Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts • Hacker News Board

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#21

Post by rayiner » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:46 PM UTC

fullshark wrote: post #13

shrubble wrote: post #10

I always ask myself, "what is being done by the left hand, while we are distracted by the right hand?" Could this dust-up have anything to do with some other bill being passed or a policy implemented? I can think of the big reconciliation (BBB) bill, and Palantir getting access to more information on American citizens, as 2 things that the public could be distracted from by the Musk-Trump issue.

The public doesn't need elaborate schemes to be distracted, no one actually cares about that stuff. Republicans don't even really care about massive deficit spending in the budget which is out in the open.

Correct. Republicans voted to close the border and deport illegal aliens, not cut the budget deficit. The fiscally responsible republican party hasn’t existed since the 1920s. Trump has been consistent on this since 2016: he considers Medicare and Social Security untouchable. (The other republicans weren’t going to cut those either, but they were going to talk about reforming them.)

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#22

Post by yb6677 » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:46 PM UTC

shrubble wrote: post #10

I always ask myself, "what is being done by the left hand, while we are distracted by the right hand?" Could this dust-up have anything to do with some other bill being passed or a policy implemented? I can think of the big reconciliation (BBB) bill, and Palantir getting access to more information on American citizens, as 2 things that the public could be distracted from by the Musk-Trump issue.

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Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#23

Post by state_less » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:46 PM UTC

What does SpaceX have to do with the Musk/Trump spat? Shouldn't those SpaceX contracts be based on how well the country is served by them and at what price.

Trump needs to take his lumps on his BBB. That bill is full of pork for billionaires and cuts funding for poor folks. It should come as no surprise that people don't like it.

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#24

Post by BirAdam » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:46 PM UTC

So, the government would do what, lean on Russia with whom the USA is currently engaged in a proxy war? Also, for Boeing or Blue Origin, the cost would currently be higher per launch, and as far as I know, no one has the kind of satellite network that SpaceX does.

Of course, those are sane considerations. I suppose I shouldn’t accuse the Donald of any kind of rational thinking.

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#25

Post by randallsquared » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:47 PM UTC

yb6677 wrote: post #17

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As a US citizen, it's not clear to me that Elon legally can set up anything overseas without starting from scratch, and going that far might just make him the next Gerald Bull.

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#26

Post by hypeatei » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:47 PM UTC

yb6677 wrote: post #17

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> and secondly Elon could setup a second SpaceX base overseas

I'd be very surprised if this is possible given ITAR regulations.

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#27

Post by rayiner » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:49 PM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #16

shrubble wrote: post #10

I always ask myself, "what is being done by the left hand, while we are distracted by the right hand?" Could this dust-up have anything to do with some other bill being passed or a policy implemented? I can think of the big reconciliation (BBB) bill, and Palantir getting access to more information on American citizens, as 2 things that the public could be distracted from by the Musk-Trump issue.

I think you're falling into the "they are playing 5D chess" trap, whereas the truth is almost certainly much simpler: two powerful men with giant and brittle egos, who were on a collision course from day one, have now collided. That's it.

They’re to powerful men with huge egos who fundamentally disagree on political priorities. Trump had a platform: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/platform. Balancing the budget wasn’t on it, but the following was: “FIGHT FOR AND PROTECT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE WITH NO CUTS, INCLUDING NO CHANGES TO THE RETIREMENT AGE” (all-caps original).

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#28

Post by username223 » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:49 PM UTC

mystified5016 wrote: post #6

This reads like pretty classic infighting between a dictator and one of his more powerful cronies. I am surprised at how fast it happened, though. Usually this comes towards the end of a dictatorship. Maybe our dear leader is just as incompetent at being a dictator as he is everything else.

> Usually this comes towards the end of a dictatorship.

It doesn't seem that way to me, e.g. Putin arrested Khodorkovsky (the richest man in Russia) in 2003. The way I see it, the politician needs the oligarch's money to gain political power, but then he has actual state power, including guns and the judicial system. At that point the oligarch has no purpose -- after all, the politician can just make new ones -- so it makes sense to cast him out or destroy him.

Trump could bankrupt SpaceX with the stroke of a pen and bleed Tesla dry by revoking EV credits. He could even try to revoke Musk's citizenship over (real or fake) issues with his immigration status in the past. If Elon thought he was buying the presidency in exchange for favors, he wasn't thinking things through.

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#29

Post by phpnode » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:50 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #4

Neil44 wrote: post #2

This feud is just a pantomime for the crowd in my opinion. There's a bigger play here.

I'm inclined to Hanlon's Razor.

the variation I prefer is: never attribute to wisdom that which is adequately explained by stupidity

Re: Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts

#30

Post by CamperBob2 » Sat, Jun 07, 2025, 2:51 PM UTC

jmyeet wrote: post #18

It's wild to me how many conspiracy theories I've seen about how this is all staged, like it's a distraction or it's just Elon repairing his image and trying to rescue Tesla (whose sales are cratering). Psychologically, I think this is reflective of cognitive dissonance. The two conflicting ideas are that two people with much to lose would get in the dumbest fight imaginable and the myth of meritocracy [1]. You see,…

There's nothing invalid about meritocracy, but that's not what we have. We have some other kind of "ocracy": government by the lucky. I lack the Greek literacy to name the phenomenon correctly but that's what it would translate to in English.

Neither Trump nor Musk has any business running anything more impactful than a used car lot or a corner Starbucks franchise, but their competition was permanently out to lunch in both cases, and here we are. How can anyone be surprised when two merit-free, chaos-loving narcissists fail to get along?