The rift between the former first buddies goes well beyond both men, intensifying fractures that have long lurked beneath MAGA’s surface.
This article appears in full at The Nation
We’ve all had bad breakups, but very few are bad enough to warrant a New York Times live alert feed. In the days since Trump and Musk’s relationship went gloriously kinetic on social media, the inferno has died down to furious, smoldering coals. Musk has deleted his accusation that Trump refuses to release the Epstein files because Trump himself is in them. Trump has stopped railing against Musk or overtly threatening his government contracts on Truth Social. But that threat remains real, as does Musk’s declared intent to start the “America Party.” The news cycle has (correctly) moved on to the administration’s violent crackdown on protest in LA, but this lover’s quarrel is far from over. Neither man excels at forgiveness.
Light a candle, melt it in a spoon, inject it directly into my veins. Finally—finally—this fragile, doomed alliance is splitting apart. I don’t just mean the one between Musk and Trump. The MAGA movement itself is splintering, and has been for quite some time. They’ve presented a united front in the face of the hated Liberal enemy, but they’ve won a lot of battles and the urgency is fading. With (tenuous) control over all three branches of government, MAGA can do (almost) whatever it wants, which in some ways is the worst thing that could happen to it. The factions within MAGA have incompatible worldviews and want very different things. They’ve all convinced themselves that Trump is secretly on their side, and—surprise!—this is almost universally not the case. The cracks began to show weeks ago, and now the foundation is crumbling before our eyes.
Read the rest at The Nation