{"id":151657,"date":"2025-05-31T09:58:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T09:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/oval-and-out-musk-and-trumps-farewell-marred-by-disillusionment-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T09:58:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T09:58:36","slug":"oval-and-out-musk-and-trumps-farewell-marred-by-disillusionment-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/oval-and-out-musk-and-trumps-farewell-marred-by-disillusionment-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Oval and out: Musk and Trump\u2019s farewell marred by disillusionment – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Send-off of \u2018special government employee\u2019, who oversaw Doge, dogged by drug use report and tax bill criticism
Another day, another made-for-great-television encounter between Donald Trump<\/a> and the media in the Oval Office.
The president, quite perversely, prides himself on the access he grants to a group of professionals he has routinely denounced as the \u201cfake news\u201d and \u201cenemies of the people\u201d \u2013 although any pain suffered from doing so has been eased by widening the net to include formerly fringe rightwing news organizations, who have responded in kind by lobbing friendly questions.
But Friday\u2019s was no ordinary presidential briefing<\/a>.
That was clear when Trump acknowledged \u2013 surely uniquely \u2013 that it wasn\u2019t even primarily about him.
\u201cToday, it\u2019s about a man named Elon,\u201d he intoned, referring to Elon Musk<\/a>, the tech billionaire who spent $275m of his own money to help Trump win November\u2019s election and return to the White House.
Yes, the Special One \u2013 as in \u201cspecial government employee\u201d \u2013 was leaving after 138 days at the heart of Trump\u2019s administration. He had spearheaded the purportedly cost-slashing \u201cdepartment of government efficiency,\u201d or Doge; boasted of feeding entire federal agencies \u201cto the wood chipper\u201d fought with cabinet secretaries; publicly paraded with a chainsaw; terrorised federal workers; and generally fomented mayhem within the governing bureaucracy.
All in the name of rooting out \u201cwaste, fraud and abuse\u201d \u2013 boldly forecasting in advance that he would be able to find $2tn worth of it. He had fallen well short of that target, and his popularity plummeted amid widespread resentment over his interference in the US government process. With that, the stock of his business empire, principally his electric vehicle firm, Tesla, had fallen too.
So Musk \u2013 weeks ago seemingly ubiquitous and all-powerful \u2013 was not exactly going out on a high. The unaccustomed shadow of failure stalked him. Disillusionment did, too, as illustrated by his criticism of Trump\u2019s Big Beautiful bill<\/a>, which he warned would undermine Doge\u2019s cost-cutting endeavours.
Still, the president was generous. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced,\u201d he said, as Musk \u2013 wearing a black baseball cap \u2013 stood beside the resolute desk. \u201cHe stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation, and we appreciate it.\u201d
But apparently not everybody.
For some people had been gossiping about Musk \u2013 and had snitched to the New York Times<\/a>.
Hopes that he would be afforded a graceful exit from the political arena were somewhat dashed when the Old Grey Lady of American journalism disclosed Friday that his illicit drug intake was much more widespread than previously known.
The paper reported he used ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, substances whose effects on political judgment have not been hitherto explored. He was also said to have imbibed so much ketamine \u2013 a drug prescribed for depression \u2013 that it affected his bladder.
Predictably, the report was the first question raised by the media. And, clearly primed, Musk decided that the best form of defence was to take the piss, so to speak \u2013 out of the source.
\u201cThe New York Times? Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer prize for false reporting on the Russiagate?\u201d he said, in a delivery that bore the hallmarks of being pre-rehearsed \u2013 and perhaps coached by Trump himself, as it reprised one of his favoured gripes against the \u201cfake news\u201d.
\u201cI think it is. That New York Times? Let\u2019s move on.\u201d
And move on things did \u2013 before anyone realised that Musk had failed to address, or deny, any of the revelations in the Times\u2019 report.
Trump reclaimed his accustomed place centre-stage for a bit \u2013 riffing, in part, on Emmanuel Macron, the French president who had been in the news after his wife apparently shoved him as he was about to disembark from a plane on a visit to Vietnam.
\u201cDo you have world leader-to-world leader marital advice?\u201d the thrice-married and twice-divorced US president was asked, cast in the unlikely role of marriage guidance counsellor.
Trump replied, \u201cMake sure the door remains closed,\u201d before revealing, intriguingly, \u201cNo, I spoke to him and he\u2019s fine. They\u2019re two really good people I know very well. And I don\u2019t know what that was all about.\u201d
Then somebody asked what had been, until then, an elephant in the room question: Elon appeared to have a black eye.
\u201cWhat happened to you?\u201d asked a reporter. Given the popular anger against Musk\u2019s imperious mien recently, there could have been any number of potential culprits: enemies in Maga-world, who have come to include Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer; a disaffected cabinet secretary taking exception to being insulted<\/a>; perhaps even the disaffected mother of one of the billionaire\u2019s numerous children as he has embarked on a one-man baby boom enterprise.
But Musk gave the most prosaic of explanations. The bruise had happened in a bout of horseplay with his five-year-old son, X \u00c6 A-12 \u2013 who has accompanied him on previous visits to the White House but was, perhaps fortunately, absent this time. \u201cI was just messing around with X and I said, \u2018Go ahead, punch me in the face,\u2019 and he did. Turns out, even a five-year-old punching you in the face \u2013 actually, if you knew X.
\u201cI didn\u2019t really feel much at the time and then, I guess, it really bruises up.\u201d
It seemed perfect as a metaphor for his reputation \u2013 and perhaps his psyche \u2013 as he prepared to leave Washington.
Moments later \u2013 after Trump expounded on the alleged criminal havoc perpetrated by his favourite scapegoats, undocumented immigrants \u2013 Musk offered his take on the \u201cfundamental moral flaw\u201d of the left, a political grouping which once feted him but now holds him in contempt.
\u201cEmpathy for the criminals, but not empathy for the victims,\u201d said the man who previously told podcaster Joe Rogan that empathy was the \u201cfundamental weakness of western civilization\u201d and open to exploitation.
As he spoke, it was hard to avoid the impression that among those he considered victims was himself.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Send-off of \u2018special government employee\u2019, who oversaw Doge, dogged by drug use report and tax bill criticismAnother day, another made-for-great-television encounter between Donald Trump and the media in the Oval Office.The president, quite perversely, prides himself on the access he grants to a group of professionals he has routinely denounced as the \u201cfake news\u201d and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}