Playbook: “Perhaps the most significant development of the night has been the eruption once again of the Trump-Musk feud that so enthralled D.C. last month. After a three-week hiatus from politics, Musk has spent much of the past 24 hours hammering away at the bill on X, renewing his criticisms from early June — and now Trump is hitting back hard.
”“Musk’s angry posting had spilled over into something potentially much more serious for Trump when he started directly threatening the GOP. Republicans who back Trump’s bill after preaching spending cuts will face Musk-funded opponents in primaries, he warned, and see their faces emblazoned on ‘Pinocchio’ posters drawn up by the world’s richest man. Conversely, Musk vowed to help fund serial GOP rebel Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) reelection effort. If other would-be-Republican-holdouts take all this seriously, might it embolden them too to vote against party lines?”
“Shortly before 1 a.m., Trump finally hit back with a long social media post of his own, seeking (again) to frame Musk’s opposition as a bid to cling on to EV subsidies. And the president rustled up a few threats of his own.”
Said Trump: “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this?”