Maybe Trump And Musk Are Playing 5D Chess?
Whenever President Donald Trump does something that confounds his biggest supporters, the common response is: “Well, Trump is playing 4D chess.”
Some posited that this is what was going on after Trump’s initial response to Elon Musk’s bashing of the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
On Wednesday, for example, Newsmax TV’s Carl Higbie suggested that “Trump might be working in tandem with Elon here to tank his own bill in a 4D chess move.”
To Higbie, it was like Sherlock Holmes’ dog that didn’t bark. “How many people in Trump’s political career have come out against something he wants, and he hasn’t obliterated them?”
He went on: “Maybe Trump is also reading the country that’s not thrilled about massive deficits and saying, ‘Ooh, maybe I shouldn’t have settled for what Congress gave me, so let’s put Congress in the hot seat and force it back to the drawing board.’”
PJ Media’s Matt Margolis was willing to entertain the notion. “As wild as it sounds,” he wrote, “Higbie’s theory deserves a closer look.”
That was then.
What started as a post on X from Musk on Tuesday – saying that “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it” – turned into an all-out war by Thursday.
At a press conference Thursday morning, Trump said he was “disappointed” in Musk and then alleged that Musk only started complaining about the bill after learning that it cut taxpayer subsidies for EVs.
Musk then posted on X that “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” adding “such ingratitude.”
Trump then posted on Truth Social that “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
Later, he posted that “the easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Musk then started posting things like “The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year,” saying “yes” to a post that called for Trump to be impeached, and that “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”
And Musk dropped this whopper: “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
After which, Trump appeared to try to calm the waters a bit, saying, “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.”
This isn’t 4D chess – not that we have any idea what 4D chess means.
But maybe it’s 5D chess – the kind of chess that can warp reality in such a way as to make liberals’ heads explode.
Hear us out. The left hates Trump and Musk about equally. When they were working together, the hatred toward them was turbocharged.
But what happens when Trump starts bashing Musk for being a leech? (A claim repeated endlessly by Musk critics.) Does that mean Trump is right? But how can that be, when everything Trump says is a lie?
Then Musk turns around and starts bashing Trump in ways the left has been doing for eons. But Musk also can’t be trusted!
How can both Musk and Trump be right when they are both evil and wrong and always lie about everything!?!?!? Illogical!!! Illogical!!!
It reminds us of a classic “Star Trek” episode in which the Enterprise crew defeats a bunch of androids using wild illogic.
Of course, the simpler explanation is that Trump has an unmatched ability of turning former allies into enemies, of which Musk is, apparently, just the latest. And that none of this really matters in the long run.
Norman, coordinate!
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
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