When billionaires collide
We should be used to public spats by this point, but the recent falling out between US president Donald Trump and his former supporter and man who made electric vehicles cool Elon Musk really has been something to behold.
The dispute, played out on Musk’s social network X (formerly Twitter) and Trump’s Twitter clone Truth Social, has already had an impact on Musk’s wealth, pushing Tesla shares down 15%, but it could have negative consequences, too.
Whatever the actual cause of the disagreement – a lack of subsidies for EVs in Trump’s daftly-named ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ seems likely enough, but so does a simple clash of egos. Either way, the litigation of this argument in public is a spectacle that tells us a lot more than either man can ever have intended.
Whether the object is Musk’s businesses or any other profit-making business growing fat on subsidies or rent-seeking, Trump’s post on Truth Social makes an interesting point: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts”.
Quite. Getting the rich off welfare is an idea that might just appeal across the political spectrum, and Musk’s companies including Tesla and SpaceX have benefitted handsomely from both direct and indirect handouts.
What’s more, let’s not forget that while Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was slashing and burning anything it could, its staff were doing a sloppy, amateurish job.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, for instance, planned to cut spending on former soldiers’ health care on a rather dubious basis. Contracts were deemed ‘munchable’ (which is to say, fit for cancelling) by an artificial intelligence (AI) tool which hallucinated appallingly and was written by a non-expert.
These people who, despite their unimaginable power and wealth, had an embarrassing, adolescent public argument on social media, have been in charge of a state apparatus that not only controls people’s personal data but also has the power to decide who lives and who dies. One of them still is.
Not only is this a stark reminder of the dangers of using unproven technology – or, in fact, any technology – to make decisions, it also exposes a fundamental lack of seriousness on the part of those wielding power over the rest of society.
As a result, after we’ve all sewn our sides back up following the laughing fit, now would be a good time to have a long hard think about the people we elect to political office, of course, but also to ask precisely what has been happening to all that government data in the hands of, well, who knows, actually?
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