The children are squabbling


Musk is on his way out, but he’s not going quietly. It seems there’s been some resentful scuffling over his activities failures.

A physical altercation between Elon Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent precipitated the Tesla founder’s quick ouster from the Trump administration, according to a report.

The incident was previously reported as a “screaming match” between the two men, but the physical aspect has since been confirmed by The White House.

The U.K.’s Daily Mail interviewed former Trump adviser Steve Bannon about the DOGE-related scuffle.

“‘Scott Bessent called [Musk] 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?” Bannon recounted. “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.”

The altercation was confirmed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday, the Mail reported.

The Daily Mail is not a reliable source, but we also have physical evidence of the fight.

Cool, hit him some more, and put a little more vinegar in the punch.

You know what? This is not normal.

Comments

  1. magistramarla says

    It may not be normal, but it’s great to see.
    Dare we hope that they are this incompetent for three more years?

  2. beholder says

    It’s not the Musk/Zuck cage match we were promised, but I’ll settle for video evidence of this.

  3. remyporter says

    Elon Musk getting punched in the face should be normal. Just all the time.

  4. Reginald Selkirk says

    In Oval Office farewell, Trump says Elon Musk is ‘not really leaving’

    Elon Musk’s time in the Trump administration has come to an end with a news conference in the Oval Office in which he and the US president defended the work of Doge – and vowed it would continue, even without Musk.

    According to President Trump, Musk is “not really leaving” and will continue to be “back and forth” to the White House.

    “It’s his baby,” Trump said of Musk’s work with Doge, short for the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency…

    Do you think he’ll come back for another beating?

  5. birgerjohansson says

    They are so unprofessional and lawless that I am disappointed it did not escalate to fighting with chairs and broken bottles. And if they are sad that people believe the worst, too bad.
    If you behave like stupid thugs, people will expect you to continue being stupid thugs.

  6. robro says

    They could stage a fight between them on TV. They could get Vince McMahon to do it for them. Linda McMahon, Secty of Education, could referee…she’s got professional experience at that. Great show. The audience would be huge. (Or course, the results are contractually agreed upon.)

    And yeah, I don’t trust Bannon anymore than I trust Musk or Trump or Scott Bessent or any of the other perps milking the government right now in the name of MAGA. Con artists all the way down.

  7. says

    #5
    So Stupid Idiot’s claiming that Muck’s not really leaving, but others say that he is.
    Who’s right? Beats me (No pun intended).

  8. Hemidactylus says

    Brian Pansky @4

    You beat me to it. Plus given their mutual animosity Bannon is probably motivated to cast Musk in the worst possible light.

    That Karoline Leavitt confirms it though…

    I despise them all.

  9. Hemidactylus says

    Musk said his son gave him the black eye pictured above:
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-black-eye-trump-doge-b2760990.html

    Musk said that he got the black eye from “horsing around” with his 5-year-old son, “Lil X.”

    “I said go ahead and punch me in the face and he did,” Musk said. “X could do it…,” Trump said. “I didn’t notice it, actually.”

    So was it actually from his son or from the confrontation with Bessent? It doesn’t seem like much of a black as pictured. If a grown person punched him one would expected more bruising and swelling???

  10. mikey says

    Punching him is fine, but I won’t be satisfied until we see his corpse hanging by the heels outside a gas station.

  11. Hemidactylus says

    If Bessent or some other MAGAt with beef punched Musk and that’s all the damage that occurred they should be embarrassed. Makes more sense that Musk’s demon spawn did that. Or maybe I’m disappointed in the lack of a shattered face. I mean take a good look at the cover of Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power first next time!

    People speculate it was accidental self injury after some party drugs. He should have familiarized himself with William Holden if so.

  12. John Morales says

    What I’m getting is that one gets one’s comforts where one can.

    (I’ve had worse playing with my dog)

  13. dangerousbeans says

    @ Hemidactylus
    Do any of these fools seem like they would know how to throw a punch?

  14. says

    Musk got beat up by Scott Bessent? I really can’t decide which of those two comes out looking more pathetic…Not that it matters…

  15. snarkhuntr says

    According to President Trump, Musk is “not really leaving” and will continue to be “back and forth” to the White House.
    “It’s his baby,” Trump said of Musk’s work with Doge, short for the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency…

    Well, that’s reassuring actually. If he legitimately thinks of Doge as if it were one of his children, the most consistent thing in the world he could do is abandon it for others to take care of.

