Like millions of other people, I predicted the Trump-Musk bromance would come to a quick and bitter end. And so it has, although Musk seems to be making some efforts to patch things up. The problems are largely personal; both men have enormous egos and are used to being the boss. But is there more to the story?
Yes. Musk is a CL; he wants to reduce the size of government dramatically in order to give himself and his fellow techno-aristocrats more ability to shape the future. It is a forward-looking ideology. Trump doesn’t care about debt; he just wants to use government to show the world he’s in charge and to provide benefits for his supporters. There are far more MAGA reactionaries in his base than there are CLs. In the end, this is an easy choice for Trump.