So Elon Musk is turning on Donald Trump and accusing him of being part of the debauched Jeffrey Epstein scene. Trump ally Steve Bannon has gone for Musk (again) and demanded that the administration investigate him. Trump plays the aggrieved party, wondering how it is that Musk could abuse his trust.
Where’s all this heading? On one level, who cares? It feels like another explosive Married at First Sight episode, this one fuelled by ketamine. On another level, it is perhaps the defining Trump-era moment: a cocktail of greed, ego and conspiracy theory exploding on your screens in real time, with no discernible truth at play.
It’s hard to make out one honest player. Thank the media gods for the Murdochs who remain the US president’s rock in such troubled times. Own your creation, Rupert.
If nothing else, the whole mess underlines how right it was for Australia to start looking elsewhere for friends, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signalled this week when he gave the finger to US demands to increase defence spending.
Big, bold, buggered
Where to start with this loathsome pack? Is it the multi-billionaire Musk who cut support for America’s and the world’s most vulnerable? He who now complains about the multi-trillion deficit which Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” will leave? Is he really concerned about the US budget or the closer-to-home changes to electric vehicle tax credits?
Is it the Christo-fascist Bannon who drove the great “stolen election” lie and who has spent most of the year musing on how Trump can overthrow the constitution for a third term? He now advocates for Trump to investigate South African-born Musk for immigration offences — as if Trump needs any prodding to use the powers of the state to destroy enemies. He’s also urging the administration to seize control of Musk’s Space X company “by midnight tonight”.
The prize, however, must go to Trump, who has no peer when it comes to manipulating events for his benefit. He said of Musk’s onslaught:
“People leave my administration. And they love us. And then at some point they miss it so badly. And some of them embrace it, and some of them actually become hostile. I don’t know what it is. It’s sort of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’, I guess they call it. But we have it with others too. They leave and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour is gone. The whole world is different. And they become hostile. I don’t know what it is.”
Fox trap
The White House explosion today is the evidence, if needed, that the world has taken a new turn.
The cheery news is that all this works a treat for the Murdochs. They may be at each other’s throats but Fox News’ stalwart support for Trump has seen its fortunes surge. Ka-ching! A dictator is good for business. It seems advertisers have flocked to the network since Trump’s re-election. Those wholesome companies like Amazon, UBS, JPMorgan and Netflix are no longer squeamish about the Fox brand.
Advertising analyst Brian Wieser believes companies are warming to Fox as part of a broader cultural and political shift in corporate America:
“To be blunt, not enough people care about the same issues they cared about in the past. There were advertisers who didn’t necessarily believe in the reasons why they should stay away from that kind of content, but they knew that it would be bad for their business. Nobody wanted a potential boycott.”
In March, Lachlan Murdoch told investors Trump’s election had “validated” Fox News’s position:
“Because of the election results, many advertisers have sort of rethought their positioning in this country and understand that the Fox News viewer really does represent middle America.”
Fox represents “middle America”? If that’s what they tell themselves the delusion is surely complete.
Pistol Pete
At the beginning of this week we wondered how anyone could take comic book US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seriously with his demand that Australia spend more billions to back US defence policy. “Godspeed” Hegseth brims with Christian exuberance as he speaks menacingly of the US military’s might.
Defence analyst Hugh White commented that while there are very good reasons for Australia to raise its defence budget, “the fact that Pete Hegseth demands it is not one of them”. White, whose Quarterly Essay “Hard New World: Our Post-American Future” is out this week, said the US alliance “is already, if we only knew it, passing into history”. Those words seem truer with every passing moment.
Locally, too, the world changed this week when the Liberal Party was chased out of its stronghold of Bradfield. It was a dramatic, symbolic end to the old certainties which have governed Australian politics.
Memo to the gang in charge: it’s time to adapt — and be assertive — or die . Are you listening, Alan Stockdale?
So apt, the MAFS reference, David! Let’s hope that the stoush becomes so hostile that they bring each other down, and both have to leave the experiment.
