The Trump vs. Musk battle was inevitable — but once again the president comes out on top

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

86% : When Trump and Musk came together in one big beautiful embrace, I told myself, “This can’t last six months.”
74% : Trump, for whom “big” is always “beautiful,” has never been a small-government politician.
73% : His instrument was to be the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to which Trump ceded a remarkably free hand in slashing and reshaping existing government agencies (see: USAID).
68% : By temperament and ideology, Trump, in fact, has turned out to be a revolutionary leader.
65% : Trump is a culture warrior.
65% : As a political force, he exists entirely by the grace of Trump.
59% : Musk, who might compete with Trump for the title of supreme digital communicator, got there fast.
53% : Start with Trump.
45% : Look, the breakup between President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk was inevitable.
44% : In the 21st-century version of the story, Trump, the father figure, is a populist change-agent, while the younger Musk has evolved into a burn-it-down rebel.
43% : Trump will take the best deal that promotes revolution — thus disrupting his own government — while also ensuring that things keep running, thus sustaining the status quo.
41% : Trump is in no immediate political danger — interestingly, his popularity kept rising throughout the incident.
40% : Yet Musk’s ruthless work with DOGE had inspired nearly equal levels of loathing from the left to what is habitually aimed at Trump.
35% : I mean, Trump vs. Musk — it’s the clash of titans.
34% : Whereas Musk and Trump compete on an almost equal footing in the theater of attention that is the web, when it comes to politics, it’s Bambi versus Godzilla.
34% : But if the president is now battling the most despicable of the oligarchs, what does that say about Trump?
29% : All of which hints at the answer to the inescapable question: Who wins the slugfest between Musk and Trump?
27% : The final question is whether the quarrel will generate any lasting problems for Trump.

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