When Oligarchs Collide

Trump and Musk went to war over a bill, now there’s shouting, sabotage, and asylum offers from Moscow

Good morning! While I’d have preferred the last five and a half months hadn’t happened, the Trump–Musk meltdown has almost made it worth it. What began as a bromance has become a brawl: one week Elon Musk is grinning through a White House photo op, the next he’s calling Trump’s signature legislation a “disgusting abomination,” accusing him of hiding Epstein files, threatening to start a new political party, and, yes, fielding offers of asylum from Moscow.

Trump, never one to be out-grifted, has responded by calling Musk “crazy,” vowing to cancel his federal contracts, and yanking Musk’s hand-picked NASA nominee the second he walked out the door.

Behind the tantrums is a power struggle, and a policy betrayal. Musk wanted to keep shaping the government. Trump wanted a chainsaw turned scalpel. The bill in question? A $5 trillion monstrosity packed with tax cuts for billionaires, brutal cuts to Medicaid and food aid, and a deficit spike so large even Musk couldn’t stomach it. That, and it repeals key clean energy subsidies that benefit Tesla, while continuing to subsidize fossil fuels.

But the bill isn’t the only sore spot. Musk lost internal White House power to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. His AI deal sabotage attempt failed. His $25 million spent to sway the Wisconsin Supreme Court race fizzled. And the $100 million he reportedly promised Trump’s political machine? Still missing in action.

So now we have dueling revenge arcs: Trump is punishing Musk’s allies, Musk is launching a kamikaze-style Tea Party revolt to tank Trump’s bill, and both men discover that while they may still control billions, they no longer control each other.

And yet the stakes are very real: Trump’s budget bill remains on the brink, and Musk’s campaign to kill it, while motivated by ego and profit, may be the last barrier between Americans and another wave of cruelty disguised as governance.

In the early hours of June 6, Russia launched one of its largest airstrikes in months, killing four and injuring 20 in Kyiv, just days after Vladimir Putin promised Donald Trump he would “retaliate” for Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian airbases. Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted many drones and missiles, but explosions rocked cities from Kyiv to Kremenchuk. Explosions in the capital killed three firefighters. Ternopil residents received warnings to seek shelter indoors because of toxic smoke from industrial fires.

Zelensky accused Russia of “giving the finger to the entire world.” Trump, when asked, said he didn’t expect peace “anytime soon” and pivoted to vague comments about Iran and border security.

Amid the Trump feud, a Russian lawmaker offered Elon Musk political asylum, calling him a victim of “deep-state pressure.” Dmitry Medvedev followed up with a joke about brokering peace between “D and E” in exchange for Starlink stock. Musk’s recent statements, including calling Ukraine a “meat grinder” and echoing Kremlin lines about ending aid, have made him a darling of Russian state TV. From DOGE czar to defector-in-waiting? Stay tuned.

Section 70302 of Trump’s budget bill contains a poison pill that would prevent federal courts from issuing contempt citations if no bond was posted when an injunction was granted. It’s a surgical strike against judicial oversight aimed squarely at lawsuits where the Trump administration is already defying court orders. But judges are onto the scheme: in JG v. Trump and New York v. Department of Education, they’ve ordered $1 or $1,000 bonds to preserve enforcement powers.

Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers admit they didn’t read the bill. A constituent who cited the section by number confronted at a town hall rep. Mike Flood. Marjorie Taylor Greene called it a “lesson learned.” And Rep. Dan Goldman reminded them: reading bills is your actual job.

After gutting agencies and crowing about it on stage, the Trump–Musk purge of civil servants is now backfiring spectacularly. According to a major Washington Post report, the administration is quietly trying to rehire thousands of federal workers it previously dismissed sometimes with just a day’s notice.

At the FDA, nearly 50 workers fired from the Office of Regulatory Policy were suddenly told to return to their desks. At the IRS, probationary employees were summoned back so abruptly they were told to telework until someone could find them a chair. At USAID, dismantled gleefully by Elon Musk and DOGE, ex-employees were stunned to find messages in their inboxes offering jobs… at the State Department. Marco Rubio’s office confirmed they’re hiring for a “small number of positions” to oversee what’s left of the aid programs Musk gutted.

One rehired FDA worker described the return as “a funeral.” Another ex-USAID official summed it up: “I definitely don’t want to work for this administration, but yes, I need a job… why not? I have nothing to lose.”

The slapdash rehires follow court rulings ordering the reinstatement of probationary workers fired on Valentine’s Day, a mass dismissal that included entry-level scientists, librarians, even FOIA officers. In one case, the administration had to rehire nuclear safety personnel after firing 17% of the NNSA workforce, endangering control of U.S. warheads.

One current FDA staffer told the Post, “They wanted to show they were gutting the government, but there was no thought about what parts might be worth keeping. Now it feels like it was all just a game to them.”

If you’re wondering what the Trump administration has learned from gutting federal agencies, the answer appears to be: absolutely nothing. As part of the same hiring chaos now plaguing DHS, the Department’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, tasked with preventing terrorism and hate-fueled violence, is now being led by Thomas Fugate, a 22-year-old intern who graduated college last year.

According to ProPublica, Fugate’s appointment came with little explanation beyond loyalty and MAGA affiliation. He is now responsible for coordinating federal anti-extremism efforts nationwide despite having less field experience than most local school resource officers.

The hiring of an intern to lead a national counterterrorism unit perfectly encapsulates the governing philosophy of the Trump–Musk era: fire the experts, sabotage the agencies, then hand the keys to someone who’ll follow orders without question. Or in this case, someone who just learned how to use Outlook.

Despite political mayhem, judicial evasions, agency whiplash, and a full-throttle feud between America’s most unhinged billionaire and its most vindictive president, Wall Street opened in the green this morning.

Thank a decent May jobs report: 139,000 new hires and a stable 4.2% unemployment rate were just enough to calm the markets, or at least confuse them into thinking there’s still a functioning economy somewhere beneath the flaming wreckage of federal governance. Tesla clawed back some of yesterday’s catastrophic losses, rebounding nearly 5% after its $150 billion faceplant. Apparently, investors are banking on a Trump–Musk reconciliation call (or perhaps just relief that Musk hasn’t yet tweeted from Red Square).

Meanwhile, the United States continues to talk trade, just not make trade. Negotiations with India over a mini-deal have been extended again, because nothing screams “strong bilateral partnership” like fighting over onions and electric scooters until the clock runs out. Talks with the UAE are also underway, mostly so they’ll stop complaining about Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum, which, for those keeping score, are still in place, despite Musk’s best efforts to gut anything resembling industrial policy that doesn’t benefit Tesla.

No new deals have been signed. No existing tariffs have been lifted. And Trump, who once claimed trade wars were “easy to win,” now seems more focused on canceling Elon Musk than confronting China, Russia, or even the WTO. But hey, the Dow is up half a point, so... mission accomplished?

In a functioning democracy, this kind of chaos would rattle global confidence. In Trump’s America, it’s just another Friday.