Trump and Elon still agree that poor people should die

Plus: Grok tries to solve the feud

Welcome to a Thursday night edition of Progress Report.

I’ve got a stomach bug and am undergoing oral surgery in the morning, but I’ve been in the posting game too long to miss a night like tonight. Let’s get right to it.

PS: This week I’m offering 35% off paid subscriptions — deal expires this weekend!

Note: A new study revealed that right-wing influencers dominate the online media space, so it’s never been more imperative to create an alternative progressive media network that can compete with the massive amounts of misinformation flowing every single day. You can help keep Progress Report afloat and build that network for just $5 $3.25 a month — every subscription helps!

---

---

It’s finally happening: Donald Trump and Elon Musk are fighting, and it’s every bit as entertaining, stupid, and all-consuming as you’d expect.

This was bound to happen, and not because both men are professional divorcees. Trump has never had an ally that he wouldn’t throw under the bus the second he deemed them expendable, Musk is a full-blown drug addict prone to weeklong benders, and both men have giant messiah complexes.

The details of their breakup conform to those facts: Trump let Musk take the heat for carrying out the most high-profile cuts called for by Project 2025, saw his approval rating tank and leaks about his lunatic behavior pile up, and then gave him to boot. And after days of stewing and ripping Trump’s tax bill, Musk accused Trump of covering up the Jeffrey Epstein files due to his own frequent appearances in them.

(The Epstein case is one of the few obsessions that links liberals and the far-right, turning Trump’s penchant for weaponizing conspiracy theories against him. Live by the misinformation, die by the misinformation.)

As befitting a pair of internet-addled billionaire narcissists, the fight is largely being waged through posts on their respective social media platforms. It’s like a rap battle between the two most bloated white men on the planet, each with their own demented hype crews cheering them on. Already, Steve Bannon has called for Musk to be investigated and deported, while creepy Twitter nightcrawler Ian Miles Cheong has sided with guy who foisted him upon the American public. (For those who are curious, Catturd2 stuck with Trump.)

This could wind up being a battle of wills between two of the dumbest guys alive, each of whom are rich and egomaniacal enough to keep on fighting. Tesla stock cratered during the online fracas, costing Musk $34 billion, and Trump has promised to cancel federal contracts to SpaceX and other Musk-linked firms, a reversal of the unprecedented government largesse that the world’s richest man has enjoyed since taking control of government. But while Trump has the polls on his side right now, he nonetheless faces unique political risks: After using the Twitter algorithm and a cool $300 million to return Trump to the White House, there’s every chance he turns it on his former beneficiary/boss, if he hasn’t already done it.

On the other hand, it could fizzle out relatively quickly and turn out to be nothing more than a momentary pissing contest. But for now, let’s assume that this will drag on — even Elon’s AI chatbot Grok doesn’t know what could solve their fighting — and consider the issues highlighted and presented by this mess.

First, it took years of societal decay, engineered by corporate interests, self-serving oligarchs, and far-right extremists, to arrive at this miserable new low.

In any sane world, this would be TMZ fodder, with Trump and Musk nothing more than two wealthy racists with too much time and not enough oxygen flowing to their brains. Instead, it’s the President of the United States vs. the World’s Richest Man, in a fight triggered by Hindenburg-sized egos and how much money they can soak from the rest of us. Though he swears this isn’t the case, Musk’s is undoubtedly angry over the reconciliation bill’s axing of various tax credits that enrich his businesses (and Trump withdrawing his buddy’s nomination to run NASA).

It simply should not be the case that one man stands to profit so handsomely from government policy, nor should a president be so free to make dramatic, nation-shaping decisions out of pure revenge. But here we are, with breathless media coverage documenting every post in a flame war and financial markets roiled by this battle of personalities. We’re in a world suffering stupidity by design, corruption and abuse of power so casually tolerated.

Second, this could ultimately end the broader alliance between the far-right and Silicon Valley.

