MAGA Civil War Erupts: Is Mutually Assured Destruction Guaranteed?

Musk and Trump Public Brawl Goes Nuclear

The alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, once the envy of the MAGA-tech universe, has spectacularly imploded—just as some predicted it would.

Over a matter of hours, the mutual admiration society that fueled a right-wing juggernaut devolved into a digital scorched-earth war, with both men leveraging their platforms and egos to try to destroy the other.

The spectacle is not just a personal feud; it’s a symptom of MAGA’s internal contradictions, putting the movement’s self-destructive tendencies on full display.

The Social Media Meltdown: From Bromance to Bombs

The rupture exploded into public view in the most 2025 way possible: a cascading social media war, livestreamed for all to see.

The immediate trigger? Musk’s public condemnation of Trump’s deficit-busting “Big Beautiful Bill,” with Musk calling it a “disgusting abomination.”

Trump, in an Oval Office appearance, responded that he was “very disappointed in Elon,” and mocked Musk’s black eye:

“Do you want a little makeup? He said, no, I don’t think so. Which is interesting. Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more.”

Musk, on X, called Trump’s statements “False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”

He then escalated, claiming, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

Trump returned fire on Truth Social, saying he’d fired Musk as a special adviser because he was “wearing thin,” which Musk shot down immediately: “Such an obvious lie. So sad.”

But the most nuclear moment came when Musk tweeted, “Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Musk also called for Trump’s impeachment, suggested JD Vance should replace him, and threatened to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon capsules in response to Trump’s threats to cancel federal contracts.

In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.” ~ Musk, 4:09 PM · Jun 5, 2025, 71.5M Views

“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!” ~ Trump, Jun 05, 2025, 3:37 PM, 7.53k ReTruths, 35.8k Likes

The threat to retire Dragon, which could have crippled NASA operations, lasted only hours—Musk eventually relented, replying to a user urging calm: “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”

As Axios summed it up: “The most powerful civilian ever has effectively declared war on the president of the United States, incinerating their relationship — at least for now — in one of history’s most extraordinary political meltdowns.”

Seth Abramson: A “Digital Nuclear War” and the Immigration Card

As the attacks escalated, legal commentator Seth Abramson offered a chilling analysis on X:

“This lull in the first digital nuclear war—a pocket civil war in the United States—is likely caused by Musk huddling with his lawyers to determine whether Trump really can deport him as Trump’s generals (e.g., Bannon) are urging him to do. Things are getting quite serious, now.”

Abramson argued that Trump had the upper hand:

“Given what I know, I have to think Trump knows he could deport Musk—in which case Musk most definitely knows it. And losing access to America is the biggest loss either man could face here. Trump flashed that card and Musk cowered like a corner animal. Very striking change.”

Abramson’s Substack dives even deeper, laying out a years-long pattern of Musk allegedly misrepresenting his immigration status, suggesting that if Trump’s team

“gets its hands on Musk’s federal citizenship application and compares it to the acknowledgment by Kimbal Musk that he and his brother knowingly violated their student visas, Musk can be deported.”

He doesn’t just see this as a spat between egos but as a seismic legal threat, with both men holding mutually assured destruction cards:

“If Trump makes his Big Move—threatening to revoke Elon’s citizenship—we could, within an hour or two of that, get accusations by Musk against Trump of serious criminal conduct. For all we know, possibly involving the 2024 presidential election. All of America is on tenterhooks.”

Meanwhile, the broader digital commentariat was just as scathing. John Cooper fired off: “I’m sorry, but Trump and Musk can BOTH go fuck themselves.” George Conway, never missing a chance to needle, replied: “This is precisely why we need to support both sides.”

Steve Bannon Calls for Deportation and SpaceX Seizure

As the feud crossed into open MAGA civil war, Steve Bannon—Trump’s former chief strategist and the movement’s dark id—went on a crusade of his own. On his War Room podcast, Bannon demanded,

“President Trump, tonight, should sign an executive order calling for the Defense Production Act. And seize SpaceX tonight, before midnight.”

He told the New York Times,

“They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately.”

Bannon didn’t stop there, calling for investigations into Musk’s drug use and for his security clearance to be yanked.

These aren’t idle threats: as Rolling Stone reported, Trump’s team is openly toying with

“revamping investigations into Musk’s business empires — probes that carried over from the Biden era and ones that Musk was extremely adamant he wanted to see a second Trump administration crush, if the Tesla billionaire helped elect Trump.”

Now, the knives are out.

Kara Swisher’s “Highlander” Prediction Comes True

Months before the meltdown, tech journalist Kara Swisher saw the writing on the wall.

“One of my favorite movies is Highlander, and ‘there can be only one,’ and that’s going to be Donald Trump,” Swisher warned on CNN’s The Chris Wallace Show just days after Trump’s 2024 election win.

To her, Musk’s desire for attention and power was always going to collide with Trump’s need for total dominance: “Elon needs a lot of attention… and Trump will be irritated by that.”

She predicted the two massive egos simply could not “co-exist.”

Host Chris Wallace agreed, noting, “Trump does not like to share the spotlight.” That forecast, dismissed by some as cable-news theater, now looks prescient.

Fallout: MAGA Eats Its Own

The consequences have been immediate and punishing. Tesla shares cratered 14 percent, erasing $152 billion in value. GOP lawmakers now face a new dilemma: pray that Trump’s endorsement is still worth more than Musk’s now-weaponized fortune.

Some right-wing influencers, like Charlie Kirk, urged reconciliation, but the dominant mood is one of mutually assured destruction.

As Axios put it, “The conflict between two of the world’s most powerful men seemed like it was quickly barreling toward mutually assured destruction.”

The spectacle is proof that within MAGA, there is no loyalty—only convenience and the shifting sands of personal power. As Kara Swisher warned, “there can be only one.” For now, it seems, there may soon be none.

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Stay strong,

samuel