Breaking Up Is Hard To Do - Pride Edition

(Author's note: So much is happening so fast... I've tried to keep things in chronological order... include a bit of a timeline. And also curate some of the hilarious reactions to this breaking news. Oh, and in the end, remind you that we are being led by a couple of chaos agents hellbent on looting our country.)

America is in a state of shock, even mourning.

It was more heartbreaking than the breakup of Brangelina (Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie.) I cried harder than when I got the news that Bennifer (Ben Affleck/Jennifer Lopez) were no more - for the last time. And it was as shocking as the split of Kimye (Kanye West now 'Ye' and Kim Kardashian.)

It was, of course, the terrible divorce of Donlon. Trumsk? Donalon? You know, Donald and Elon.

I need a moment.

OK. I'm back. I'll be OK.

Third-rate Bromance, High Rent Rendezvous.

You've read the tabloids by now. Musk's 'official' assignment to slash government spending through a government advisory board named "DOGE" or the Dept. of Government Efficiency. The name of the beast came from a meme coin cryptocurrency that was actually started as a joke, but found its way into mainstream trading. DOGE itself was not a true government agency, which would require an act of Congress. Trump issued an Executive Order and declared it an advisory board. You will recall that he was serving the White House as what's called a "special government employee." He wanted to stay in that role beyond the 130-day time limit set by statute for the unpaid advisory position. But, love grows stale, it seems, and a four-month relationship is more than Trump could bear. The Oval Office simply couldn't continue to hold two egos of this size. Most world leaders have figured out by now that you can't even pretend to be Trump's equal.

Musk reveled in his own brilliance. He bounced around cabinet meetings (though he was an "advisor" and not a cabinet member) like Daffy Duck on, well, ketamine.

He showed up at GOP gatherings rambling and twitching and Nazi saluting. He brought on his own little shock squad of DOGE soldiers who immediately infiltrated government agencies, cracked into computers, laid off hundreds of thousands of employees, and demanded that others report weekly on their job accomplishments. He promised to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, modified that figure to $1 trillion, and when he finally left, most experts estimate that he never made it to $100 billion - and even that figure my be reduced as lawsuits wend their way through the courts. This angered cabinet secretaries, government officials, and of course, the workers whose professional lives he upended. That is to say nothing of the destroyed budgets for services that Americans depend on, along with aid organizations around the world. Science, medical, and technology research budgets were slashed within the agencies and (along with Trump's retribution against the Ivy League,) in universities across the country.

Musk's approval ratings, never very high outside of the MAGA faithful (who will always support whoever is anointed by Trump), plummeted. Tesla stock went into freefall as sales dried up worldwide for his EVs. In support of Musk, Trump even put a couple of Teslas on the White House lawn and gave a presidential infomercial complete with his endorsement and purchase of one of his cars!

But you know how it is when no one likes your new date. She got drunk at the party. He talks too loud and laughs too much. Her clothes are funny. He won't shuddup about his ski trip. She lays off half of your company. He empties 20% of your bank account and wants you to justify your employment. You find out he's fathered a dozen or so kids by several other ladies and thinks that you should have a little something of his in your womb, too.

Hey, relationships are hard.

The criticisms and pushback mounted. Musk clashed with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro over tariffs after Navarro said Tesla depends on "cheap foreign parts." Musk called Navarro "dumber than a sack of bricks." Not that he was wrong, but can we have a little decorum, please! Ha-ha! Just kidding! Decorum!

In the Oval Office on May 30, Trump said that Mr. Musk was “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced,” adding that Mr. Musk would continue as an advisor on cutting costs.
“The DOGE team will only grow stronger over time,” a black eyed Elon replied. (An injury, he explained, he received when he invited one of his toddlers to "hit him in the face."

But federal EV subsidies were being debated, and it was clear that they would be eliminated. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the "Big Beautiful Bill" designed by Project 2025 and passed by the Republican dominated House, will result in a loss of $3.7 trillion in revenue and add $2.4 trillion to the national debt.