Trump’s crypto, tax and AI policies have delivered everything that the other tech billionaires expected when they backed his campaign, but that’s largely because Trump has been able to get in on the grift himself. Once the GENIUS Act passes (with a disgraceful amount of Democratic support), will he be interested in implementing their parts of their agenda that don’t enrich him? And will they too break from Trump? It’s not simply idle speculation; the New York Times reported tonight that Trump, a mob boss at heart, will force them to choose sides.

Their choices matters for a number of reasons, including the cultural cachet that these guys have with young men. They worship Silicon Valley titans as demigods, taken in by the grandiosity of their stated aspirations, which begin with changing the world and invariably shift to raising money and cashing out.

The question is complicated by the fact that like Musk, other tech billionaires have been fattening up on government contracts. Exhibit A is Peter Thiel, a Musk ally who backed Trump, is a benefactor to JD Vance, and continues to be deeply invested in the government. His firm Palantir teamed with DOGE to create a master database of Americans to help ICE track immigrants and is working with other agencies to load citizens’ personal information into a larger private database. The company has received $113 million from the government already and just won a $795 million defense contract, with more to come.

But profit is just one part of the equation. Thiel, Musk, and other Silicon Valley billionaires like Marc Andreesen believe that they have a divine right to a wealth and power that goes beyond conventional politics. The Network States movement, a Silicon Valley cult of sorts, proposes that they break free of government control by creating their own special tech utopias. They’re also increasingly enamored with weenie charlatans like Curtis Yarvin, a fascist whose political theory amounts to the jettisoning of democracy and triggering the rise of a dictator.

While Musk embraced the culture wars for his own tragically perverse reasons, most of these guys are focused on dismantling government and the regulatory state. None of them particularly love Donald Trump, but he has delivered on this front during the early days of this second term… largely through Musk’s DOGE project, which has shut down entire federal agencies and gutted almost all oversight. Musk’s heavy involvement in the administration was spurred in part by the tech billionaires’ lack of faith in Trump’s ability to behave and focus enough to deliver on the defenestration of government.

Which brings us to the third point: Musk may be out of the action, but DOGE is still alive and well, carrying out the plan outlined in Project 2025.

As I mentioned earlier, Trump was more than happy to let Musk be the frontman and fall guy for the dismantling of the federal government, and now the job is being overseen by OBM director Russell Vought, a Project 2025 co-author and the real architect of our undoing. He was the one behind the reduction in foreign aid that has already killed an estimated 320,000 children, the guy ending all efforts to prevent racial discrimination, and the twerp devoted to finishing off the social safety net.

That’s what ultimately matters here: will Donald Trump’s government continue to pursue the far-right’s plan to gut the parts of government that operate in the public interest and immiserate tens of millions of people? The answer, in short, is yes, because that’s not even up for debate. Musk’s objection to the reconciliation bill, which aims to strip 11 million people of their health insurance, is that it doesn’t go far enough. He has no objections to terrorizing and deporting tens of millions of immigrants or making life hell for LGBTQ+ people. That will continue.

Trump could suffer some defections from his base, and the more allegations that Musk lobs at him, the more questions he’ll have to answer. Musk will probably continue to cost himself billions of dollars. It’s been seven absolutely dismal months since election day, so we deserve to enjoy the gift of schadenfreude. Just remember that both Trump and Musk still agree on the fundamental tenet of their project: the wealthiest people in the world deserve even more money while everyday Americans should be made to suffer.

---

Wait, Before You Leave!

Progress Report has raised over $7 million dollars for progressive candidates and causes, breaks national stories about corrupt politicians, and delivers incisive analysis, and goes deep into the grassroots.

None of the money we’ve raised for candidates and causes goes to producing this newsletter or all of the related projects we put out. In fact, it costs me money to do this. So, I need your help.

For just $5 a month, you can buy a premium subscription that includes:

• Premium member-only newsletters with original reporting

• Financing new projects and paying new reporters

• Access to upcoming chats and live notes

You can also make a one-time donation to Progress Report’s GoFundMe campaign — doing so will earn you a shout-out in the next weekend edition of the newsletter!