The feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump appears to have gone from a full boil to a simmer over the weekend, however don’t rule out the potential of the warmth getting turned up once more. In a conversation with NBC News, Trump mentioned he has little interest in making good with Musk proper now, however did make it clear that if the billionaire decides to change events and again Democratic candidates, “he’ll must pay penalties for that.”
Trump being Trump, he didn’t clarify what these potential retaliatory actions is likely to be, simply instructed NBC they are going to be “very severe penalties.” In fact, it’s not terribly arduous to think about the levers Trump may pull. He has already threatened to cancel the billions of {dollars} value of presidency contracts that Musk’s firms at present rely on, and his shut ally and former advisor, Steve Bannon, has encouraged Trump to analyze Musk as an “unlawful alien,” deport him, and seize control of his companies underneath the Protection Manufacturing Act. So, he’s bought some concepts to work with.
Trump’s menace of motion in opposition to Musk actually seems like a line drawn within the sand, however the President has in any other case not likely escalated the meat since Musk threw the kitchen sink at him. In a sequence of now-deleted posts, Musk claimed that Trump seems within the Epstein recordsdata and has been withholding data as a way to shield himself and supported the thought of impeaching the president whom he spent nearly $300 million making an attempt to get into workplace. Musk took these posts down, however has continued to be essential of Trump.
Trump rebuked the assaults in his dialog with NBC, calling the Epstein angle “outdated information” and that he had “nothing to do with” Epstein. “That’s referred to as ‘outdated information,’ that’s been outdated information, that has been talked about for years,” he mentioned.
Apart from that, Trump has mainly simply determined to clean his palms of Musk—not less than in the meanwhile. When requested if his relationship with the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is over, Trump told NBC, “I’d assume so, yeah.” He additionally reiterated that he has no intention of talking with Musk instantly and mentioned, “I’m too busy doing different issues” and “I’ve no intention of talking to him.”
That is still fairly gentle for a man who’s actually able to being a bomb thrower, however Trump might need a way that he’ll come off higher by easing off after Musk flew off the deal with. A YouGov poll discovered that amongst Republicans, 71% would take his facet in comparison with simply 6% who mentioned they’d throw their backing behind Musk. Even should you broaden the survey pattern to incorporate Democrats and Independents, Trump comes out forward with 28% of assist in comparison with simply 8% for Musk (although notably, 52% mentioned “Neither,” so the “a pox on each your homes” demographic is robust).
Politico reported Sunday that aides representing either side have spoken, and there’s something of a mutual truce in the mean time to cease the bomb-throwing—although it famous that neither Musk nor Trump needed to cease. Looks like they’re locked in a battle of restraint in the mean time, which isn’t precisely a ability both of them is understood to own. We’ll see who breaks the truce first.