After the Fight comes the makeup. A chill out Friday tune by The Captain and Tennille in honour of today’s fracas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2BuP-NcJ5Q
It’s a bit like gang warfare with a lot of collateral damage to a lot of innocent bystanders and there’s no independent agency empowered to bring it to heel. And it may last for the entire Trump term. We can only sit by and watch too but our government needs to be looking at alternative trade and defence strategies urgently.
I gave the bromance three months – so I admit I was wiring.
It suits Trump down to a tee! He’s not responsible for what these other people (Musk and Bannon and others do to him), he puts his hands up in mock horror..I haven’t done anything wrong!!
Bannon is dangerous and probably has had a big hand in Project2025.
Australia needs gumption to re draw its relationship with the Dis-United States of America.
Thank you David for your scalpel like analysis!
Great reporting David, once again. You seem to always bring the real to the fore, thank you!! What do Australians not understand about what is happening in the world we inhabit – all of us? Some (the RICH) are doing just fine & dandy, isn’t that lovely for them. But they forget the real in our country, and that is people in need of assistance. They don’t understand or want to understand the reality of life for many Australians. It is not a happy place; it is not one that they want to be in, but situations & circumstances dictate. And I think we can also add gov’t policy & legislation to that. And as for Alan Stockdale – time to retire mate, you are no longer relevant or wanted. I won’t continue, cheers & have a great night.
Are there no moral and principled Republicans left prepared to call out the destruction of Democracy and the Rule of Law – and impeach Trump and his gang of crims? And where are the outraged Democrats? If they don’t act, they’re equally guilty.
If there’s any justice left in the world,this cavalcade of crooked clowns will fuck themselves.It’s high time we had a correction to this outrageous rubbish.
Meanwhile , back home, Albanese might have given the finger to the idiot Hesgeth, (and, not coincidently,Marles), but when is he going to do the same to the planet destroying fossil fuel criminals?There will never be a more opportune time.No more gaslighting bullshit.
Thanks for another entertaining read,David.
Agreed. The whole world is watching the USA basically destroy itself.
But here in Oz we have a government which actually has a huge opportunity to set Australia on a new course for the future. But will they rise to the occasion? Will they stand up to the fossil fuel industry? Will they amend our not fit for purpose tax system? Will they introduce a wealth tax and/or a sovereign wealth fund?
I could go on but you get the drift.
It’s trashier than Eurovision! Let’s hope they agree to a dawn duel and kill each other.
Here is a primer on the relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk
The speaker Heather Cox Richardson is History Professor A Boston University.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1pp9Aw_w_8
Two greedy, self-centred, egotistical, white supremicist racist, sexist fools, addicted to power but with insecure personalities to do any good for others. The personification of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let’s hope they destroy each other.
If this was the plot of a soap opera, no one would belittle. The tragedy is that this is being played out in real life, right now. And it could have huge global impact. Can’t any grown up in the USA intervene to prevent global mayhem and the further destruction of the reputation of the USA
The sepos will make a soap out of this. Start writing scripts guys! Coming to netflix next year.
Let’s play ‘follow the pronoun(s)’ instead of whack a mole:
“People leave my administration. And they love us. And then at some point they miss it so badly. And some of them embrace it, and some of them actually become hostile. I don’t know what it is. It’s sort of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’, I guess they call it. But we have it with others too. They leave and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour is gone. The whole world is different. And they become hostile. I don’t know what it is.”
Brain damaged child syndrome anyone? “The whole world is different … I don’t know what it is”
A mongoloid (without disparaging mongoloids) is driving the school bus. Hasn’t anyone in control (especially the media) noticed?
Seriously, how can this comment not disparage „mongoloids“. Think harder.
Just another chapter of ‘Animal Farm’; & within days they’ll all find god again & snuggle up to find new ways to get richer & perpetrate more misery on the working poor et al.
Exactly, who cares!
What I find amazing is that anyone thought that this fraught bromance would not end in tears, literally for one at least, souped up on Ketamine. the other totally immune to any emotions at all.
So why is everyone totally fascinated with this?
I’m surprised at how long it took for thevztrump/Musk alliance lasted intact. Good to see the fallout. The beginning of the end of a corrupt & incompetent administration.
ASPI= arms sales and promotion institute.