DJT/Elon Tiff Ruminations

Apart from the kabuki associated with the DJT/Elon tiff, DJT's explanation of Elon's angst has some plausibility. E.G. Per DJT, Elon is ticked off that EV subsidies have been eliminated from the big, beautiful bill (BBB). I've been wondering for some time when this (elimination of EV subsidies) was going to occur, as it was inevitable, considering the false pretenses (eliminate global warming) of the subsidies combined with the abundance of cheap fossil fuels in the ground and the obvious economic imperative to use fossil fuels to the max. Gotta feed those coal plants to keep up with AI! Tesla may be hurt by this, but credit Trump with keeping his campaign promises to revive fossil fuel production.

Another spin on "drill baby drill" is that DJT mitigates the inflationary pressures of tariffs with lower fossil fuel energy costs... and yet another spin, Putin will struggle as energy costs come down. We have to wait and see, but DJT's potential for a "he's a genius" outcome on lower energy costs is not minimal.

Conventional wisdom says Elon's spat with DJT was due to his anger about bloated spending of the BBB particularly given all the work he had done to unearth waste and fraud under DOGE and his not seeing that work incorporated into BBB. I'm sure there was some of this. Or maybe Elon felt he needed to reboot the Tesla brand by reviving favor with the liberal EV owners who abandoned him when he made chummy with DJT.

Kabuki, conventional wisdom, or whatever, Trump is not hurt by this row. Trump is Trump. His behavior is consistent with his authentic bearing where more and more voters judge him by his performance (amazing polls) and discount his bluster. However, I don't think Elon comes out of this with a good look. Maybe Elon's spectrum problem is exposing his erratic behavior. Last year I finished reading Isaacson's biography on Elon on a high. Elon's mean girls behavior in his spat with DJT troubled me.

Taking the long view, we need Elon more than we need DJT. Elon is leading the charge to make mankind a multi planetary species. The clock is ticking on earth's viability to continue to support mankind. At least 10% probability happenings to earth between one and one thousand years from now: Comet collision, Volcanic upheaval, or mankind caused destruction. There will be a sixth extinction. It's a matter of when. The urgency for mankind to hedge its bets by going multiplanetary increases day by day. And, right now, Elon is the only game in town.

I was out and about on the Ducati Multistrada last week, riding east bound US 287 between Moran Junction, WY and Dubois, WY, on the edge of the volatile Yellowstone Caldera, only a day after reading about serious earthquake swarms not far to the west in Idaho.  Stanley earthquake swarm brings more than 100 quakes, and it's not over Shudder. Elon needs to pick up the pace on Mars. I hope his squabble with DJT leads to his break from politics so that he can intensify focus on (IMHO) humanity's most important priority.