And then it all went bad

Musk found himself further and further pushed aside. He sat down for an interview with David Pogue, a CBS News science/tech reporter.

Pogue pressed Musk on Trump's attempts to restrict visas for foreign students.
Musk responded: "I think we want to stick to the subject of the day, which is spaceships, as opposed to presidential policy."
Pogue subsequently asked if Musk's companies had been affected by Trump's tariff policies, to which the tech CEO replied: "Tariffs always affect things a little bit." Musk previously voiced opposition to Trump's tariff policies - which have a huge impact on the supply chains his tech companies rely on...
Musk said that the treatment of DOGE during his time leading the agency was "a bit unfair."
"DOGE became the whipping boy for everything. If there was some cut, real or imagined, everyone would blame DOGE. I've had people think that somehow DOGE is going to stop them from getting their Social Security check, which is completely untrue." He added: "I'm stuck in a bind, where I don't want to speak up against the administration, but I don't want to take responsibility for everything the administration is doing." -Newsweek

Sound bites from the interview (which were part of a story for CBS Sunday Morning News) were clipped and aired immediately on the Evening News.

And... it was on.

Elon wouldn't let up. Even taking credit for Trump's election:

Trump chimed in...

and it kept going...

Like we didn't know that already? (Author's edit: Musk has now deleted this tweet. Too much?)

(For a full, comprehensive view of the spat, on X it is here.) I told you guys not to let go of your Twitter accounts.

And then Kanye West weighed in. When Kanye West is the voice of reason in the room, we in So. Much. Trouble.

Ashley St. Clair, one of Musk's more recent sistah-wives, (currently in a nasty child custody battle with Elon), offered Trump some help:

And then this...

That's a headline from humorist Andy Borowitz. In his newsletter, he wrote, “It is time for the fighting to stop,” Zelenskyy said to Musk and Trump. “And I am willing to make the ultimate sacrifice: sitting in the same room as the two of you.” Addressing Trump, the Ukrainian declared, "Mr. President, Elon gave you 250 million dollars, and you haven't said ‘thank you’ once."

Musk would call for Trump's impeachment, implying that he had even more dirt on the President. Trump would call for an immediate end to government contracts going to Musk... that would include SpaceX, which drops hundreds of military and industrial satellites, supplies NASA with rockets, etc. Musk then said he would disassemble the SpaceX Dragon Capsule (which supplies the International Space Station). BTW, he has already retracted that threat, which calls into question this entire, shameful exhibit from the leader of the free world, and the richest man in the world. If we had an ounce of credibility left in the world, it is surely gone now.

When dad and dad started fighting, the fallout was immediate.

Shares of Tesla fell 14% on Thursday as Trump threatened to pull government contracts from Musk’s companies. Tesla lost $152 billion in market valuation. The Tesla board of directors had demanded that Musk return to work and actually manage the company... even put in a 40 hour workweek there. On the Trump side of the ledger, TrumpCoin, one of Trump's crypto meme coin scams, lost about $100 million in value. The country (as if either of them care) is beginning to feel the hit from Trump's tariffs, including a downgrade of our credit rating. That alone will increase our cost of borrowing by billions of dollars.

And yeah. We laughed. Laughed our asses off at these two petulant pricks. They have a combined emotional age of about 8, and no regard for God, Country, or anything beyond their egos and wallets.

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Brent Terhune shares the grief that we all feel. (Gawd this guy is funny.)

It's now a gamble for the MAGA movement. What horse should you back? For Trump and Musk, they are loyal only to themselves and their fortunes. Musk tweeted, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate." In other words, 'I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.' Maybe Musk believes that he has that kind of power (through that kind of money). Already, officeholders are making that primary calculation again. Will Trump keep holding the "will of the people" in his tiny hands, or is he slipping enough that Musk's political dollars can influence the voters and primary them out of office?

Trump may take some hits, but being the MAGA Messiah, he can count on the faithful's unwavering support. (That is, until the US economy starts to hit them, hard.) Musk has billions of dollars to feather his nest. He can add to his harem nightly if he wants, to give him comfort and offspring.

