Elon Musk discovers Trump doesn’t stay bought

I have been watching, with some grim amusement, Elon Musk discovering the limits of being just another political donor. While he was at DOGE, he literally could control the Treasury and DOD — he effectively had the IT reins of the entire country, and could simply gut things he hated at will. There was a price for that: it destroyed what was left of his reputation. But it was real, true power — being able to stop payments at will makes you more powerful than the president.

So much for that. These days, Musk is reduced to begging his followers on X to call their senators and congressmen [sic, obviously] to vote down the Big Beautiful Bill. His nominal reason is that Donald Trump’s budget plan will increase the deficit, but reports indicate that Musk is annoyed an EV credit is getting cut. That makes it harder to sell Teslas in an environment where it’s already hard to sell Teslas. Also, Musk may be annoyed that he didn’t get to stay past his statutory limit as an unpaid advisor and that the FAA isn’t using Starlink, according to Axios.

The cracks have been showing in the MAGA-tech alliance for some time now. When Scott Bessent got Musk’s IRS pick ejected in April, that was notable. (Bessent’s deputy now runs the IRS.) Musk wasn’t politically savvy enough to get Bessent on his side before installing his pick; an end-run like that is insulting and Musk had been making enemies. Take, for instance, Marco Rubio, who was furious when Musk destroyed USAID — that was Rubio’s department and getting rid of it cut his power. Sean Duffy, the reality TV star who is for some reason running the Department of Transportation, had to intervene to stop DOGE from firing air traffic controllers while the lack of air traffic controllers remains a hot-button issue.

These men should not have been especially difficult to finesse, but then Musk is known for his bull-in-a-china-shop approach. It is rare that a person in a position of power — a cabinet seat, say — willingly gives up even an inch of leverage. Making enemies of Bessent, Rubio, and Duffy was a strategic error.

Even less powerful enemies can lead to political problems, which is why Musk doesn’t get his pet boy in NASA now. Jared Isaacman was due to receive his final confirmation vote in the Senate when Trump abruptly withdrew his nomination for head of the aerospace agency. That was reportedly because Musk had beef with Sergio Gor, the head of the White House Presidential Personnel Office — basically the lead recruiter for government jobs. The moment Musk was no longer in the actual White House, Gor dropped the blade.

Silicon Valley is still entwined with the government — Musk’s cronies, including the guy who calls himself Big Balls, now have permanent jobs. Associates of Peter Thiel, Palmer Luckey, and David Sacks all have jobs in the administration; the vice president owes his entire political career to his sugar daddy Thiel. But when David Sacks gets on X to argue with Marjorie Taylor Greene about the AI provision in the budget bill, that suggests a shocking lack of leverage. Sacks was a major Republican fundraiser and is a literal advisor to the president; shouldn’t he be able to pick up a phone and get what he wants?

Instead, his podcast All-In is getting the exclusive bitch session from Isaacman, the NASA administrator who wasn’t. Great for content, I guess, but not real power.

I’m a little surprised Musk isn’t threatening to primary people over the bill. Maybe that’s happening in private, I don’t know. But it could also reflect that Musk’s money is, at times, a political liability. When Musk dropped $20 million on his preferred Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate, that candidate got blown out of the water. Musk’s increasingly toxic reputation may make his money less welcome.

Still, Trump isn’t publicly chastising Musk, which is unusual. Maybe that’s because he’s waiting on a $100 million check to his political action committee, per The Wall Street Journal. Or maybe it’s because Musk is particularly close to Katie and Stephen Miller, two major Trump administration power players.

The basic truth of Donald Trump’s entire career, starting in real estate, is that he will fuck over anyone who does a deal with him as soon as it benefits him to do so. (Just ask Michael Cohen!) You can buy him, but he won’t stay bought. You have to keep an eye on him, keep managing him, as Stephen Miller knows well. Musk left the White House to tend to his own reputation, leaving his enemies behind to whisper in the president’s ear. Sure, he’s still got people in the administration, but it’s hard to effectively rule from the shadows when you’ve created a shocking amount of tension with the actual presidential staff. Musk set his own companies on fire, and this is what he’s gotten in return. What did you get for your money, honey? How do you get your kicks?