Don’t Miss the Real Story in the Fight Between Trump and Musk
Neither of these guys gives a fuck about you
I totally get the glee with which Democrats are watching the fight between Trump and Musk. Hard not to take joy in such a bizarre moment when two of the world’s biggest jagoffs are going at it.
But while we are being entertained, there are two really important things to keep focused on.
The first is that Democrats need to be doing all we can to keep pounding away at the fractures in the Republican coalition:
The deficit hawks vs the Republicans representing older and rural constituents who desperately need Medicaid, Medicare, VA health care, the ACA, and SNAP.
The libertarian tech bros vs all the small businesses and consumers getting squashed by Big Tech. The libertarians vs the Christian nationalists.
The White Nationalists vs the young Latino and Black men trying out the Republican Party for the first time.
The corporate Republicans who hate tariffs vs the working class MAGA folks who believe in Trump on the issue.
We should be organizing to exploit all these strains in the Republican Party. There needs to be a lot of intellectual attention paid to creating policy proposals that divide Republicans – on trade, antitrust, AI, the budget, and other ideas we develop.
But we should also be focused on organizing in the congressional districts on big issues, especially health care, to create more chaos for Republicans starting to get nervous about 2026. The more grassroots organizing and organic person to person social media we do on health care and other big economic issues, the better chance we have at the Republican Party unraveling.
Which leads me to my second big point: the bitter fight between Musk and Trump should in no way distract from the fact that neither of these men, and the political factions they represent, give a flying fuck about you. If Joni Ernst didn’t make that 100% clear in her lack of concern about people dying because of Medicaid cuts, let me remind you.
Let’s not make the mistake of quoting Musk’s criticisms of Trump approvingly. Let’s not have so much fun spectating and laughing that we forget to tell the American public the essential truth. Both of these men want to destroy Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. Both of them want to destroy the ability of the government to have oversight and accountability of the greedy, monopolistic corporations dominating the economy. Both of them want to destroy unions and strip protections from and dignity for working people. Both of them are corrupt as hell.
They are fighting over which of them gets more power, but both of them want to use that power to dominate your lives. These guys both want to blow up the pro-worker reforms of the last century: what they are warring over which of them get to push the button.
So, yeah, let’s enjoy the spectacle, but don’t get distracted or fooled by what is going on. Musk is not suddenly a good guy because he is fighting with Trump. The Trump administration will not get one iota better just because Musk isn’t there anymore.
We have to keep fighting and keep organizing against all evil billionaires, even when they are fighting with each other.
