(Dr Pentapati Pullarao)
What happened to 3 years of friendship?
It is always amusing to see powerful people, who are friends, become enemies and then start abusing each other. We see that very often in India politics, when politicians suddenly become enemies. The sudden breakup between the world’s richest man Elon Musk and the powerful US President Donald Trump is extremely rare and the world keenly watched it.
Friendship between Donald Trump and Elon musk started about 3 years ago, when trump was trying to get re-elected as US President. Trump knew that with Musk supporting him there would be plenty of money and also great public interest as Musk is a world-famous celebrity.
Elon Musk is an un-equaled technical genius and has started the ultimate technology companies, dealing with Space, Tesla electric cars and flawless Internet services from satellites.
- After Trump became President in January 2025, he appointed Musk to a prestigious Cabinet post. Trump also highlighted the special status that Musk enjoyed by having Musk accompany him everywhere.
- The problem was that Musk started dominating other Ministers and there were interesting reports of physical encounters right in the White House recently with another Minister.
- Trump wanted to get rid of Musk and slowly suggested that Musk leave. It was a friendly departure. But Musk got upset and within a day, started directly attacking President Trump and insulted him.
- Musk threatened to support Trump’s enemies and also said he might start a Third Party. There were reckless words thrown about.
Musk’s businesses:
All of Elon Musk’s businesses, though latest technology, are dependent greatly on US government subsidies and permissions. President Trump immediately announced that he might just stop funding for Musk and that permissions for other businesses will be reviewed. Immediately, the share value of Musk’s companies fell sharply. This was a clear warning from Trump that he will retaliate strongly against Musk.
Immediately, Musk stopped attacking Trump and deleted all the insulting social media posts. Obviously, Musk was advised to step back., as he was no match for a powerful president like Trump. Trump also warned that if he does any hostile political activity, he will punish him.
Present status: Obviously, Elon Musk retreated from the fight and understood that his temper may ruin him. From Trump’s side, though he has not initiated punitive action, he openly stated that Musk’s electric TESLA cars are useless. But Trump has not acted yet.
What Trump may do:
Donald Trump is un-likely to forgive Musk. There is no question of giving back his earlier status. Trump will choose a time and opportunity to punish Musk. There is a lot of damage that Trump can do to Musk. Trump can order enquiries into all of Musk’s companies, aside from withdrawing billions of dollars of funding. There is no limit to what Trump can do to Musk.
Can Musk protect himself?
Musk can protect himself to some extent. The problem for the US government is that Musk’s company developed the most powerful rocket ever, namely Starship. NASA needs this and other rockets, without which NASA’s programs will halt. The US Defence industry will suffer if Musk’s companies are damaged.
Lessons to be drawn:
- Friendship with a powerful man is very dangerous. If the friendship breaks, then the powerful politician will wreck damage. In India, some of our businessmen become close to powerful politicians. But the enemies of that politician will start attacking them. We all know how Ambani and Adanis are being attacked daily.
- A businessman should avoid getting too close to any politician. Perhaps, the biggest entrepreneur in the world is American Warren Buffett. Buffett totally avoids all politicians and stays far away from government. Buffett heads maybe the biggest asset company in the world.
- Musk enjoyed being close to power and assumed that he himself was powerful. Musk was wrong and he may the price for fighting with a US President like trump.
- Musk should have remembered that the only “ un-conditional love is a mother’s love”. All these worldly friendships are temporary. Musk forgot that truth.
- Musk should have been humbled when he was close to President Trump. Instead, he made dozens of powerful enemies, and they won’t spare him. Musk is a genius and became rich while in college. Musk did not inherit his wealth. He created wealth. But Musk should have understood the dangers of getting too close to power.
Musk now faces a challenge bigger than the technical challenge of his rockets transporting humans to planet Mars. Musk attacked the King, and the King survived. Machiavelli, who lived 550 years ago and is the European equivalent of our Chanakya said: When you attack a king, you must finish him. Otherwise, if the King survives, he will become mortal threat “.
That is exactly what Elon Musk faces. Trump is not known to spare his enemies. But Musk dos have some protections as he controls the most famous social media company “Twitter“and he has 20 crore followers. Moreover, Musk’s products are the latest science, which US government needs.
The fight lasted 3 days and Musk surrendered. But Musk needs a lot of diplomacy to get out of Trump’s eye. The story is not over yet.
(Author is a Political and Economic Analyst)
