People are wrong about Musk. He's playing the bigger game here. In 10 years, we'll think of Trump as a footnote in his story—not the other way around.
Musk went behind the curtain of the US government in a way nobody has ever gone behind it. He is the best person in the world at fixing bloat and corruption fast and at scale. What he saw behind the curtain probably horrified him. He realized he would need to grow harder, colder.
Once the bill comes out, it's clear: The great promise of Trump's first few months is now officially over.
But Musk never signed up to "play the game" of "politics." He got involved to solve the problem at stake, which is the only thing he ever does. So at the very moment he estimates his probability of success to be roughly zero through his partnership with Trump, then he begins to speak frankly.
In the ancient world, it was called parrhesia. It is good and just and sometimes even politically savvy in the long run to speak frankly about a ruler in public. Especially if you've earned his respect, because then it really hits. It is often dangerous, and it can seem foolish or even suicidal, but it is sometimes necessary for a polity to survive, let alone flourish.
Trump underestimated Musk. He thought he had a disciple, which was a miscalculation of the real balance of power. Trump is merely one ruler, badly constrained, of one country, nearly insolvent. Musk built and governs much of the infrastructure that will define the next hundred years of all countries. And he's still trending up, whereas Trump has now spent most of the political capital he will ever have.
Musk did not "fumble," he did not miscalculate politically.
In fact, one could say that Musk has only just now entered the political arena.
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