Businessman Donald Trump previously used the pseudonym John Barron and John Miller to drop information within media that served his interests. The activity long known, and the intent was easily understood. President Trump has always known how to use media.
There are many who have questioned why President Trump has often allowed New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman access to him; and some have been frustrated because the outcomes of that access have often resulted in negative stories. However, when taken in context, President Trump’s allowance of Haberman can be viewed through the same prism of his history using John Barron/John Miller.
As a result, while there is often a skewed negativity behind the outcomes of the Haberman stories, there are also elements of truth within the manipulated context of them. A recent story about President Trump and Elon Musk carries that same sense.
Haberman writes that President Trump is growing weary of Musk’s constant proximity, calling the tone from Trump on the issue a situation where Musk is “clingy.”
While I doubt that President Trump would ever publicly distance himself from the influential billionaire, at least not while he serves a purpose for President Trump, there’s no reason to dismiss Haberman’s report as completely manufactured.
Musk is in the Trump orbit because President Trump has positioned Musk in the Trump orbit. However, when considering the full background of Musk’s activity in politics, there is a clear intention for the tech bros to want the proximity. Because these are influence games, it is worth paying attention to the inside baseball aspects.
FLORIDA – Publicly, Donald Trump is thrilled to have his mega-donor and “First Buddy” Elon Musk camping out just a few hundred feet from his house. Privately, he seems to be tiring of Musk dropping in whenever he feels like it.
“Trump does complain a bit to people about how Musk is around a lot,” New York Times journalist and “Trump whisperer” Maggie Haberman told tech reporter Kara Swisher during the latest episode of Swisher’s podcast, On.
After pouring more than a quarter-billion dollars into Trump’s re-election effort, Musk has been renting the $2,000-per-night Banyan Cottage at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club, the New York Times reported last week.
It’s not clear who will ultimately foot the bill for the cottage, which is just a few hundred feet from Trump’s main residence and transition-team headquarters. From Banyan, Musk has been able to attend Trump’s personnel meetings and crash awkward dinners with rival tech billionaires, like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
“He really parked himself in Trump’s face,” Haberman said.
For now, Musk seems to be on the winning side of the MAGA civil war that’s pitted Silicon Valley’s regulation-hating tech bros against the original grassroots loyalists who have backed Trump since 2016, she said. But it’s not clear how long that will last. (read more)
From the outside it does appear that Musk is holding influence, and it is also true that President Trump is affirming the influence in a positive light; that’s what he does (until he doesn’t).
Many people have forgotten, the Silicon Valley team previously aligned to support Ron DeSantis; Musk even used his platform to try and boost the Florida Governor long before his hidden agenda to cozy up to MAGA for 2024 operations were evident. Trump headed off that alignment simply by defeating DeSantis very publicly, and as a consequence he became the vessel for the Tech Bros to jump aboard; but again, that is the way Trump intervenes by using his seismic scale.
When originally outlining the relationship between the Technocrats and their need for political influence through Trump, I said the alignment would continue as long as the global and domestic interests of the Silicon Valley crew were on a parallel path with MAGA nationalism. However, there was always going to be a moment when those paths diverged. We are witnessing that split now in real time.
The question is not whether the two aligned interests will split, they will. The question is more a matter of what will happen at the time of the divergence. How will the tech teams with massive money invested, respond to a lack of policy influence.
Looking into the future, this is where JD Vance becomes a key focus. Vice President JD Vance was brought into the Trump campaign orbit by the same Silicon Valley network that chose to align with MAGA.
Additionally, just as Donald Trump Jr playing the role of Fredo was used by the Russia collusion engineers to create a narrative by bringing Natalia Veselnitskya into Trump Tower in 2016, so too was Don Trump Jr used by the Tech Bros who have alternative interests with Vance.
As long as the Silicon Valley/MAGA alignment continues, DJT Jr will even brag about it. But once it splits, and it will split, he won’t mention his support again.
Over a year ago I had this exact conversation with people in the Trump orbit. That was when the stealth DeSantis operation was underway – long before DeSantis announced – and people refused to believe DeSantis would be so tone deaf.
The current scenario is not that challenging to game out, for the same reason the Ron DeSantis effort was so easy to see as it was being constructed. Once you stop pretending, stop hoping, stop believing that MAGA holds the support of anyone in power, except Trump; it becomes easier to understand the motives and intents of the players.
Here’s essentially what I predicted would happen (dinner with DN):
The Silicon Valley billionaire tech team will inject themselves into the Trump circle with the use of donor allies and big money. [They did] The tech team may even bring in the VP candidate in the process; while I pointed to Peter Thiel’s (Palantir) operation with JD Vance [They did]. Twitter is their influence operation. However, the goals and objectives of the tech team are self-centered and financial; not Make America Great Again for the voters. That reality will lead to a split, and that’s when JD Vance will be pressured to fulfill his obligations to them, not MAGA.
Whereas DeSantis was a failed 2024 effort for the Tech crew, the JD Vance effort is much more targeted toward 2028. This reality is not being divisive, it is just accepting the natural continuum of influence that always circles presidential politics.
Well over a year ago, I put the timeline of the split at/around April of 2026. However, given the nature of the events as they have unfolded in recent weeks, that timeline is likely much shorter.
I did not think the Tech Team would drop their MAGA masks until well into the first term when policy started rolling out. Incredibly, they dropped the masks before the inauguration even took place. The speed and intensity of their timeline should put context upon how much they think of themselves.
The way the Lawfare operatives including Andrew Weissmann, Barry Berke, Norm Eisen and Mary McCord saw their influence ability in the DOJ effort against Trump, is analogous to how the Silicon Valley tech operatives see their influence ability in 2025 albeit on a different agenda.
They really do think they are the masters of the new Trump universe. They aren’t, and it will be slightly funny to watch them realize it.