The Bromance is OVAH!

Not a huge surprise to anyone, the bromance between Trump and Elon Musk is over. Not even “I’m not speaking to you” over, but flouncing past each other at recess, you can’t be my friend if you’re theirs, no more copying each other’s homework OVER.

Probably not a real shock to anyone given the massive sizes of the two egos involved – it’s hard to believe that those two could co-exist in peace for any length of time anyway. Let’s face it, if either ego had replaced the Hindenburg, the resultant melt-down would have obliterated the East Coast, not just an air field in New Jersey.

We have often talked about how giant bills are brought to a vote with only hours to read, grasp, comment, and modify them – Obamacare being a prime example. Seems that “big, beautiful spending bill” falls into the same category – several provisions in it sandbagged Republicans, who were given one night to read its 1116 page text before voting on it the next day. When was the last time you read two Jack Reacher books in one night?  (I would have said “Pillars of the Earth” or “The Source” but they may be a bit dated for you youngsters out there.)  Reportedly even Marjorie Taylor Greene plans to vote ‘no’ when the bill comes back to the House due to a sop to tech companies buried in the bill banning any legal action by states against AI usage for ten years.

On Tuesday, Greene admitted in an X post that she didn’t read the full text of the bill, missing a section that “strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years.”

“I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there,” she wrote, adding, “This needs to be stripped out in the Senate.”  The Independent

Other fiscally conservative Republicans dislike its continuance of tax cuts, that it may further increase our total deficit – reasons abound. But what et Trump off was when Musk publicly called Trump’s pet bill “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.”.  We all know how Mr. Trump views any disagreement – remember a fella called Mattis? Or for that matter almost any other senior military advisor in his first administration? He doesn’t just disagree, he attacks, and questions their intelligence, their integrity, and demeans them. Publicly.  Trump, of course, retaliated.

Trump posts that the US government could save billions of dollars in its budget by terminating the contracts and subsidies awarded to Musk’s companies.  CNN

You mean like those space contracts? Who ya gonna give ’em to, Boeing? Betcha there’s a couple of astronauts who might chime in one THAT idea after their extended zero-gravity sojourn.

Musk said in response he has already directed that the Dragon spacecraft (which DID bring the errant astronauts back home) be decommissioned.  (Tesla’s stock is down 14% , presumably due primarily to this – so Musk has some skin in the game here. Given his investment in the company, he is losing millions, as this has cost the company about $15,000,000,000.)

Then we hit the big ones… Musk says Trump is in the Epstein files and should be impeached. NPR We call that a Rubicon – he has crossed a line with that which historically Trump cannot ignore. Personally, I tend to believe the Republican Senator who questioned it – as badly as the Democrats and Biden hate Trump, it’s hard to believe Trump had any significant role in Epstein’s life and the last administration ignored it or failed to capitalize on it.

This ain’t over. Keep watching it.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", DOGE, Donald Trump, Politics