Trump is not only using his office to grift more money, but he is also known to use the presidency for personal vendettas. If Musk continues to challenge or humiliate him, Trump can sic the Justice Dept. on any or all of Musk's businesses. He can call for investigations into his or his business's finances. You think Harvard has it bad right about now? From the NY Times:

Before Mr. Trump was elected, at least 11 federal agencies had ongoing investigations or lawsuits targeting Mr. Musk’s companies. These included the Federal Aviation Administration’s scrutiny of launch safety issues, the Environmental Protection Agency inquiry’s into potential water pollution at SpaceX’s Texas launch site and transportation regulators’ questions about fatal accidents involving Tesla cars using autopilot.
The Fish and Wildlife Service also has slowed down its oversight of SpaceX’s Texas launch site, where the company for years has been accused of damaging adjacent state park and National Wildlife Refuge lands.

Trump could fire up those investigations and add more, into problems, real or imagined. Yes, NASA and the military are entwined in many of his businesses, so it would be hard to cut him off cold turkey without totally endangering national security. But Trump could levy some spot tariffs on specific imports that SpaceX needs, or impose a few select regulations on his business operations. Maybe hire a few of those Inspector Generals back to keep an eye out for violations of some new Executive Orders. What if Musk and his Minions are discovered to have violated all kinds of privacy laws when they hacked into all those government computers? Boy, you'd hate to see a big-brained, rich genius like Musk get tied up in court for years and years. Oh, I almost forgot, are his citizenship papers in order?

There is something for everyone to hate in the DOGE. If Trump called foul and sic'ed the masses on Elon, they would be on him before he could fire up his Chainsaw for Bureaucracy to protect himself. "Viva la Libertad carajo!" indeed.

BTW, where are the little DOGE flying monkeys? While daddy and daddy are fighting, the dirty work continues. Data is being compromised. Departments are being decimated. All in the name of "waste, fraud, and abuse." One former DOGE staffer spoke about the waste, fraud, and abuse that he uncovered. Spoiler alert: there wasn't any. "A former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency says that he found that the federal waste, fraud and abuse that his agency was supposed to uncover were "relatively nonexistent" during his short time embedded within the Department of Veterans Affairs. "I personally was pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was," Sahil Lavingia told NPR's Juana Summers." He didn't last too long.

The Kids are Not Alright

It's quite a bit of schadenfreude to take all of this in. We laugh, as they say, to keep from crying. And we laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.

But in the end, it's a disgrace.

While these amoral middle school mean girls slap each other and pull each other's hair, you need to remember that they're fighting over the best and fastest way to tear down our country and divvy up the loot.

If the Senate passes it, Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" will transfer even more wealth to billionaires like Musk, Trump, and their pals. The bill will give the top .1% of income earners an additional $400,000 and decrease the earnings of people in the bottom 25% by $1,000. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday that the bill would add $2.4 trillion to federal deficits over the next decade while stripping health coverage from nearly 11 million Americans, mostly through Medicaid cuts.

Millions of lives will be affected. And if you are on the lower end of the wealth spectrum, you can bet it won't be for the better. The rest of us will see the social safety nets compromised, consumer protections decimated, and our healthcare become even more unaffordable.

The wife clicked on a movie the other night, "Where the Crawdads Sing." (Yeah, we're late to that party.) The young "girl in the swamp" is raised by an abusive, alcoholic father. Later, she finds herself dating a domineering boy from town, who also enjoys the drink. At one point he attempts to rape her. She fends him off and humiliates him in the process. As she retreats and worries that he will return, her voice-over reads, "One thing I learned from Pa, these men have to have the last punch."

DonElon, (Trump and Musk,) their massive egos, their wealth, and their need to dominate each other (and the world for that matter) will continue their asinine behavior. And be advised, they each want the last punch.

BREAKING NEWS: I couldn't finish this piece, and already Musk has thrown pebbles at Trump's bedroom window, insisting on a late-night booty call. Rumor is that they can't quit each other, and promise always to love each other, and that "nothing like this will happen again." Stay tuned, America. Let chaos ring.