By fighting Musk for the dark soul of MAGA, Trump has finally met his match

Dark MAGA has seen the light.

In a plot twist eerily reminiscent of The Phantom Menace (also known as the worst Star Wars movie ever made), Edgelord Elon Musk has joined the rebellion and declared war on Sith lord President Donald Trump over that most noble of causes – trade specifics. Their stoush over Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has erupted in such spectacular fashion that you can’t help wondering if Musk knew what was coming and gave himself that black eye before entering the Oval Office a week ago, in perhaps DOGE’s one true act of efficiency.

Given their big, beautiful bromance, who could have foreseen this shocking turn of events? (Apart from Steve Bannon, John Kelly, Reince Priebus, Anthony Scaramucci or any of the other approximately half a gazillion high-level White House aides whose relationships with Trump went up in flames during the first year of the Trump 1.0 administration.)

Donald Trump and Elon Musk.Credit: AP, Bloomberg

Since that farewell visit to the White House less than a week ago, the relationship between Musk and Trump has blown apart with the speed and ferocity of an exploding SpaceX Starship. Threats and counter threats have been thrown out in rapid succession: Musk calling for Trump’s impeachment and implicating the president (without evidence) in Jeffrey Epstein’s sordid affairs; Trump threatening to DOGE the Dogefather’s SpaceX and Tesla contracts. I suspect, however, these will come to be seen as merely opening salvos in the true war to come: the fight for the heart and soul of MAGA.

Musk has taken this fight to X, the spiritual homeland of Trump’s base, posting a poll question that asked “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?” At the time of writing it had already had 40 million views and 80 per cent of respondents had voted yes.

The White House posted an AI-generated image of Trump as a muscular Jedi in May, and referred to “Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting so hard to bring Sith Lords, Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners & well known MS-13 Gang Members back into our Galaxy”.Credit: X

Trump’s support from the MAGA faithful has always been seen as unassailable, the movement inextricable from the man himself. But Trump has never been seriously attacked by anyone from within MAGA and certainly not by anyone of the stature of Musk. Of the major markers by which Trump measures success: wealth, business acumen and online followers, he is eclipsed in all three categories by Musk.

Like all wars, if it continues it will come down to resources. In the Dark MAGA corner, Musk has his billions, his social media platform X and SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is used to supply the International Space Station and transport NASA astronauts. Musk has already threatened to decommission Dragon, prompting Steve Bannon (playing the role of Ivana to Musk’s Melania) to call for Trump to create an executive order to seize it.

In the red MAGA corner, Trump controls the levers of government so has the power to cancel Musk’s billion-dollar government contracts, and revoke his security clearance. However, a far more likely move would be for Trump to use his favourite tactic of lawfare against Musk, similar to the investigations that he ordered into Biden earlier this week.

What remains to be tested is who holds the real power: the ability to win an election. Musk claims that he holds that power, writing on X: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51 – 49 in the Senate.” Musk did pour over $US250 million into Trump’s 2024 campaign and his posts exhorting men to vote for Trump helped to turn out younger, male voters who became a critical voting bloc.

However, when Musk waded into the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election, his preferred candidate lost, despite Musk’s personal interventions and a donation of $US20 million. (Rumours that Elon’s gloss started to wear off for Trump around the same time that he saw pictures of Musk wearing a Wisconsin cheese hat remain unproven.)

We may never find out who’d get custody of the MAGA kids in the event of a permanent split because mid-terms are still a while off and already there are signs that the feud may burn out, with Musk responding “You’re not wrong” to a post by hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman which suggested that the two “should make peace for the benefit of our great country.”

Musk was lauded by Trump for bringing a Silicon Valley “Move fast and break things” mentality to the slow-moving bureaucracy of Washington D.C but no-one predicted that one of the things he might break would be MAGA itself. One of his most chilling recent posts from the perspective of Trump’s camp must be: “Trump has 3.5 years left as president, but I will be around for 40+ years.”

Even if the combatants ultimately put their light sabers away for now, Musk has revealed himself as the phantom menace that could haunt both Trump and MAGA well into the future. So grab another bucket of popcorn. There’s definitely going to be a sequel.

Melanie La’Brooy is an award-winning Australian novelist who has lived in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and writes on politics and social justice issues.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.