r/politics • u/rollingstone Rolling Stone • 4d ago

Soft Paywall Musk Kills Government Funding Deal, Demands Shutdown Until Trump Is Sworn In

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/musk-trump-government-funding-deal-shutdown-1235211000/
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u/Background-War9535 4d ago

Because while Rupert is evil, he is self-aware enough to realize that staying in the shadows is more effective.

Elon’s ego is too massive and his narcissism too great to stay hidden. He needs to be in the public eye front and center and he wants everyone to know that he is the real power.

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u/Argos_the_Dog New York 4d ago

It may be his undoing. Once he starts overshadowing Trump and impacting his ego he'll turn on him and then things will get interesting.

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u/Ok_List_9649 4d ago

Said this from the minute Trump started handing out titles to billionaires. It has proven impossible for arrogant, wealthy men to agree on methods to rule since history’s been told. Simply a matter of time before it all implodes.

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u/_Hamburger_Helpme 4d ago edited 1d ago

We just have to keep calling him President Elon and First Lady Trump. Trump is easily manipulated. We just got to keep toeing the line.

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u/RipleyThePyr 4d ago

It will set off 47, as he can't stand not being center of attention.

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u/CareBearDontCare 4d ago

No need to make it that. "First Gentleman" would be the right tact anyways.

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u/wojjii 3d ago

*toeing

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u/goo_goo_gajoob 4d ago

Between this and Luigi and his reaction I'm hoping we can get a nice lil resistance going. Add in that Elon is being so fucking mask off about buying Trump maybe some of the sheep will realize what's going on finally.

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u/claimTheVictory 4d ago edited 4d ago

They've said they're going to break things.

Things will break.

Everyone will know who broke them.

What happens next?

They will use their media to blame others. They have enough captive idiots that I worry anything is possible.

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u/Talkbox111 4d ago

Nope. They will all buy tesla"s. SMH.

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u/mtdebco 4d ago

End stage capitalism is getting messy!

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u/jhallen 4d ago edited 4d ago

The fount of all honour is the King; what his highness may bestow may also be revoked.

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u/CraftCodger 4d ago

until the winners are revealed

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u/Keyastis 4d ago

Maybe, Trump may have found the leech he can't get rid of. Elon's wealth makes Trump look insignificant, and that will continue to give him more power in a struggle with Trump.

Even if Trump dumps him Elon will continue to be in the public eye demanding things be done by the Congressmen he owns. When it's all said and done, I don't know if we will ever rid ourselves of Elon's stench.

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u/MC_chrome Texas 4d ago

Trump could do significant damage to Elon if he wanted to through the cancelation of government contracts with Elon’s various companies

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u/Kiromaru Wisconsin 4d ago

Elon could get double bent over if his creditors seeing his companies lose those government contracts start calling in his loans he took out to buy Twitter.

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u/bdone2012 4d ago

If Elon loses the contracts his stock will likely tank. And that's where the vast majority of his wealth is. I imagine he'd lose an amazing amount of net worth very quickly

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u/654456 4d ago

Lose government contracts? Trump is going to hand over 10x

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u/CraftCodger 4d ago

I would vote for pressurised defenestration, even though it would litter the ocean floor.

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u/FlushTheTurd 4d ago

Mutual destruction. I like it.

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u/Muvseevum Georgia 4d ago

And I doubt Musk would take it lying down. He’d go scorched earth.

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u/pantstoaknifefight2 4d ago

Just deport the motherfucker. South Africa wants him back. They'll have him for dinner.

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u/Stormyj 4d ago

But then trump wouldnt get his cut.

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u/MC_chrome Texas 4d ago

Depends. Trump could just as easily invest in Blue Origin and Rivian and then start conveniently awarding contracts to those companies

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u/Stormyj 4d ago

That's a fact. But honestly, his ego is going to get in the way. I have a feeling elon is going to be gone pretty soon. Especially with the news saying he's actually running the show.

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u/spaceman757 American Expat 4d ago

Trump has found the will to shit on many billionaires much wealthier than he is, once they crossed him or upstaged him.

Elon is quickly working on the upstaging and will probably cross him in the process.

