If it were real, Elon would have made public the Epstein file first and then announced his schism with TSF.

And his incontinence.

role in this administration. I think he is on phase 2 which is to pull independents and disaffected Democrats away from Democratic Party.

What are they keeping out of the news? If it's real hope they annihilate each other. All those super egos in this administration.

I was telling my daughters that every bat-shit weirdo crap that comes out of his news cycle, is a cover-up for something particularly shitty for America

And, I honestly don’t give a damn one way or the other what the actual truth of it is anyway since I can’t stand either one of them. But it’s great for M$M ratings.

Secretary of Education to Ref the cat fight......

most in the senate do not like musk and will not want to appear on his "side" and appear against trump, it's another bait

The Epstein Tweet is a really incendiary thing that's hard to walk back.

This is making them both look like fucking idiots.

Trump allowed a drug addict with ties to Russia and China FULL ACCESS to all of the US's most sensitive private data -- Social Security databases, Medicare databases, immigration databases, nuclear secrets, you name it.

Now Trump is walking around and saying -- with a shrug -- that the person he gave this access to "went crazy" and "lost his mind." It's a massive national security crisis.

Meanwhile the person who "went crazy" and "lost his mind" is hammering Trump and the Republican Party on his enormous social media platform, where he has 200 million followers. He's telling them that the big bill that the Republicans are pushing is a pile of bullshit, and that there will be a recession in six months because of Trump's tariffs. He's accusing Trump of being a pedophile. He's talking about starting a third party.

If they eventually kiss and make up, it will only be because they finally realize the huge amount of damage they're doing to each other. But it doesn't mean that this split isn't real.

I can't buy the idea that "NOTHING with this administration is as it appears." It's almost doing them a favor to suggest that their enormous unfitness, incompetence, and government-by-Dunning-Kruger-Syndrome is actually a clever ploy to distract everyone from something else.

This isn't four-dimensional chess. It's a bumfight between the two biggest assholes on the planet.

Trump should be impeached and Vance should replace him destroyed any chance of a reconciliation. And Musk isn't so crazy that he doesn't know that.

Vance is also in jeopardy now, will be watched carefully, might be sent to very dangerous places, and could be pressured to resign so Trump can replace him with someone he believes would.be more loyal. Maybe even Ivanka. Or Don Jr.

Not sure that would go over well with the nationalists.

Why would they be concerned about looking like fucking idiots now, SUDDENLY, when all players in this are in a mutually assured destruction scenario?

To emphasize:

There is big money and ultimate power on the line here, and each player knows that.

They have been hugging and kissing for months, and NOW they decide to fight like children, when each player can be destroyed by another?

Trump can literally destroy Elon's wealth via the loss of Government contracts.

Musk can destroy republican representatives by funding candidates that primary them.

They all know they can be destroyed, and yet they continue to act like this?

Republicans have progressed as far as they have because of nonsense like this. They create drama to deflect from distasteful issues that will not be accepted by the public at large.

This is much more than two idiots fighting. This is something bigger, and part of that larger "thing" is getting this bill passed.

In my mind, this is nothing more than planned brinkmanship in order to achieve a goal.

Distract the public about a "fight", a "falling out", ram the bill up the public's ass, Congress benefits, Elon saves face by saying he "tried" and his now ruined reputation and brand improves in a year or so, Elon and his buddies get their tax breaks, and Trump gets a signature "accomplishment".

They don't care how this "looks", and this didn't just happen out of the blue.

Elon, Congress, and Trump all have issues, both financially and reputationally...but they have a goal to reach. And this is how they have chosen to make the impediments to that goal go away.

I don’t know why they need all the drama to pass the bill though? It already passed the House, they control the Senate… why not just use the combination of Musk and Trump to lean on the handful of wavering Senators and ram the bill through that way? That would make them both look like heroes instead of squabbling school kids.

But the whole basis for my belief is that there is too much money and too much power involved on all sides for them to be acting like this without having some kind of plan to do so.

Musk is in trouble, Trump is teetering, Congress will approve the bill, and there will be devastating fallout from the public.

I think they are somehow trying to mitigate the damage of all of this by blaming each other, but not blaming each other so badly that they literally get destroyed financially and reputationally. It seems like a good cop/bad cop scenario to me. With both the good cop and the bad cop having the same goal, but with both of them using different tactics.

