what exactly is Elon doing?

I understand that people blow hot and cold on Trump. I did, too, and personally, I've settled on the idea that Trump is unsavory as a person but correct in terms of his policies and priorities. Has he messed around with other women and been otherwise sexist? I can believe that. Has he ever lied or exaggerated? Without a doubt (but keep in mind that there are bigger liars and exaggerators out there, like Joe Biden, the greatest confabulator of them all). But like it or not, Trump's the best we've got, and he's obviously learned from his first-term mistakes. I think a lot of us are simply hoping Trump can put enduring measures and structures in place so that, later on, a President JD Vance can take over and build on them in a way that is less crass, more articulate, and (we hope) just as people-savvy. Right now, though, I agree with Vince Dao's claim below that Elon Musk doesn't really understand what's going on. He has a lot of the same mercurial and imperial tendencies that Trump has, which may explain how Musk can go from gushing about Trump's response to his attempted assassination to now throwing a hissy fit about Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill (which just became law) and creating his own political party in response. It's gonna fail, too, I think. Elon's not reading the room. And as Vince repeatedly points out in this video, the OBBB emphasizes and prioritizes almost everything that Musk's new party's platform claims for itself. The whole thing feels redundant. I predict that it's going to fizzle. Then again, I'm about as astute as Jim Cramer.

I've long thought that Elon and Trump would end up clashing on the question of alternative energy. Elon, CEO of Tesla, is obviously very pro-EV, but Trump is still more of a petrochemical kind of guy. This is a pretty basic difference that can't be papered over, and it's informing the conflict we're currently witnessing between the two men. I'd be more pro-EV myself if we had better solutions regarding charging time, effective traveling range, cold-weather endurance, national infrastructure, and environmental impact (yes, EVs impact the environment, too, especially in how they're manufactured). There are still a lot of hurdles for EVs, and they probably won't all be resolved in my lifetime. Elon and Trump would do well to sit down and hash out some sort of compromise on that score, and once Trump goes the way of the dodo, Elon can renegotiate with Probable President Vance.