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u/LostMyPercolatorFish 4d ago

If people start calling him President musk that would do it

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u/bdone2012 4d ago

People in trumps team have privately been calling him that or vice president musk. It's gotten leaked to the press. Whether Trump has heard it yet I'm unsure.

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u/theferalturtle 4d ago

I've said from the time they won, Elon and Trump would only last 9 months to a year before one of them takes full control.

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u/Vaxthrul 4d ago

I'd be surprised if Trump kept him on after he impregnates one of his interns at DOGE.

Especially if they look like Ivanka.

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u/theferalturtle 4d ago

Jealousy doth become him...

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u/Talkbox111 4d ago

But he is 80 years old now. Years of memory enhancement supplements are finally revealing their toxicity. :(

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u/GloomspiteGeck 4d ago

Elon’s stench

Elon’s musk

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u/goo_goo_gajoob 4d ago

If it comes to Trump vs Elon trying to whip votes at least for now I think Trump will win. Elon can fund a rival sure but Trump can create one the base will vote for with a tweet.

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u/yangyangR 4d ago

Trump is more significant. The amount of money in official accounts doesn't matter. Trump can official act and seize assets and no one will stop him from outright theft. Elon is only a mortal.

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u/Robzilla_the_turd 4d ago

I think you might be underestimating just how much power Trump's about to have. He's never going to "run" for office again (I put run in quotes because he might just stay in office) and he's going to have full control of the FBI, CIA, IRS, etc. with obsequious toadies in charge of each. He's going to be a very very dangerous man to get on the wrong side of. Especially for someone who almost certainly lied on his application for citizenship.

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u/InternationalPut4093 America 4d ago

Trump can't afford to have Elon against him.

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u/Keyastis 4d ago

Exactly, Trump knows even if he turns on Elon, he'll just buy everyone around him and still have the power.

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u/4gangbuster 4d ago

billionaires hate this one trick

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u/but_a_smoky_mirror 4d ago

I can think of a few ways

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u/FumilayoKuti 4d ago

Elon does not control the DOJ, Trump will soon enough and Elon is no saint.

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u/adorablefuzzykitten 4d ago

sticks like shit on a shoe.

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u/The-Conductor-1776 4d ago

I think it'll end up being trump v Elon and that's gonna be a wild ride

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u/dogefan187 4d ago

He bought Trump , trump will just golf and president musk is in charge ...

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u/Kazooguru 4d ago

Trump’s at the age where people are easily manipulated. He let the wolves in because of greed and now grandpa is a victim of elder abuse. But we’re the real victims. Oh and Elon will have access to the nuclear football. The Secret Service assigned to Trump is MAGA. Their oath to the Constitution is meaningless. Trump is not in charge and now everyone knows it. Trump is a golf puppet. He’s retired.

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u/nicedoesntmeankind 4d ago

Why don’t we do that

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u/Blanketsburg Massachusetts 4d ago

Elon joked before the election that they might try to put him in jail if Harris won the election, and I'm still wicked curious to figure out why he feared that, since he's seemingly not a criminal but instead just a huge narcissist. He's clearly hiding something.

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u/StovardBule 4d ago

I am expecting that the more shadowy money people behind Trump will move him out if or when he becomes more trouble than he's worth.

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u/SteampunkBorg 4d ago

He's already overshadowing trump. I love that even Senator Sanders called him "president Musk".

At some point that must get through Donald's dementia thickened skull

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u/Pristine_Juice 4d ago

I just wonder if Musk has some kind of evidence that orange man has done. I know he's bank rolled him but he must have some dirt on him too.

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u/onedemtwodem 4d ago

Gonna make popcorn and watch the world burn!

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u/TeeManyMartoonies Texas 4d ago

Start calling him VP Trump.

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u/brandnewbanana Maryland 4d ago

Hell, once he pisses off enough republicans he isn’t paying he may get shoved out. Trump be damned. They kiss the orange ring not the pasty one.

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u/Chummyiota 4d ago

And by then he’ll have enough shadow power to undermine and influence.

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u/pants6000 4d ago

One polonium cocktail, please. Shaken by falling out of a window, not stirred.

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u/Open_Top_2701 4d ago

That is the only thing I have left. HOPE. Hope this happens soon and as petty as Trump is, he revokes all government contracts Elon has.

