Trump Threatens Musk with ‘Very Critical Penalties’ if He Funds Democrats

The feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump appears to have gone from a full boil to a simmer over the weekend, however don’t rule out the potential for the warmth getting turned up once more. In a conversation with NBC News, Trump mentioned he has no real interest in making good with Musk proper now, however did make it clear that if the billionaire decides to change events and again Democratic candidates, “he’ll must pay penalties for that.”

Trump being Trump, he didn’t clarify what these potential retaliatory actions could be, simply advised NBC they are going to be “very severe penalties.” In fact, it’s not terribly laborious to think about the levers Trump would possibly pull. He has already threatened to cancel the billions of {dollars} value of presidency contracts that Musk’s firms at the moment depend on, and his shut ally and former advisor, Steve Bannon, has encouraged Trump to research Musk as an “unlawful alien,” deport him, and seize control of his companies underneath the Protection Manufacturing Act. So, he’s bought some concepts to work with.

Trump’s risk of motion towards Musk definitely seems like a line drawn within the sand, however the President has in any other case probably not escalated the meat since Musk threw the kitchen sink at him. In a collection of now-deleted posts, Musk claimed that Trump seems within the Epstein information and has been withholding info with the intention to shield himself and supported the thought of impeaching the president whom he spent nearly $300 million attempting to get into workplace. Musk took these posts down, however has continued to be crucial of Trump.

Trump rebuked the assaults in his dialog with NBC, calling the Epstein angle “previous information” and that he had “nothing to do with” Epstein. “That’s known as ‘previous information,’ that’s been previous information, that has been talked about for years,” he mentioned.

Apart from that, Trump has mainly simply determined to clean his palms of Musk—at the least in the intervening time. When requested if his relationship with the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is over, Trump told NBC, “I’d assume so, yeah.” He additionally reiterated that he has no intention of talking with Musk straight and mentioned, “I’m too busy doing different issues” and “I’ve no intention of chatting with him.”

That is still fairly gentle for a man who’s definitely able to being a bomb thrower, however Trump may need a way that he’ll come off higher by easing off after Musk flew off the deal with. A YouGov poll discovered that amongst Republicans, 71% would take his aspect in comparison with simply 6% who mentioned they’d throw their backing behind Musk. Even in the event you increase the survey pattern to incorporate Democrats and Independents, Trump comes out forward with 28% of assist in comparison with simply 8% for Musk (although notably, 52% mentioned “Neither,” so the “a pox on each your homes” demographic is powerful).

Politico reported Sunday that aides representing each side have spoken, and there’s something of a mutual truce in the intervening time to cease the bomb-throwing—although it famous that neither Musk nor Trump needed to cease. Looks like they’re locked in a battle of restraint in the intervening time, which isn’t precisely a ability both of them is thought to own. We’ll see who breaks the truce first.