Is Elon Musk Just That Ignorant Politically?

The extreme blowup between Elon Musk and Donald Trump is underway, just as countless people predicted it would. It has perhaps taken a bit longer than expected, and probably much more damage has been done than many of us expected, but the explosiveness of it is living up to expectations.

Before I get to some explanations and theories, as well as where we go from here, here are a few things that have happened in the last several hours:

• Elon Musk says that the Trump administration hasn’t released the “Epstein files” because Donald J. Trump is in them. “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” He added: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
  • Duh! Epstein was one of Trump’s best friends and there are dozens of things tying him to Epstein and all of the horrible sexual abuse and trafficking that came to light. The fact that Musk did know that and was still buddy-buddy with Trump is enough anyone really needs to know.
    
• Trump said that the US government should cancel all of Musk’s government contracts, and Musk has had a kneejerk response that is either concession or taunting Trump (the latter is more likely than the former). Billionaire Trump posted the following on his social media app, Truth Social: “The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” Billionaire Musk responded on his own social media app, X: “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.” It almost sounds like two big, spolied babies having a fight and collecting their toys.
• Trump has also made some suspicious claims about EV policies. “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
  • I consider this suspicious because Elon Musk repeatedly said on the campaign trail that he supported removing EV subsidies. (Why he would support that is a whole other matter, and one I’ll get to after this bullet list, but for now, just note that he repeatedly supported this.) Musk has also previously said Tesla would be better off without the California fuel economy standards that lead to Tesla making billions of dollars selling regulatory credits to laggard legacy automakers. (This one has made even less sense than the consumer EV subsidies one, but it is the case that Musk has previously supported removing the regulatory credit system.)
• Republican politicians in Congress have gotten thoroughly confused, like chickens lost in the jungle (but more idiotic), and don’t know which cult leader to follow — Trump or Musk. Musk’s response to a tweet on this was: “Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years…”
  • Hmm, yeah … remember what happened last time Trump was supposed to leave the White House? You can be sure he’s doing a lot more this time around to benefit from a successful coup.
• Musk has also tweeted that “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.” And he added, “Such ingratitude.”
• All of this seems to have stemmed from Musk’s strong opposition to the Republican budget bill going through Congress. Trump has given the bill the simplistic name “Big Beautiful Bill,” while Musk has called it the “Big Ugly Bill” and a “disgusting abomination.”

Assuming this did all start with fights over the budget bill, here’s a summary from The Guardian on highlights/lowlights of the bill:

“While Elon Musk and Donald Trump publicly trading barbs, a reminder that this started with a disagreement over Trump’s budget bill. Here’s a quick round-up of some of the key facts on that bill:

• • It would blow a $2.4tn hole to America’s national debt over the next decade, according to a congressional budget office analysis

  • Extend tax cuts enacted during Trump’s first term

  • Money for mass deportations and a border wall

  • An array of new tax write-offs – but only while Trump is president

  • A potentially potent restriction on federal courts

  • Transformed social safety net programs

  • More benefits for the rich than the poor

  • The end of Biden’s green energy incentives.”

In other words, yes, it is a disgusting abomination. And that’s where I’ll get back to the title of this article.

There are different theories on what’s going on here. And some have pointed out that Musk may be a bit sore as well from DOGE failing, getting kicked out of the White House/DOGE, Tesla sales tanking, Musk’s preferred NASA administrator not getting picked for the job, and perhaps other things. That all may be part of it, but I do think there’s a simpler explanation that may explain more of it.

That explanation is that Musk is just really ignorant politically. There have been many signs of this as he’s spread stupid far-right-wing talking points that are incorrect. He was actually identified, including by Grok, as one of the biggest spreaders of election misinformation in the last election — or even the biggest. Many say he’s lying when he says things that are incorrect. I have come to think that he’s typically just ignorant and says or spreads things that help him but that he doesn’t realize are stupid and wrong.

When it comes to this huge budget bill, here are a few key points that come to mind for me:

• He has hyped up, seemingly earnestly, the idea that only simple, short bills should be passed by Congress — no more giant bills that no individual can truly review and that stuff all kinds of different things into law. From following him for over a decade, my impression when seeing him talk or tweet about this is that he really thought it was a change that could come about on Capitol Hill.
• That’s completely ignorant and shows Musk doesn’t have an adequate understanding of US government or US history. That was never going to happen. Congress was never going to stop passing gigantic bills full of an enormous variety of topics. It’s downright stupid to think that was going to change. But, I think that’s pretty much what it is with Musk — he had some kind of idealistic opinion that this could change. I remember seeing him comment on it and thinking, “He can’t be this ignorant politically, can he?” Well, all indication is that this is the root of his big beautiful (or disgusting) breakup with Donald Trump.
• It’s also possible that it’s finally dawning on Musk that, despite all his hype and supposed success at DOGE, Trump and team are going to absolutely blow up the federal deficit (as Republicans always do). Perhaps it’s just hitting him that despite his crusade to “save” America, US finances are only going to get worse. Again, though, this is just indication of extreme political ignorance. How could anyone who knows anything about US politics think Trump and team were going to shrink the deficit, not explode it? Unfortunately, I think that may actually be the situation with Musk.

Is there more to say? Surely, there is. However, I’l leave it there for now. I think captures the core of it all. Unfortunately, it again has several implications for Tesla, and none of them are good. I’ll come back to those soon, but the general one that has to be said is that: the company is really not being run by a genius in all things. In fact, it is being run by someone who is often extremely ignorant in stuff he arrogantly assumes he knows a lot about.