Elon Musk vs. Donald Trump

by Guillermo Alvarado

As could be expected, the 'friendship' between the controversial figures Donald Trump and Elon Musk has come to an end, and they are now engaged in a battle of words where both are losing money and prestige.

The White House is not a place where such big egos can coexist; both are greedy for power and riches, and so the break was only a matter of time. Perhaps many did not expect the arguments to become so heated, nor to descend to such a low level.

The romance ended when Trump commissioned his 'friend' to drastically cut public spending by laying off tens of thousands of federal employees, but then announced a project to increase military spending and tax cuts for the richest.

According to leaks in the press, which certainly do not tell the whole story, Musk felt betrayed and announced his resignation from the government, supposedly on good terms.

The depth of the rift was revealed when Musk referred to the president's project as abominable and disgusting.

This was just the first round of the battle, as Musk later assured that, without his multi-million dollar contributions, Trump would have lost the election and the Democrats would have had total control of Congress.

In response, the President suggested that a good way to reduce federal spending would be to cancel all deals signed with, or promised to, Musk's companies, totalling a few billion dollars.

Once tempers had flared, the accusations escalated and the repercussions from the highly sensitive financial markets came back to haunt them both.

It is estimated that the South Africa-born tycoon lost between 140 and 150 billion dollars due to the drop in his companies' share prices. Meanwhile, Trump was affected by an 8 percent drop in his Truth Media network, while the main Wall Street indicators plummeted.

In the United States, anything can be endangered, including human life, but not capital. The days ahead will therefore be arduous in that country, where Musk has announced that he will use his wealth and social media platform X to target those defending the president's budget project.

His statement was withering: "Trump has 3.5 years of government left; I have 40 years to live". Such is life in the so-called capitalist paradise.