrote on socmed 10 years ago that the day would come when the survival of the USA as a democracy would depend on whether the military would comply with the Trump regime or not. So far, it looks like they will.

  77. StevoR says

    @ ^ rorschach : I wrote and spoke up here and on facebook and other places last year warning that the survival of the USA as a Democracy depended upon Kamala Harris defeating Trump and his fascists and Project2025 in the final ever relatively free and fair~ish American election.

    Not enough people listened and then voted accordingly. Many did. A great many did. Almost enough. But not quite enough.

    Thus here we are now seeing the world and news as it is rather than what would’ve been had the NON-Fascist actually Democratic party won.

  78. beholder says

    StevoR, at some point you have to acknowledge the reality of what happened in 2024: Biden had a tantrum and threw the election. If he wasn’t going to be president, then no Democrat was going to be president. Harris apparently didn’t care enough to effect otherwise; she was also trying to throw the election when she campaigned with the Cheneys and she said she was going to appoint Republicans to cabinet-level positions in her administration.

    If it is as you suppose and the survival of the USA really hinged on that election, then you should be furious with Joemala and the people around them responsible for that campaign. It’s very entertaining when you pretend I had anything to do with that outcome, but your favorite sports team’s candidates were miserable jokes. You’ll get another chance in 2028. Pick someone better next time.

  79. KG says

    beholder@96

    StevoR, at some point you have to acknowledge the reality of what happened in 2024: Biden had a tantrum and threw the election. If he wasn’t going to be president, then no Democrat was going to be president. Harris apparently didn’t care enough to effect otherwise; she was also trying to throw the election when she campaigned with the Cheneys and she said she was going to appoint Republicans to cabinet-level positions in her administration.

    Stupid conspiracist garbage, as expected from you, trying to justify your own small part in enabling fascism. Harris could likely have won the election by breaking with Biden and working with the initial burst of enthusiasm that greeted her replacement of Biden, but to suggest she was “trying to throw the election” is just stupid. Of course she wanted to win, she just picked a losing strategy. It’s quite possible to be furious with both Biden and Harris without believing the sort of crap you spew.

    You’ll get another chance in 2028. Pick someone better next time.

    Anyone who is confident of anything close to a free election in 2026, let alone 2028, is a complete fucking numpty.

  80. StevoR says

    StevoR, at some point you have to acknowledge the reality of what happened in 2024:

    I have acknowledged reality. It is you who have not. For instance :

    Biden had a tantrum and threw the election. If he wasn’t going to be president, then no Democrat was going to be president. Harris apparently didn’t care enough to effect otherwise; she was also trying to throw the election when she campaigned with the Cheneys and she said she was going to appoint Republicans to cabinet-level positions in her administration.

    Is obviously false and simply reality-denial and projection on your part. It is pure victim-blaming and lying and there is no evidence or reason to think that is true at all let alone the requisite extraordinary evidence for that extraordinary claim.

    The very obvious to anyone with have a clue reason Kamala tried to appeal to some more moderate Republicans is because she thought that would deliver the necessary number of votes. Because you win elections (as Biden did in 2020 among others) by getting a majority which means strategically it makes sense to appeal to those outside your natural base and shift towards the relative political centre. Kamala expected those on the political and progressive left – which by your own actions and admissions you have proven you, beholder, are NOT – to understand this clear reality and unify behind and support her. Sadly, she over-estimated the intelligence and ethical decency of people like, well, you.

    If it is as you suppose and the survival of the USA really hinged on that election, then you should be furious with Joemala and the people around them responsible for that campaign.

    Furious with who? There is NO such person as “Joemala” certainly not an individual running for POTUS as one of the two and ONLY two options you actually had. What does it say about you that you cannot even name the candidates who were running or describe them correctly?

    I presume you meant to refer to former President Joseph Biden who was the only individual to defeat Trump in a previous Presidential election and whose mental competence and ethics are far superior then and now to your own as well as to Trump’s -then and now. Also you confuse this fiction of your own delusions with former Vice-President and actual Democratic Party Nominee Kamala Harris – one of the two actual choices that Americans had for President in 2024 and the one you chose NOT to support and vote for. Instead, you, beholder, preferred to undermine her and her party and argue for and in effect vote for the Fascist Christian Supremacists extreme reichwing party of Donald Trump.

    A choice that has the consequences we are now seeing globally and especially in LA right now but also with children needlessly dying of measles, in the Gazan genocide reignited and enabled by far Worse Genocide Don and who knows how many already and indefinitely into the future due to Trump’s anti-Climate policies. As I’ve said before and will keep reminding you and others, you beholder have blood on your hands. You have to face that reality because of your words and actions here.

    It’s very entertaining when you pretend I had anything to do with that outcome, but your favorite sports team’s candidates were miserable jokes.

    I was the one taking this seriously and NOT treating it as inconsequential here unlike you beholder. I was correct to do so. You and the other Purity Disunity fools who wanted some mythical unicorn of a candidate that didn’t exist and would lose anyhow given political realities are the ones who failed to take this seriously and thus, re-read my previous paragraph above,

    You’ll get another chance in 2028.

    No. We really won’t. Its very safe to say now you blew your chance and destroyed your Democracy last year. If you think otherwise you’re well, exactly as deluded as I know you are.

    Pick someone better next time.

    I’d say take your own advice – FSM did you ever need too! However, as noted there won’t be a next time. Not a free and fair one. You put Fascists in power and that has hurt everyone on this planet and made the world a vastly worse place. You know it. I know. Almost everyone else here knows it too. If they don’t I’ll remind them. Problem is the entire world has to live with it now – and (not ‘or’) die under it too.

  81. Rob Grigjanis says

    beholder @96: Those are some powerful drugs you’re on, sunshine.

  82. says

    Wow. Biden is simultaneously a doddering old fool, and a powerful politician who can decide the fate of a presidential election.

  83. StevoR says

    NASA is far too dependent on SpaceX as people in this recent Aussie ABC article also note :

    (Musk -ed)… later posted Dragon was safe and wouldn’t be decommissioned — but the threat illustrated the stakes of the dispute for America’s space program. “NASA has become incredibly reliant upon SpaceX, most notably for getting crew members to and from the International Space Station,” Dr Barber (Space scientist Dr Simeon Barber, Senior Research Fellow at The Open University. – ed)

    … (Snip)…

    ..SpaceX is the only US company capable right now of transporting crews to and from the space station, using its four-person Dragon capsules. Boeing’s Starliner capsule has flown astronauts only once; last year’s test flight went so badly that the two NASA astronauts had to hitch a ride back to Earth via SpaceX in March, more than nine months after launching last June.

    But it’s not just getting cargo and crews to the space station. SpaceX also dominates the launch of US military and commercial satellites, accounting for 87 per cent of the American orbital launches in 2024.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-09/nasa-spacex-impact-from-trump-musk-fallout/105395938

  84. rorschach says

    I am btw convinced that Harris did in fact win. Not just because Trump actually admitted to rigging the election twice on live TV, or because a lot of the voting machine results were transmitted via Elon’s Starlink satellites. At the very least, the spineless Democrats should have forced recounts.

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