Of Musk, Trump, and tsunamis

Like Trump's, stimulating insights into world history, innovative approaches to international relations and, perhaps above all, a sympathetic understanding of an ally's darkest days are but three formidable intellectual characteristics of America's greatest commanders in chief.

As hinted, each was on re-display yesterday in the Oval Office, for only the most redoubtable of c-in-c minds would attempt to comfort the chancellor of free, democratic Germany by musing that on today's date, this historic D-Day, the liberation of his country from Nazi dictatorship "was not a pleasant day for you ... not a great day."

How was that surreal spectacle related to this post's title? Again, only Trump could be as equally blockheaded and dazzlingly clueless to have enlisted the neolithic aid of the chemical-addled though naturally flaky Elon Musk in things managerial. As anticipated by all — save for the also oblivious Mr. Musk — this administrative mismarriage of pathological ids came to grief in Reno-divorce time.

Given its carpet-bombing press coverage, no blow-by-blow rehash of the sudden onset of their gaudy breakup is needed. What does remain of more than mere note is that their splashy parting of ways has propelled not ripples of harm but a riptide of destructive force slamming against "America First."

"This is a massive crack in the MAGA coalition," said Republican strategist and former Trump State Department appointee Matthew Bartlett. "This town is historically built on Republican versus Democrat, and this seems to be crazy versus crazy. It is asymmetric and it seems, for the first time, President Trump seems to be out-crazied."

Notwithstanding the strategist's concluding off-target assessment, his remark of this town — not the more than 2,800 MAGA counties — perhaps unwittingly pinpointed the location of the coalition's "massive crack" and potential ground-zero carnage.

Although enchanting civil strife between brothers of MAGA nutjobbery is vastly improbable, there does loom a rather strong likelihood of Musk waging a fortune-bloodying war of retribution against the red-coated fraternity's sociopathic spendthrifts in Congress.

In response yesterday to their casus belli came "an unambiguous warning from the world’s richest man [that he] has the power to single-handedly reshape elections with his wealth," as Politico so sweetly put it. That power? In Republicans' 2026 races there's a "$100 million ... hole that has to be filled," worried a party media consultant. But it's not to worry for Elon; he can easily fill the hole with political corpses.

Last year he ponied up a flea-bitten pittance of $19.2 million for GOP contestants in 18 still-contestable congressional districts. Next year he could and very well might shell out grave-digging multiples of the party's standing deficit without feeling so much as a pinch to his hundredfold billions of dollars in net assets.

Of acute tactical interest to Musk is his cost-free mujahideen battling against Republicans' legislative monstrosity of fiscal recklessness — the apotheosis of pseudoconservatism's 45-year trek up its mountain of sheer madness. Predicts a "senior Hill leader," the unhappy Mr. Musk's flanking maneuvers needn't "persuade most Republicans [to retreat]. Just a few, And if he spends the next few weeks shitting on the bill, that will move the numbers."

Hardcore Trumpism's dumbest possible countermove would be to advance a gangster strategy of hit-job malice against the already supremely unhappy Mr. Musk; thus I take this opportunity to thank convicted criminal and ex-con Steve Bannon for his advocacy in fluent prison-yard slanguage precisely that: "[We mustn't permit] some fucking punk to sit there and say" what he's saying. Rather, "Fuck you, dude. We’re going to go to fucking war, and I’m going to rip your fucking face off."

Hence this verb-tense error uttered by "a senior" regime official: "Everybody knew this was gonna end badly." Is gonna end badly. To expand on one wag's characterization of the singular essence of Tom Dewey's first-run presidential nominee insight of "our future lies ahead," so too is the 1948 fate of numerous MAGA 2026 Deweys. Assuming, of course, high-ranking Trumpers follow Bannon's advice, about which I have high confidence.