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Elon Musk, already the richest man in the world, has secured himself an unelected position at the right hand of the President of the United States, complete with office space in the West Wing… and he just might throw it away over a petty feud. Following the Trump administration’s announcement of the $500 billion “Stargate” artificial intelligence infrastructure project, Musk took to X to trash the inclusion of OpenAI—a move that reportedly pissed off some Trump staffers.
According to Politico, White House staffers think Musk overstepped by publicly accusing OpenAI of not having the money needed to hold up its end of the bargain for a $100 billion investment in the Stargate initiative.
One Trump ally told Politico that “It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president” in his attack on Altman—which pretty quickly devolved from “they don’t have the money” to presenting Altman as a spineless flip-flopper who trashed Trump during his first term but is sucking up to him now. And, you know what? Fair hit. Musk might be a pot calling the kettle black, given he quit the first Trump administration over a principled position he apparently no longer holds, but Altman is a little worm, too. Sometimes it just takes one to know one.
Unfortunately for Trumpworld, they don’t appear to have any mechanism for keeping Musk from doing things like this, even when it’s at the expense of the administration’s accomplishments. One Trump ally told Politico, “The problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.”
Trump himself seemed to shrug off the incident, telling the press that it doesn’t bother him that Musk criticized the project because “He hates one of the people in the deal.” But around him, it seems like patience for Musk’s antics might be growing a little thin. Even White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, while avoiding invoking Musk directly, said during a Fox News interview that “the American people should take President Trump and those CEOs’ words for it,” regarding their investments in Stargate.
Musk is something of a unique problem for Trumpworld—a guy who arguably has as big if not an even greater reach than the President himself and who controls the levers of the very platform that Trump once used to dictate his policy directly. Between the pettiness and the non-stop tweet barrages that can control media cycles, it’s kind of like having to deal with another Trump—if that other Trump were way richer and way worse of a poster.
Trump might not have a ton of leverage over Musk at the moment, as he likely still feels as if he owes a little bit of fealty for the massive amount of cash Musk spent boosting the Trump campaign. But suggesting that he has none might mean Trumpworld is underplaying their hand. Musk’s empire is built upon government subsidies and federal contracts. It wouldn’t be too hard to cause some pain if they really wanted to. If Musk continues to overplay his hand, we’ll see just how strong this partnership is.
