Trump and Musk are soulmates

The Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance was always an unlikely pairing that was destined to end in tears. Two men with big egos and unconstrained by convention are now at war with each other. No big deal there, except one is the world’s most powerful person and the other the world’s richest.

Mr Musk has linked Mr Trump to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and said the President should be impeached and replaced with his deputy, Vice-President JD Vance. Mr Trump has fired back that Mr Musk’s companies should be stripped of their access to government subsidies.

What happens next will affect the fortunes of millions of people, most notably the pair involved. In short, Mr Musk has buyer’s remorse because he cannot control the actions of the man he helped put into the White House. Having won the prize, Mr Trump has got what he wanted from Mr Musk.

A running commentary on what the President was doing wrong was likely never part of Mr Trump’s imagined future with Mr Musk. Given both men control their own social media outlets and are beyond discretion, the only thing certain about how this all plays out is that it will be done in public.

Mr Trump has less to lose. He can’t run for president again so he can afford to ignore Mr Musk’s threats to back a rival candidate or set up a party of his own.

But it is still all bad. Mr Trump showed a lack of foresight in letting Mr Musk too close to his inner sanctum. And Mr Musk showed poor judgment in thinking that as a rich, non-elected official he was going to be more powerful than he actually was.