TRUMP AND MUSK: WHO OWNS WHOM?

On her Substack, Mary Trump writes:

Donald Trump has always been for sale....

Any person or entity, from Putin to Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf, willing to throw Donald a few bucks for a licensing fee or a Trump Tower condo has gained access and influence. Given this decades-long pattern, it’s not surprising that the world’s richest fascist, South African jumping bean Elon Musk, would also be interested in purchasing a few shares in a man who is willing to sell whatever he can get his hands on—whether it’s steaks or American national security—because he values money more than anything.

In exchange for Donald’s willingness to throw Musk the keys to the federal government, Musk is throwing a considerable fortune, as well as the weight of Twitter’s influence, behind the Republican candidate. For him, it’s a safe bet because he knows, if Donald is elected, he’ll do anything Musk wants him to do.

She writes this under the headline "Donald's New Owner."

Clearly that should be "Donald's New Co-Owner" -- Vladimir Putin and the Saudis (and Miriam Adelson and various tech/oil/real estate/hedge fund billionaires) aren't giving up their shares in Trump anytime soon. But in the case of Musk and Trump, who's the owner and who's owned?

In this relationship, Musk seems more desperate than Trump. Recall the exchange he had with Tucker Carlson on Carlson's podcast:

“If he loses, man, what...” Carlson said with a laugh, “you’re fucked, dude.”

“I’m fucked. If he loses, I’m fucked,” Musk said as they both laughed. “How long do you think my prison sentence is going to be? Do you think? Will I see my children? I don’t know.”

In the second most famous photo to emerge from this campaign, it's Musk who's clearly subordinate.

He's Trump's hype man. Wikipedia explains that term:

A hype man, typically in hip hop music, is a backing vocalist who supports the primary performer with exclamations, interjections, or ad-libs in an attempt to increase an audience's excitement or engagement.

The Wikipedia entry is accompanied by a photo of a performance by Public Enemy. Compare this to the photo above:

Trump always needs money, but Musk needs ongoing government largesse, which he thinks might be withheld in a Harris administration. (I hope!) Like every billionaire, Musk wants the lightest possible regulations. And he might genuinely be as stupid as Ted Nugent, who incorrectly predicted that he'd "either be dead or in jail" if Barack Obama won reelection in 2012.

There's no question that Musk will get what he wants from Trump if Trump is president. But when Mary Trump tells us that "if Donald is elected, he’ll do anything Musk wants him to do," it's not exactly servility on Donald Trump's part. Being president means he can dispense favors. That's a perk of the job, in his view. Who gets those favors? People who give him lots of money. As he sees it, he's not bending the knee. They are.

While I'm on the subject of how bribeable Trump is, let me make a prediction about his immigrant crackdown. Trump says that if he wins, he'll deport every immigrant in America who's here illegally. I think he'll struggle to do that -- as I've said elsewhere, the Project 2025 plan to stock the federal government with zealots seems likely to be a rerun of the Bush administration's personnel approach to governing Iraq after the fall of Saddam Huseein, with applicants being asked more about right-wing ideological purity than actual job skills. I think Trump won't have capable personnel, infrastructure, and logistics in place to make mass deportation happen, because he's a Republican and so is everyone who'll be charge of this, and Republicans don't do that kind of advance planning. (Again, see post-Saddam Iraq.) He'll certainly deport some immigrants, in as brutal and showy a manner as possible, and that will satisfy his bloodthirsty racist base, but he'll actually deport only a small portion of the immigrants he wants to deport.

But the crackdown will gradually ramp up. When it does, owners of large corporations that depend on immigrant labor will start to see that their ox could be gored soon.

At that point, these rich guys -- agribusiness moguls, meatpacking moguls -- will have talks with Donald Trump. What he'll tell them is this: I'm going to start raiding workplaces in your industry soon. If you don't want that to happen, you know what to do.

And they'll do what he wants. They'll give him money.

In response to their bribes, Trump will make sure his raids will bypass their workplaces and the neighborhoods where their workers live.

Trump was never impeached for taking emoluments, so he won't be impeached for this, if we ever find out about it. He'll get away with it. And he'll feel as if he's the powerful one.

Before I go, here's a story about Trump and his rich backers from The New York Times:

Donald J. Trump took his seat at the dining table in his triplex penthouse apartment atop Trump Tower on the last Sunday in September, alongside some of the most sought-after and wealthiest figures in the Republican Party....

Over steak and baked potatoes, the former president tore through a bitter list of grievances.

He made it clear that people, including donors, needed to do more, appreciate him more and help him more....

At one point, Mr. Trump seemed to suggest that these donors had plenty to be grateful to him for. He boasted about how great he had been for their taxes....

Trump wants to be owned. He demands it. He's abusive if he thinks you're not owning him enough. Who's the dominant one in a relationship like this?