Updated, 3 PM EDT on Friday afternoon: Hinderaker has finally weighed in on it all. His take is… utterly predictable. In his view, this is all Elon’s fault. That is of course (as we see below)… silly posturing.
But John does correctly assess that this “mutually assured (nuclear) reciprocal destruction event” is now doing grave damage to all of Tangerine 2.0’s ambitions, and perhaps even to what Hinderaker cheerfully calls… “conservatism itself“. [I might quibble there — and say that if this is what the GOP thinks of as conservatism, in 2025 — they are misspelling that word: it. is. spelled. racism. But why quibble, right?!]
Tellingly, John does NOT list among the reasons for this Oppenheimer Moment… the scuttling of Isaacman’s bid to lead NASA. That is where Trump most clearly broke a brand new promise to Musk: Musk could have his guy run NASA — but then Gor’s harping that that billionaire had donated to Democratic candidates and causes… dumped him.
Hilarious — so John confirms, with his silence on the matter, that Trump again welshed, and Musk has had enough. To be clear, I don’t want Musk back — as a blue dog. I want them to tear each other to shreds. John acknowledges that is what is best for us Democrats. True dat. End updated portion.
I am not sure — and I guess I don’t really care — whether this Axios reporting is absolutely iron-clad, as Trump and Musk have grown increasingly distant over the past three weeks… but I am interested in it, insofar as it affects NASA — one of my favorite federal research centers. [“I am become death — destroyer of worlds.” Heh.]
Without any additional ado then, here’s the item — purporting to set a timeline, as to why the nuclear meltdown occured yesterday, in particular:
…Trump acknowledged Thursday that canceling Jared Isaacman’s NASA nomination had “upset” Musk, who’s close to Isaacman. It was a factor, among many, that led to Thursday’s shocking falling out between the president and his one-time “First Buddy,” the world’s richest person.
Musk spent the afternoon flaming Trump on X. It left presidential advisers stunned — and some of them angry at Gor, whose tense relationship with Musk was a backdrop to the controversy.
Senate Republicans also blamed Gor for helping undermine the NASA nomination to settle a score with Musk, who had been critical of Gor’s management of the White House personnel office.
Gor declined to comment….
What a shockingly-public debacle — for Trumpians. Feuding with the richest man — and biggest donor — on the planet, to MAGA/GOP causes.
Fascinating — in the end though, this was (and is) all about Trump (again) breaking his word to Musk — about preserving Musk’s access to the federal gravy train at SpaceX — via NASA collabos… and at Tesla, via EV subsidies. Wow.
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