Musk versus Trump: A case of mutually assured destruction

Their falling out has been chaotic and both will end up worse off

- NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

Relationship status: It's complicated. The simmering feud between US President Donald Trump and tech titan Elon Musk went public last week, sending Tesla's stock tumbling (before rebounding), calling his government contracts into question and leaving Trump possibly in a more commanding position over the world's richest man.

But really, who knows what to make of this always-odd pairing between two erratic men? Late last Thursday, Musk signaled that he was open to a détente. Reports of a Friday phone call surfaced, which were dismissed by Trump.

Where this goes and how it ends is anyone's guess, but what's clear is that the political friendship that saw two of the world's most powerful men attached at the hip at the beginning of Trump's presidency has now become an unstable mess.

This, of course, is no way to run a country. The day-long brawl starkly revealed what had always been plainly obvious: This relationship is transactional and has always smelt of corruption, with Musk's $270 million campaign contribution seeming to buy him a powerful foothold in the US government, including billions in contracts and access to data and the inner workings of federal agencies.