Like most conservatives, I was disheartened by the warp speed break in the partnership of Elon Musk and Donald Trump, the two men who saved America. Trump by leading the movement to reclaim the nation’s destiny, Musk by freeing the movers’ speech from the veil of censorship and identifying government waste. For some time, both repelled the dark, violent forces that sought to stop them — Musk the torching of his revolutionary cars, Trump a bullet to the head. But unlike Trump, Musk couldn’t go the distance. The Mr. Hyde Virus infected him.
He could have discreetly made his sound point about the flaws in the Big Beautiful Bill to the leader who’d welcomed and repeatedly celebrated him.
Apart from the disruptive geopolitical consequences to the world, I had a selfish reason to lament the Trump-Musk severance — my screenwriting career. At the urging of a major producer friend, I wrote a seven-page treatment for a film about the SpaceX rescue of the two astronauts marooned on the International Space Station. Rocket Man is the sort of spectacular true story Hollywood once loved yet today will never touch. Not because of, but despite its most thrilling elements: a faulty spacecraft built by an DEI-ridden company (Boeing), mortal danger, Christian faith and heroism (astronaut Butch Wilmore’s), White House callousness, and patriotism.
Hollywoke won’t make the movie for the same reason the Biden people left the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. My fictional Musk identifies the reason while confronting a Biden official. “Starliner’s stuck up there. I could have those two astronauts back on Earth by next month. Politics. That’s it, isn’t it? I just endorsed Trump. The White House can’t afford to let me be a hero — and by extension Trump.”
Rocket Man was free money on the table just waiting for a smart investor to pick it up, and me along with it. Traditional and MAGA audiences would have made us both a success. Until Musk went nuts last week.
He could have discreetly made his sound point about the flaws in the Big Beautiful Bill to the leader who’d welcomed and repeatedly celebrated him. Trump may even agree with Musk while dealing with political reality — a bare majority in Congress — over economic purity. Only that’s not how the Mr. Hyde Bug works. Musk went rabid, going so far as to call Trump an Epstein crimes participant. But Trump was right, and Musk was wrong, as the party that goes off the rails always is.
Not Only Trump
I was saddened but not surprised by Musk’s 180-degree turn, having experienced the same thing in my far less prominent life. Friends turning viciously against me. I’ve written here about my former Hollywood mates, with whom I’d shared laughs and groans, success and failure. How my support for Trump in 2015 made me a pariah even on their social media. But I was right, and they were wrong, and now they’re dead to the clueless DEI Girl Bosses they helped install. While I — other than the failure to launch of Rocket Man — am doing all right careerwise.
The best aspect of the Mr. Hyde Bug is how fully it works in revealing the hidden vile persona. It did on Elon Musk last week — and ABC reporter Terry Moran late Saturday. As an ABC News senior national correspondent, Moran long played the old mainstream news game of trying to fool viewers into thinking he’s an unbiased reporter. But around midnight Saturday, the Mr. Hyde Moran exploded on X in an unhinged tweet about White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism. Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy. But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller. It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate and so does his boss, who is also a world-class hater. But for Trump hatred is a means to his end: self-glorification.
The Dr. Jekyll Moran reemerged to delete the devastating — to the author and his employer, not Stephen Miller — tweet. ABC News had recently been forced to pay Trump $16 million in a defamation lawsuit. But it was too late for Moran, who was instantly suspended. An ABC News spokesperson issued a mockable statement: “ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage (cue laugh track) and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others. The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards. As a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”
I had one more encounter with the Mr. Hyde Bug last week on X, in my area of expertise, the narrative arts. A movie critic I’d been friendly with for years, let’s call him Mr. Moto, posted a gushing review of the new action film, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, starring the gorgeous Ana de Armas. I responded, “It’s another chick beating up men like ‘trans’ boxers are doing to top women. Waste of Ana. I’m out.” Moto’s response: “You shouldn’t make assumptions moron.” Somehow, he’d gone straight into personal insult territory, with someone whose opinions he’d recently valued.
Recognizing the signs, I knew where this would end, but I had to see it through, posting, “She doesn’t beat up men in unarmed combat?” Instead of answering, Moto babbled the obvious point about not judging without seeing, getting increasingly hostile. Finally, he admitted Ana’s fighting prowess was built into the plot. When I ribbed Ballerina as the Citizen Kane of girl beating up men movies, Moto called me a f___ing moron and blocked me.
I saw Moto’s post predicting a $40-million number one opening weekend, but I knew From the World of John Wick: Ballerina would be a dud like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, despite a desperate cameo by Keanu Reeves as John Wick. I was right and Moto was wrong. The $90-million Ballerina limped to a $25-million opening, coming a distant second to Lilo & Stitch in its third week. Hollywoke can’t force guys to watch a female action lead they’d rather make love to than thrash. But I have a great true story they would love to see.
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