Vice President JD Vance has often been the voice of reason for the Trump administration, and he appears to be making an attempt at rectifying the Trump-Musk feud.
Vance would clearly like to have Musk back in the fold, but there is a caveat.
He is putting the fallout completely in the lap of Musk, which I think could be a mistake.
The big, beautiful bill became a wedge for Trump and Musk, one that Musk simply could not deal with and keep his mouth closed.
Musk was brought in to run the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and, at least to me, it felt like he was more of a prop than anything else.
They wanted to show the waste and fraud, but to be quite honest, there is little that can be done once the money is appropriated by Congress and signed off on by the sitting president.
When the excess spending was not cut in the BBB, Musk went off, calling it an “abomination,” and the feud with Trump started.
The fallout between these two was fairly predictable, and I had done just that when the partnership had started.
It was not brain surgery to figure this out… You have two uber-Alpha males who are used to running their shows, and now one was subordinate, in a role he clearly had difficulty accepting.
It went just like I thought it would… they traded barbs, then both realized that things are likely better if they are still friends, then it quieted down, but there were still a few jabs thrown here and there to let each other know who was in charge.
Musk eventually announced he was going to create a third-party, but he seems to have backed off that stance, recently donating a rather large chunk of money to a GOP PAC.
Vance would love to see Musk come back, but he is putting the onus of the fallout on Musk, saying that he made a “mistake” in picking the fight with Trump (Trump was far from innocent here).
On reaching out to Musk, Vance called the relationship “complicated,” adding, “I don’t know that he would take my call right now.” He then tried to diffuse that, stating, “I kid. I’m sure he would take my call, but honestly, the drama around him and the White House over the last couple of months… my hope is that it just kinda cools down a bit.”
Vance continued, “My argument to Elon is like, you’re not going to be on the left … even if you wanted to be — and he doesn’t — they’re not going to have you back, that ship has sailed. I really think it’s a mistake for him to try to break from the president. My hope is, by the midterms, things are kind of back to normal.”
Vance is a very smart person, but I think he really misread this situation. Calling out Musk like this, with that type of language, is only going to get Musk to dig in deeper, even if he doesn’t want to. The way to get Trump and Musk back together is to more or less dismiss the entire thing as a lack of communication, misunderstanding, anything but putting it all in the lap of Elon, regardless of whether you think it is on him or not.
Here is the hard truth: the GOP needs Elon’s money and influence, as he was clearly a game-changer for the 2024 cycle, especially in the House and Senate, where his money likely won a few of those races. My advice would be to have everyone eat a plate of crow and get back to work. We don’t have time for this, “he did this” or blame-game nonsense. There is far too much at stake in the mid-term elections. And to be clear, I don’t expect Trump to own up to anything, nor do I expect Elon to, and that is just fine. Just get past it so we can defend the House and Senate during the midterms.