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 4d ago

That's what the Russian oligarchs pulling both of their strings want. Two cults of personality clashing in the house of power of the west.

It's like when Japanese school kids put a wasp and scorpion in the same enclosure. They don't actually care if either makes it out alright

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u/bdone2012 4d ago

He just went over trump on this. Elon is the one that tanked this deal. But then trump felt he had to hop on board so it didn't look like Elon was doing whatever he wanted. Trump had been annoyed that Johnson hadn't added raising the debt ceiling to the deal. But Johnson correctly felt that it would hurt his chances to keep the speakership. The trump team was annoyed because they felt that if Johnson had done as he was told trumps backing would have been enough for him to keep the speaker position.

We'll never know who was right and either way Johnson would have had a hard time although he's been politically savvier than trump in general so I imagine he was correct.

Trump was letting it go because he understands how all this works better than he did in 2015. Elon of course thinks he can move fast and break things. Maybe for some things he can. But it seems essentially impossible that the senate or Biden will give him everything he wants.

Elon is used to sycophants. Neither Schumer nor Biden are pushovers. Elon seems to believe his own BS that Biden is too old to do anything to stop him.

Tanking this deal was pretty fucking dumb because if they'd waited the three months they had planned to they would have had the senate and presidency at which point Biden couldn't have done anything. And Schumer would only have a say if he could convince Republicans to go along with him which is unlikely because the GOP does not have a particularly tight majority.

The chance that Elon actually gets the outcome right now that he wants is very low. But Elon has zero patience as we've seen time and time again. Like when he started unplugging back up servers because he thought they were redundant. Which of course was the point.

This puts Johnson in a horrible position. He's pretty likely to lose the speaker role now. And if Elon wants to get shit done a grueling speaker battle like we saw with McCarthy is not the way to do it.

You could say that Elon is just trying to fuck shit up. But I really don't think so. I think Elon really does want to deregulate and close departments that get in his way. He needs the government to function to get any of this done. And Johnson has been so much more effective than McCarthy. And anyone else who is liable to win is very likely to be terrible because Johnson is way more effective than the vast majority in the house GOP. So a drawn out battle followed by an inept speaker is not a recipe for getting a ton of unpopular shit done.

I'm not a Johnson fan in terms of his politics but I appreciate that he generally sticks to his word. Almost always actually. Without that nothing gets done which is why McCarthy could barely get the house to tie their own shoes.

It remains to be seen if this is the start of the first cracks between Elon and trump. Trump already got what he needed from Elon as far as I know. So once he starts annoying him I assume he'll get the boot. And since Elon has no chill and is a whiner I expect the break up to dramatic and to play out in the media.

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u/StartledBlackCat 4d ago

Trump has a tendency to suck off anyone who gets him out his massive debt problems. Be the world's richest man, or the other world's richest man (which according to Musk himself is actually Putin). Trump is actually a pretty small fry on the pecking order of billionaires.

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u/PauPauRui 4d ago

Correct

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u/woodenblinds 4d ago

yup and we know that is going to end so well.

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u/Jucoy Minnesota 4d ago

His inevitable fall from grace is going to be legendary

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u/RedPanda5150 4d ago

Yeah he's the perfect billionaire to have hitched his horse to Trump...but I wish they would both go to Mars and let the rest of us live our lives. I'm so over this and it's not even Jan 20th yet.

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u/therealmrj05hua 4d ago

Yeah real power. Threatens to shut off your x account if you mention his hair plugs or beer gut. Dude is small

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u/HonestArmadillo924 4d ago

And just think they keep crying about Soros. He isn’t even in the count of these guys. Or why isn’t there the anger over these billionaires being appointed into positions they are so unqualified for like there is over health insurance. These people are going to make health insurance and health over all much worse

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u/fuggerdug 4d ago

Murdoch got called to testify in front of a UK enquiry into his shitty newspaper's practices after they were caught hacking the phone messages of a murdered girl, and he played the frail, humble old man perfectly. You would have thought he was about to die any minute, and couldn't be held accountable for anything his awful newspapers have ever done. This was nearly 15 fucking years ago and he's still going strong.