Ever since Election Day, we’ve been watching Elon Musk drink more and more of Donald Trump’s milkshake. That might be a bit of a dated reference, but it’s the best analogy I can think of to describe the relationship between the two men and the presidency of the United States.

Musk spent a heck of a lot of money getting Donald Trump elected. It’s clear at this point that not only does he want a lot in return for his investment, but that Trump plans to give it to him. In fact, he’s not even bothering to hide it much anymore.

With all the accommodation that Trump’s been doing for Musk, it’s come with a healthy share of mockery from the general public. Even his own people have commented negatively, complaining that they didn’t vote for Musk, they voted for HIM. All of that led, logically, to people beginning to call Elon “President Musk” and call Donald “Vice President Trump.”

As anyone who hasn’t been in hibernation for the last decade might expect, that hasn’t gone over very well with Donnie.

And speaking at the “America Fest” in front of Turning Point USA, he let the whole world know just how mad he was. In fact, from the tone of his voice, he wasn’t just mad. He sounded scared that people might start to believe he’s not really in charge.

Trump tried to make it sound like he was joking, but listen to the tone of his voice. You have literally never heard him sound this way.

This dude sounds terrified for an Alpha Male. pic.twitter.com/LS1PtaXBeg

— Drewbear (@infuzi0n) December 23, 2024

“Naaaaahhh” he said. “That’s not gonna happen.”

The fact that Trump had to add on that part at the end about Musk not being born in America is the kicker, though. It makes it clear that he’s actually thought it through. “Could Elon somehow take over?” he may have asked himself. “Nah, this is how we were gonna get Obama out of office, that whole birther thing. Elon can’t be president.”

No, in all seriousness, though, Trump knows what people mean. He knows nobody actually thinks Musk is going to BE the president. They just mean that the way everything’s gone down so far, Musk has seemed more important than Trump himself. That’s what’s got Donnie angry.

But what does he expect? There was a nice neat little budget reconciliation all worked out, and then Elon started threatening Republicans, and they listened to him and tanked their own bill. Then Trump introduced HIS version of the continuing resolution, and Republicans didn’t listen to him, and that one failed as well. Trump’s had two political failures before he’s even in office, and one of them was Elon Musk flexing his muscles.

The reason for the exodus from Trump to Musk among elected lawmakers is pretty plain. Musk’s idea for a new government agency that would lead the effort to cut spending was wildly popular with conservatives, who have mostly just been siding with Trump because he holds voters’ attention.

Now that there’s a guy who really wants to follow through with maintaining all the spending they like and get rid of the spending they don’t like, they don’t need Donald Trump much at all any more.

And Trump is watching it happen.

In fact, with the budget situation, he had his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt issue a statement that was both concise and a little bit testy. “As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view. President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.”

That’s not actually what happened, though. What happened was that when Trump told us “his official stance,” he added an extra provision to the bill. Then he and Elon agreed on the new version and it was passed.

It was passed without the passage on raising the debt ceiling, as he had hoped. Musk got everything he wanted from the “negotiations,” and Trump got none of what he wanted. It was like he was sitting in the room and everyone was just playing along with a charade.

I don’t know how Trump plans to extricate himself from this situation. It’s unsustainable and you know that when the time comes that Trump is feeling TOO much like he’s not the main character in this show, he’s going to have a falling-out with Elon Musk. Hell, Musk doesn’t even like to use the phone.

I would be surprised if we watched Donald and Elon break up by tweet.