  16. lochaber says

    mikey@13> this guy gets it

    dangerousbeans@16>my thoughts exactly, these are a bunch of incompetent shit-talkers that hide behind their wealth and status

  17. outis says

    I’d suggest a full-scale, general fistfight with pigs and chickens thrown into the melee:

    this describes their style perfectly. Art anticipating reality, what?

  18. rorschach says

    Whether it was his kid (you know, the one he carries on his shoulders all the time to protect him from snipers) or Bessent, I hope it happens more often. Musk may have 12 or more kids, but it is estimated his DOGE cuts killed 300.000 of them since he started in the Trump admin, by disease or starvation. Evil man.

  19. birgerjohansson says

    rorschach @ 21
    Holy crap. I knew the cuts would kill people, I did not know the scale.

    May he perish from a disease that could have been prevented if funding had been available.

  20. StevoR says

    @ rorschach : Not doubting it – its horribly plausible even probable – but do you have a source for that 300.000 kids killed by DOGE cuts figure please?

    PS, Yet more proof that the 2 (& ONLY two) major American parties are NOT remotely the same or anywhere near as bad as each other. There would NEVER have been a DOGE under Kamala ofc.

    BTW. New covid strain has been spreading folks :

    https://www.respiratorytherapyzone.com/covid-19-comeback/

    So do beware and take care given that yáll.

  21. says

    Oh, PZ, shame on you! You used the ‘N’ word: ‘Normal’. I haven’t used that word for many years. There is no normal!

  22. says

    Of course, the miscreant muskrat’s miscreant offspring rubbing boogers in the resolute desk in the oval office is an absolutely accurate and poetic summation of the mump cult’s contribution to society.

  23. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: Hemidactylus @12:

    So was it actually from his son or from the confrontation with Bessent?

    Clearly, they both teamed up against Elon.

  24. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Re: StevoR @23:

    do you have a source for that 300.000 kids killed by DOGE cuts figure please?

    98,924 adults, 206,420 children. 103 deaths per hour. Malaria, Tuberculosis, Diarrhea, Malnutrition, Pneumonia, Medicaid disruption, Neglected Tropical diseases, PEPFAR. Each cause has an itemized tally and a methodology write-up.

    ImpactCounter

    This dashboard visualizes the human impact of funding changes for aid and support organizations.

    About page

    [Dr. Brooke Nichols] is an infectious disease mathematical modeller and health economist specializing in transmission dynamics, implementation modeling, and optimal resource allocation. Her expertise spans HIV, tuberculosis, SARS-CoV-2, and other pathogens of pandemic potential. […] Her work has significantly influenced national and global health policies, contributing to WHO guidance on HIV prevention and care, SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics strategies, and the development of innovative diagnostic Target Product Profiles.

    Methodology

    All estimates have been reviewed by Brooke Nichols, and a group of dedicated graduate students and postdocs.

  25. Marissa van Eck says

    I’ve been saying this for a while now but it bears repeating: there is going to be a housing crisis in Hell when these people finally die.

    Or maybe the place really is all full up and all the demons are here. At this point I neither know nor care.

  26. John Morales says

    98,924 adults, 206,420 children. 103 deaths per hour. Malaria, Tuberculosis, Diarrhea, Malnutrition, Pneumonia, Medicaid disruption, Neglected Tropical diseases, PEPFAR. Each cause has an itemized tally and a methodology write-up.

    Hm. Arguable whether that is a sin of commission or a sin of omission, since withdrawing live-saving aid is not actually killing people. Most of us consider that ‘killed by [so-and-so]’ to be the former.
    I mean, if I don’t donate a kidney to save a life I could have saved thereby, am I killing some person?

    (So, kinda misleading)

  27. CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain says

    Reuters

    Pe Kha Lau, 71, died on Sunday after becoming short of breath four days after she was sent home from a healthcare facility funded by the U.S.
    […]
    When […] she asked to go back to the hospital, her daughter […] told Reuters through tears. “I had to tell her that there is no hospital,”
    […]
    Pe Kha Lau’s son-in-law, Tin Win, said “whenever she got short of breath, I would carry her right away back to hospital and she would be fine […] I work as a day laborer. We can’t afford oxygen at home,”

  28. badland says

    Anecdata: I had extended conversations with the owner of a mercenary-for-hire group (‘Private Security’) a few months ago who was tasked to run an assessment about the situation in northern Nigeria in terms of safety for mining investment. He has spent years in north-central Africa, he knows whereof he speaks.

    His conclusion was that large parts of the Nigerian sahel was almost entirely supported by USAID. It’s a marginally viable environment and USAID was the major source of food for hundreds of thousands of people. Families in that area are very large on average, and young.

    That aid is gone now.

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