It's on: President Donald Trump vs. Elon Musk! (Image created by Shutterstock AI)
It is not a good break-up. These were always two big beasts used to getting their own way. Two alpha males, if you like the evolutionary metaphor, trying to get along. And now the Donald Trump and Elon Musk relationship is in meltdown.
Who could forget that iconic image from just a few short weeks back? Elon Musk standing behind the seated U.S. president, Donald Trump, in the Oval Office, towering over him. Trump, his hands clasped, having to turn awkwardly to look up at him. That silent language of the body. Musk accompanied by his four-year old, a charming and informal image, or that great evolutionary signal of mating potential and dominance, depending on your point of view.
These were also clearly two massive narcissistic egos out in their gleaming open-top speedster. Musk was appointed special advisor to Trump, heading the Department of Government Efficiency, cutting excess and waste. The backseat driver for a while.
There were a lot of bureaucratic casualties already, road kill at the side of the highway as the sports car roared on with frightening speed. But things were always going to be difficult if they hit a bump in the road. And they did. Perhaps, more quickly than many had imagined.
There were differing views on what caused the crash. Many pointed to the dramatic fall in the sales of Tesla, a 71% fall in profits in one quarter, and the inevitable impact on Musk’s reputation. And yesterday Tesla shares were falling even faster, as investors panicked. The attacks on Tesla showrooms couldn’t have helped either.
Others pointed to Trump’s proposed removal of the tax credit for owners of electric vehicles, or the political backlash in Washington over Space X’s potential involvement in Trump’s proposed “golden dome” anti-missile defense system.
However, according to former White House strategist Steve Bannon, what really caused the crash was when the president refused to show Musk the Pentagon’s attack plans for any possible war with China. There’s only so far being the president’s best buddy can get you. Bannon is reported as saying: “You could feel it. Everything changed.” That, according to Bannon, was the beginning of the end.
Elon Musk has criticized Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’
So now we watch Trump and Musk stumbling away from the crash scene. One minute Trump is putting on a show for the cameras. He’s beaming away and introducing the “big, beautiful bill,” a budget reconciliation bill that rolls together hundreds of controversial proposals. Next, he is accusing Musk of “going crazy” and talking about withdrawing government contracts from the Musk empire.
Musk is unhappy too. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” he wrote on X. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong.”
Rejection And Repositioning
He says he’s disgusted by the bill. Disgust is one of the most primitive of all the emotions. A survival mechanism – you must avoid what disgusts you. He’s social signaling here, alerting others, warning them that there’s something disgusting in the camp.
Musk is highly attuned to public perception, perhaps even more so than Trump (which is saying something). With his acquisition of X (formerly Twitter), Musk was able to direct (and add to) online discourse, shaping public conversations.
Psychologically, Musk’s rejection of Trump is an attempt to simultaneously elevate himself and diminish the man behind the bill. He can call out the president’s action like nobody else. He is positioning himself anew as that free thinker, that risk taker, innovative, courageous, unfettered by any ties. That is his personality, his brand – and he’s reasserting it.
Trump on Musk’s criticism of the ‘big beautiful bill’
But it’s also a vengeful act. And it’s perhaps reminiscent of another political insider (and geek), former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings, who was sacked by the then UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, in 2020. Cummings was accused of masterminding leaks about the social gatherings in Downing Street.
He went on to criticize Johnson as lacking the necessary discipline and focus for a prime minister as well as questioning his competence and decision-making abilities. The revenge of a self-proclaimed genius.
And revenge is sweet. In a 2004 study, researchers scanned participants’ brains using positron emission tomography (PET) – a medical imaging technique that is used to study brain function (among other things) – while the participants played an economic game based on trust. When trust was violated, participants wanted revenge, and this was reflected in increased activity in the reward-related regions of the brain, the dorsal striatum.
Revenge, in other words, is primarily about making yourself feel better rather than righting any wrongs. Your act may make you appear moral but it may be more selfish.
But revenge for what here? That’s where these big narcissistic egos come into play.
Psychologically, narcissists are highly sensitive to perceived slights – real or imagined. Musk may have felt Trump was attempting to diminish his achievements for political gain, violating this pact of mutual respect. This kind of sensitivity can quickly transmogrify admiration into contempt.
Contempt, coincidentally, is the single best predictor of a breakdown in very close relationships.
Disgust and contempt are powerful emotions, evolving to protect us – disgust from physical contamination (spoiled food, disease), and contempt from social or moral contamination (betrayal, incompetence). Both involve rejection – disgust rejects something physically; contempt rejects something socially or morally. Musk may be giving it to Trump with both barrels here.
Break-ups are always hard, they get much harder when emotions like these get intertwined with the process.
But how will the most powerful man in the world respond to this sort of rejection from the richest man in the world? And where will it end?
Geoff Beattie, Professor of Psychology, Edge Hill University. He does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Every word of this article was clear as a bell before I read it. No need to a psychologist’s explanation,
Every word of this, with the possible exception of that mechanical gizmo that looks at brain activity is basic, common sense.
This entire conversation is asinine. Why is any reasonable person debating the behavior of these morons?
High probability Musk is suffering from hypomania and is having manic episodes. Drug use, whether elicit or not, will make it more intense and unpredictable.
Trump is Trump, everybody knows how he rolls. Musk was over the top and acted wildly inappropriately. Hurt himself and his shareholders more than anybody else.
The last sentence should have been the starting point of this article. Not attempting to answer it makes this a joke.
“Contempt, coincidentally, is the single best predictor of a breakdown in very close relationships.”
Plenty of contempt dwelling in both of these oversized egos.
We don’t need a study. What’s happening here is plain to see for anyone who is being honest with themselves. Trump cannot handle people who disagree with him. He sees it as disloyalty. To his narcissistic mind, a difference of opinion is equivalent to blind hatred. It’s psychology 101.
Rob Billeaud – Strong candidate for a TDS study.
You claim Musk highly attuned to public opinion but he’s tuning way off pitch if he thinks his indiscriminate cruel DOGE cuts and chainsaw performance were favored by the majority of America.