Musk-Trump spat entangles MAGA prince JD Vance
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Vance, the MAGA prince in Trump's cross hairs
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Vance does a tightrope walk
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In a presidency already defined by internal volatility and external shockwaves, the recent falling out between President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk marks a significant rupture in the power structure. But the MAGA civil war , which flared up with an open spat between Trump and Musk on social media is still smouldering even though Musk has deleted the controversial posts he aimed at Trump. Vice-President JD Vance has emerged as a target in the Trump-Musk spat.Journalist Michael Wolff, who has written several books on Trump, has said on the Daily Beast Podcast that Trump is getting paranoid after Musk turned Vance into an existential threat to his power. During their explosive spat last week, Musk called for Trump's impeachment and urged that Vance take his place. Wolff, the best-selling Trump biographer, suggests that Musk's demand struck fear into Trump and made him even more suspicious of Vance.Vance is a fascinating political figure. Once a critic of Trump, he pivoted hard during his Senate run, aligning himself fully with the MAGA movement and earning Trump's coveted endorsement. His 'Hillbilly Elegy' background gives him working-class appeal, while his Silicon Valley experience (as a venture capitalist funded by Peter Thiel, a tech billionaire) makes him a rare bridge between conservative populism and tech-world pragmatism.For Musk, Vance may represent the ideal vessel: loyal to Trumpism's nationalist message but not bound to Trump's personal baggage. This may explain why he would reportedly float Vance's name as a successor, or alternative, to Trump.Wolff says that Trump has always been ambivalent about Vance, an 'unlikely Republican' whose 'hardcore support is in the tech bro community". Trump chose Vance as his running mate, Wolff said, in part because Musk made his backing of Trump, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, conditional on that pick.But in Trump's world, loyalty is everything. The president would view any attempt to discuss succession as an act of betrayal. If Vance is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as fit to replace Trump, he risks being sidelined from Trump's inner circle. According to Wolff, Trump now wants to put Vance through a 'loyalty test' — a familiar ritual for those within the MAGA court.The president's high-profile fallout with Musk -- a 'central pillar' of the tech world's incursion into right-wing politics -- leaves him vulnerable and will push him to scrutinize his Vice President ever more closely, Wolff said. 'He will set up what we will see as a set of tests that Vance is going to have to endure and pass,' Wolff told host Joanna Coles. '(Vance has) got to profess his absolute loyalty to Trump, or he will just be marginalized within the administration.'In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House Communications Director Steven Chung slammed Wolff as 'a blithering idiot who has been widely discredited due to his blatant lies and fabrications".'He is an imbecile of the highest order and his Trump Derangement Syndrome-addled brain has caused him to lead a miserable existence devoid of reality,' he continued. 'Nothing he says is the truth and he resorts to outlandish falsehoods in order to stay relevant since Father Time has passed him by 20 years ago.'For Vance, it's a tightrope walk. If he alienates Trump, he will be sidelined from everything important in Trump's inner circle. If he distances himself from Musk, he could lose his future prospects and a significant stream of Silicon Valley-aligned influence.During a podcast appearance with comedian Theo Von posted on Saturday, Vance said, 'First of all I'm the Vice President to President Trump; my loyalties are always going to be with the President. Elon is an incredible entrepreneur. I think DOGE was really good. The effort to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in our country was really good.''I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold. Maybe that's not possible now because he's gone so nuclear. I hope it is,' Vance added.Vance tried to downplay Musk's blistering attacks as an "emotional guy" who got frustrated. "Look, it happens to everybody," Vance said during the podcast. "I've flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours."Vance told Von that as Musk for days was calling on social media for Congress to kill Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," the president was "getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon, but I think has been very restrained because the president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk." "I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine," he added.During the interview, Von showed Vance Musk's claim that Trump's administration hasn't released all the records related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein because Trump is mentioned in them. Vance responded to that, saying, "Absolutely not. Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein." "This stuff is just not helpful," Vance said in response to another post shared by Musk calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced with Vance. "It's totally insane. The president is doing a good job."If Wolff's claims are accurate, the implications go beyond tabloid drama. Trump can increasingly feel lonely and cornered as he alienates his close aides. What's worse for him, he can also end up losing support of certain sections of his MAGA base as the emergence of Musk and Vance means there are now other popular conservative leaders too.
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