President Harry S. Truman is often credited for saying: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” He never said that, though. And he was once given a dog (Feller), but his wife, Bess, would not let him keep it at the White House. His physician became its keeper.
There is a popular notion abroad in the land that politicians have few real friends, and that what friendships there are in the nation’s capital are fleeting and unreliable. The very noisy, nasty feud that broke out last week between Elon Musk and President Trump only reinforced that stereotype. Musk may have once referred to his relationship with Trump as “first buddy,” but it became clear with the breakup that this was no Butch and Sundance buddy flick. It was more like an Incredible Hulk-Terminator faceoff.
What purportedly set Musk off was his belated discovery that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act didn’t actually reduce the deficit, it increases it by $2.5 trillion over the next decade. His new mantra became, “Kill the bill,” and he vowed to defeat anyone who voted for it, to form a new independent party, hinted at Trump’s impeachment, and suggested that Trump appears in the files on convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein. The first set of government files were partially released by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Feb. 27. Musk has subsequently deleted his X-posts on impeachment and Epstein, perhaps signaling a thaw.
Trump responded in their exchange of vicious social media blasts by threatening to defund Musk’s lucrative government space contracts and suggesting Musk had “lost his mind.” He said what really set Musk off was the loss of government subsidies for electric vehicles like Tesla.
Is their swift falling-out proof that there are no real friendships or loyalty forged in Washington? Probably not. Their case is atypical. It is more an example of two very rich, powerful, and highly competitive egos thrashing it out for attention and primacy. That’s hardly sound grounding for the growth of genuine friendships, let alone lasting loyalty, whether in Washington or anywhere else.
The Trump-Musk fissure does raise the issue of whether loyalty is less possible and more volatile in a political environment where winning is often described as everything. Think of the parade of officials who fell-out with the White House in Trump’s first administration, like Michael Flynn, Rex Tillerson, John Kelly, James Mattis, H.R. McMaster, John Bolton, Nikki Haley and others.
Or take former President Biden’s crowd that either kept mum, covered-up, or remained in denial over his decline in mental acuity. Biden’s former press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre is the most recent example, declaring her party switch to Independent with the publication of her book, “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines.”
No party or president has a monopoly on the disillusioned who either resign or are fired. It happens frequently to those whose first loyalty is to the Constitution and not their president. This phenomenon is most visible at the White House or Cabinet levels where the stakes are the highest and the struggles for power are often the most vicious.
Members of Congress come and go with election defeats, retirements and aspirations for higher office. But their former top staffers usually stay on and move to work for other members. When Hill staff wear out, they sometimes move on to jobs as lobbyists, with think tanks, or in academia, again, all the time widening their circle of close friends.
Those who want to exploit their past glories and positions of power for fame and fortune as media stars or sensational book authors have very short half-lives, and their circle of former friends often shrinks.
What does all this have to do with the Trump-Musk super feud? Not a whole lot. They go their separate ways, continuing to amass power, with any allusions to past friendships and loyalty losing any relevance. There’s not much there that average citizens can identify with or even care about, other than for its pure entertainment value.
Trump is the only president in a century who has not had a dog while in office. An August 2018 Newsweek story, “Trump doesn’t like dogs and dogs don’t like him,” quotes his first ex-wife Ivana from her memoir, “Donald was not a dog fan.” He certainly didn’t take to her pet poodle, Chappie, and vice versa. We don’t know how many actual friends he has, but one thing that remains constant over time is that the presidency is probably still the loneliest job in town.
Don Wolfensberger is a 28-year congressional staff veteran culminating as chief-of-staff of the House Rules Committee in 1995. He is author of, “Congress and the People: Deliberative Democracy on Trial” (2000), and, “Changing Cultures in Congress: From Fair Play to Power Plays” (2018).