I'm mainly thinking about Musk. He's fucked right now. Why I started thinking about this...my spouse saw a bumper sticker on a Tesla yesterday that said something like "I bought this before Musk went crazy". I think he is in real trouble, and he knows it.

Maybe Musk and Trump have some kind of reciprocal agreement to help Musk get out of this dilemma. Musk is at real risk of losing everything.

I don't know...I'm just a guy with an opinion trying to make sense of all of this nonsense, just like the rest of us. I guess we'll all find out soon enough what the deal really is.

I think for me, it just boils down to this. Musk needs to save his reputation, and his money...or else he is just an average Joe.

There is no Kabuki. There may be a truce, but there will be no "kiss and make up".

It is not a play to increase Muck's stock TSLA by making progressives suddenly like Muck and rush to buy Teslas. Not going to happen and TSLA is down big because of the spat and that is on the heels of a downtrend due to concerns about sales.

It is not a play to distract. tRump has lots of levers for distraction, including a sheaf of Executive Orders being held in abeyance till needed for distractions.

The Big Billionaire Bill is stupid: It is stimulative when not needed and at immense fiscal and social cost. It takes from the poor and middle class whose spending runs the economy and gives to billionaires who have a habit of parking a lot of any windfalls and not investing all of it in production. There is lots there for Muck to dislike. He is not altruistic, but he is smart.

tRump was wounded by the Epstein link, which may pan out or remain hidden, but the claim deepens belief that the smoke indicated a fire. He is vindictive and will not forget.

The country turns anger towards musk because of "doggie".
Then musk pretends to be the sane one & dumps on the "bill".
They will do anything to not talk about the countless power grabs
and stupidity in the RWRE budget.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-people-conspiracy-theories-subconscious-quest.html]

By using words like this?

Or just when you can do it anonymously under a screen name?

when someone disagrees with you?

I'm all for politeness.

The linked article in the in the post I disagreed with wasn't polite.

Now, do you have an opinion on my OP?

I'd love to hear it!

And why are you crying?

Don't cry! Everything is ok!

Parsimony of assumptions. The explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is the correct one.

So far, anyway.

"This hair on fire, OMG they're fighting hahahaha bullshit is just that...fucking bullshit."

Whose hair is on fire? I haven't seen anything like that here.

"NOTHING with this administration is as it appears."

I really disagree with that. They appear to be sadistic Nazi narcissistic predators with drug and/or brain problems, destroying everything they get their greedy, corrupt hands on, and it is OBVIOUS.

I doubt there is anything they feel the need to distract people from seeing. THEY DON'T CARE if the entire universe witnesses their endless corruption because the entire universe has been witnessing it every damn day.

can significantly diminish Musk's revenue flow, and put a huge dent in his wealth, by shutting off present and future contracts with the United States Government.

Musk's wealth is not static and guaranteed, nor is it untouchable.

Trusting my gut on this one.

But this might have been a semi believable/credible hot take earlier in the week.

Or, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

and then ruining the lives of countless government employees...

and then waving a chain saw around on stage...

and then pivoting to another tact in a micro second...

when the most money and most power in the world is on the line...

after working toward a goal outlined in Project 2025 for YEARS...

Is not a cigar.

If my opinion proves to be incorrect, my opinion will be of no consequence anyway.

People will tell me I was wrong, and then we'll all move on with our lives as always.

Mainly through gaining access and that was cut off.

I’m just not convinced it’s anything but silly stagecraft.

or have Musk imply that Trump is a pedophile
for the sake of 'stagecraft'....

This is real--- AND, quite the same as what was predicted to eventually happen
for many months, by many posters on this board----

The only surprise to me is the level of viciousness displayed,
and the speed with which it descended to the depths....
and the fact that Musk is clearly right in two things he has said
(although not necessarily for any of the reasons he has stated)---


The "big beautiful bill" IS an abomination,
and Trump is an un-indicted pedophile

(Anybody who ever saw the photos of him posing on his bed with his young daughter could see THAT...)

with Musk attacking the "one big beautiful bill",
and THEN implying that Trump is a pedophile (which he is),

I have to completely reject your concept that this is some kind of
"optics subterfuge" coordinated by the Trump administration...

Considering the "nuclear option" nature of Musk's statements,
that theory is rather ridiculous.

It's Schrödinger's bullshit. They've gone far beyond mere Newtonian bullshit, into realms where the laws of bullshit as we knew them no longer apply.

Never attribute to malice what could just as easily be attributed to stupidity.

This whole thing is too stupid to be fake.