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Was it worth it, Elon? You were a stupid Trump supplicant who sunk like all the know-it-alls before you

shouting us president donald trump points his finger in the face of Elon Musk before departing the white house for maralago
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump points to Elon Musk, before departing the White House for his Mar-a-Lago South Florida home, March 2025.

Opinion: I predicted that Musk would fly too close to Trump and be irrevocably burned, and it's happening, writes John Casey.

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I warned him. Right here in this very column, I said Elon Musk was flying too close to the Trump sun. And that he would be charred. His business and reputation in ruins, and that the damage of Musk being Trump’s DOGE stooge would be irrevocable.

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The very public falling-out between Donald Trump and Musk is no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention. And it’s moving at the speed of light. Two men addicted to power and validation, lobbing insults like two drunken sailors. It’s a clash of egos that could crater our democracy and deepen the chaos already inflicted on our lives.

One knows Trump’s most inner secrets, and the other will go nuclear on Musk at all costs, even if all of us get burned in the process. Both want to win this nasty and dirty fight and will go to any lengths to be the victor, but honestly, everyone will lose in the end, if we haven’t lost already.

There’s no doubt about it. Elon Musk wrecked the federal government. He did that while Trump played golf. Musk gutted entire agencies under the phony guise of “innovation.” He treated the massive federal bureaucracy like a 10-person start-up. Fire indiscriminately and ask questions later.

He turned once-effective public institutions into playthings for his ideology, or worse, for his own "ingenuity," which was anything but. Emboldened with his gold chain saw, he destroyed lives. And like every oligarch who’s ever cozied up to a despot, he assumed he could walk away unscathed. But Trump isn’t like an oligarch. He’s his own version of a deranged despot.

Musk said on X that Trump was ungrateful. But Trump doesn’t do gratitude. He does vengeance. And now the former atrocious allies are locked in a chest-puffing death spiral, trying to out-macho one another in a most grotesque performance of toxic masculinity.

Musk went nuclear within minutes, saying that Trump is in the Epstein files. Trump in no time will like have the Department of Jusice take a closer look at SpaceX’s books. Just wait and see. It will happen if it hasn’t happened already. Trump is already threatening to cut Tesla funding.

It’s only going to get uglier. If you start at the bottom of the barrel, how much lower can you go? We will soon find out.

But first, let’s look back. Musk hitched Tesla’s clean energy brand to the dirtiest man in politics. He actually thought, obtusely, that being glued to Trump would ultimately help his brand. That train of thought proved just how unhinged Musk really is.

He gutted government departments and even the vaunted U.S. Agency for International Development under the pretense of “streamlining,” but in reality, those actions caused immeasurable harm to federal employees, their families, and poor and sick people around the world.

The most catastrophic was the demolition of USAID. According to leaked State Department cables, Musk’s interference halted global health programs in Lesotho and Malawi, crippled PEPFAR’s efforts against HIV, and derailed food distribution and clean water initiatives that millions relied on. The result wasn’t just bureaucratic chaos that was destructive. It was worse. It will prove fatal and will be part of Musk’s legacy.

And he did all that for what? Slimy tax breaks? Some twisted power trip? The illusion of being the richest man in the world who could do what no one else has ever done, tame Trump’s madness?

Instead, Musk got played. Like every fool before him who thought they could ride the Trump tiger and not get mauled. Just ask Michael Cohen. Or Mike Pence. Or Kevin McCarthy. Or Mike “MyPillow Guy” Lindell. Musk’s uncontrollable eqo allowed him to think that he was different from all the others. He believed his own hype. He was too rich, too brilliant, and too indispensable to fail.

The joke was on him.

Now he’s scrambling to recover his brand. He will dive into backpedaling and repositioning. But here’s the absolute truth, Musk’s reputation will forever be marred by his Trump years — umm, wait, it was just mere months. All that damage in that short amount of time that we will all be paying for decades from now.

Was it worth it, Elon? In the end, you were a silly supplicant who sunk like every know-it-all before you.

Musk’s space dreams are now in peril. Tesla’s federal subsidies? Will most definitely go on the chopping block. Trump won’t sign that “big beautiful bill” (if it ever makes it to his desk) unless Tesla is removed from every page.

And once Trump sets his sights on an enemy, he doesn’t stop. He’s already firing warning shots. If Musk thinks Trump’s Justice Department won’t come knocking, he’s more delusional than his X followers.

Musk, like Trump, is petty, vindictive, and not above burning it all down to save face, except Trump has the nuclear codes. Volley and serve back to Musk, who has screen shots of Trump’s illicitness ,and on and on and on it will go. This is the first of 15 rapid rounds until TKO.

I predicted this. Many of us did. We saw the damage being done while Musk posed as a maverick savior. But too many stupid people — the Trump-cult-following Republicans in Congress, for example — gave Trump the benefit of the doubt about Musk. Plus Musk bought their seats, so they felt like they owed him.

Then they made excuses for him while looking the other way.

Now the reckoning is here. The richest man in the world versus the most powerful. And in their race to “out-man” each other, they’re exposing just how fragile and performative their masculinity really is.

Watch closely. The feud will escalate. The consequences will multiply. But don’t forget who lit the match.

Elon Musk broke America and thought he could walk away untouched. He was wrong, and he will not survive.

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John Casey

John Casey is senior editor of The Advocate, writing columns about political, societal, and topical issues with leading newsmakers of the day. The columns include interviews with Sam Altman, Mark Cuban, Colman Domingo, Jennifer Coolidge, Kelly Ripa and Mark Counselos, Jamie Lee Curtis, Shirley MacLaine, Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, Bridget Everett, U.S. Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Jamie Raskin, Ro Khanna, Maxwell Frost, Sens. Chris Murphy and John Fetterman, and presidential cabinet members Leon Panetta, John Brennan, and many others. John spent 30 years working as a PR professional on Capitol Hill, Hollywood, the Nobel Prize-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN Envoy Mike Bloomberg, Nielsen, and as media relations director with four of the largest retailers in the U.S.
John Casey is senior editor of The Advocate, writing columns about political, societal, and topical issues with leading newsmakers of the day. The columns include interviews with Sam Altman, Mark Cuban, Colman Domingo, Jennifer Coolidge, Kelly Ripa and Mark Counselos, Jamie Lee Curtis, Shirley MacLaine, Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, Bridget Everett, U.S. Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Jamie Raskin, Ro Khanna, Maxwell Frost, Sens. Chris Murphy and John Fetterman, and presidential cabinet members Leon Panetta, John Brennan, and many others. John spent 30 years working as a PR professional on Capitol Hill, Hollywood, the Nobel Prize-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN Envoy Mike Bloomberg, Nielsen, and as media relations director with four of the largest retailers in the U.S.