To understand the dynamic, it is necessary to remain elevated and unemotional as the confrontation takes place.
The U.S. Senate currently has two issues of great importance to President Trump within their upper chamber. The first is the Big Beautiful Bill (a reconciliation spending and budget plan). The second is Senate positioning on sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine. Both are of great importance when you consider the domestic and geopolitical ramifications.
President Trump wants the BBB structurally passed and doesn’t care about the nibbling on the edges or customary Christmas Tree decorations (special interest add-ons). Trump wants the Term-1 tax cuts extended and the border security money, these are must haves.
On the Ukraine/Russia stuff, Trump basically wants the Senate to back away from doing anything that influences his leverage positions for a resolution he will construct. However, President Trump knows the Senate fully supports the proxy war aspect to the conflict (he doesn’t).
Trump has remained relatively quiet on Ukraine-Russia because he doesn’t want to antagonize the Senate who will use their affirmative votes for BBB as leverage to maintain the proxy war and support Ukraine. That’s the background on the BBB, Russia, Ukraine and Trump’s position.
Into this foray comes the ever self-interested and short-sighted Elon Musk who -despite being an influenceable asset at times- has the most annoying habit of never considering the downstream consequences for his selfishness.
As Musk rails against the BBB, which took 14 months of work from the House to get across the line he runs the risk of collapsing the BBB in the senate.
The longer the BBB sits in the Senate and/or gets changed so much it will take forever to get through the House again; the longer Trump has to bite his tongue on solving the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Musk in his infinite selfishness, cannot see how he is doing real damage to Trump’s objective around Russia by stirring up opposition to the BBB. Things were getting ugly yesterday and became more so today.
Steve Bannon does not learn about the story of Elon Musk having a physical confrontation with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent without Trump saying he wants to hit back against Musk. The subsequent leak to Bannon is made, the story is told to the Dail Mail and Elon Musk is now facing the ire of a pissed off White House.
…[…]” Former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon told DailyMail.com that Musk’s turbulent time in the White House was marred when he physically ‘shoved’ 62-year-old Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after he was confronted over wild promises to save the administration ‘a trillion dollars’. ‘Scott Bessent called him out and said, ‘You promised us a trillion dollars (in cuts), and now you’re at like $100 billion, and nobody can find anything, what are you doing?” the prominent MAGA figure revealed. ‘And that’s when Elon got physical. It’s a sore subject with him. ‘It wasn’t an argument; it was a physical confrontation. Elon basically shoved him.'”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio knows the strategic stakes here and there’s no love lost between Rubio and Musk after Elon told Rubio he wasn’t cutting enough people at the State Dept.
Keep in mind, Marco Rubio was chair of the senate select committee on intelligence and a Gang of Eight member since day one of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Rubio was briefed on all the covert activities being carried out in Ukraine by the CIA and Pentagon. That’s why when Secretary of State Marco Rubio told media months ago that “Ukraine was a proxy war for the United States against Russia,” it was jaw-dropping. If anyone would know the receipts, it’s the former Chair of the SSCI.
Both Marco Rubio and President Trump have been mostly silent and very measured in their comments about Russia after the Ukraine attack on the Russian nuclear-capable bombers. Both Rubio and Trump know the Senate control of the BBB right now is bad timing for their solutions to the Ukraine-Russia war that the Senate will not like.
Quite simply, Elon Musk is screwing all that stuff up with his anti-BBB rants and unhinged ravings, that are supported and fueled by the same voices who want to diminish the power and influence of President Trump.
The issues are not just about the BBB, Elon Musk is mucking up the entire geopolitical agenda. WATCH: