To the surprise of no one, the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful political leader have run into a difference of opinion – a blustery Trump-Musk feud that’s capturing the headlines. The break-up between Elon Musk and Donald Trump is the battle that everyone saw coming, spinning into a tweetstorm of insults, unwanted revelations and surprising outbursts. Trump has characterized Musk as someone who has “lost his mind” over the Big Beautiful Bill, and is declaring that he will not speak to the Tesla chief again. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Musk’s battle with Trump has caused a $34 billion dent in his personal fortunes. Yet, underneath it all, three leadership communication strategies could instantly resolve the conflict. Read on to find out why these simple ideas are simply impossible.
What’s At Stake in the Tump-Musk Feud
The President told reporters in the White House on Thursday that Musk knew the inner workings of the bill “better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it,” according to reports from SkyNews. “All of a sudden, he had a problem and he only developed the problem when he found out we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate.” Musk replied, “False. This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” Musk then went on X, the social media platform that he owns, to claim that Trump is “in the Epstein Files”, according to NBC News. He even suggested that Trump should be impeached – and replaced by Vice President JD Vance.
The Trump-Musk Divide: Achieving the Impossible
How can this battle of giants be resolved, simply and easily, with some fundamental leadership communication? Here are three ways that you will recognize instantly – as you simultaneously realize that none of these things are going to happen.
- Apologize: who will say “I’m sorry” first? An interesting use of AI resources is to ask for deep research on the number of times that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have apologized. The results are what you might expect. When confronted with a mistake, artificial intelligence will almost always acknowledge its errors and offer alternative solutions. The ability to identify and admit missteps is the first step in resolving a conflict, and finding another path forward. Perhaps the form of the apology can be based on the military leader who once proclaimed, “We are not retreating! We are advancing in another direction.” Here, it seem the ability to walk back a decision or discussion is the impossible conversation in the Trump-Musk feud.
- Reframe the Conversation: From a leadership communication standpoint, William Ury offers a simple approach to negotiations: reframe your picture. That’s according to the runaway best-seller, Getting to Yes. How could these powerful leaders access a new way of looking at the situation, eliminating conflict and helping everyone to move on? Skilled arbitrators look in the direction of possibilities, asking, “What else could this mean? What else could this be?” While reframing might be the answer elsewhere, resolution is impossible where collaboration is not seen as a mutually-beneficial objective. When collaboration turns to competition – a zero-sum game – resolution becomes an impossible dream.
- Agree that You Are Enough, and You Have Enough: What else do these men need to win, own or conquer? Perhaps each other, as this feud continues to spiral. Legend has it that John D. Rockefeller, the world’s first billionaire, was once asked, “How much is enough?” He famously replied, “A little more.” For these men who have accomplished so much, the pursuit of a “little more” is doing a lot of damage. A tech-bro breakup might be great for reality TV, but it denies one simple fact: both of these leaders have amassed more power, wealth and influence than anyone else on the planet. The concept of being sufficient is really at issue here – along with tolerance, acceptance and flexibility. (Some may characterize those words as aspects of weakness – others, as wisdom). Have you ever been inside an argument or a fight and asked yourself, “How badly do you really want to win this one?” And the follow-up question, brought to you by self-awareness, is: “What, exactly, does winning look like?” For all of their collective accomplishments, the need to be right is still unfulfilled – and so the Trump-Musk breakup continues.
Leadership Strategies and Collateral Damage in the Trump-Musk Battle
It’s been said that, “Everywhere you go there you are.” No matter how much money you have, or you have lost, you’re still the same person. Your emotions exist beyond the balance sheet. At our core, we are all human beings – even the billionaires among us. We are all flawed, ambitious, and looking for a little more. The battle between Trump and Musk is something that could happen to any leader, anywhere. The key takeaway here is to consider the advantages of collaboration versus chaos.
Few leaders in politics or business have leveraged chaos as effectively as Donald Trump and Elon Musk. While their respective domains and methods differ, both of these titans have consistently leveraged uncertainty, upheaval and unpredictable actions to galvanize support and drive their agendas forward. This shared appetite for chaos suggests a deliberate, if sometimes intuitive, embrace of disorder as a foundational element of their operational and leadership strategies. Yet this feud seems futile: like a circular firing squad, the chaotic back-and-forth only seems to create wounds everywhere. For the Trump-Musk battle, it seems unlikely that these two solo acts will put the old band back together again.
The first step towards reaching agreement is the desire for some sort of mutually beneficial outcome. The feud will continue until that mutual benefit is discovered. This approach is well-documented in various negotiations, including labor disputes, service recovery situations, divorces, legal dealings and high-level investor conversations. Yet, for these two men who are well-versed in all of these things, the return to the base impulse of competition, insults and secret-shaming creates collateral damage and chaos. In the Trump-Musk breakup, the question is: who really wins?