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The Fox & Friends spin was a sure sign that yes, Trump is definitely bothered by \u201cPresident Musk\u201d memes. They hosts also described Musk’s tweets as “a warning shot from the president.”<\/p>\n
On Fox & Friends yesterday morning, the show opened with discussions about the looming government shutdown (it was averted late last night).<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be clear about what happened: Speaker Mike Johnson negotiated a bipartisan deal to fund the government that was set to go until Elon Musk started tweeting<\/a>, with a bunch of disinformation, that the deal should be rejected. The MAGA Republicans fell in line. \u201cDeal maker\u201d Donald Trump seemed to leave it all up to his megadonor and apparent puppetmaster, Musk.<\/p>\n Rep. Pramila Jayapal summed it up nicely<\/a> when she posted, \u201cThere was a bipartisan deal to stop a government shutdown. But now, shadow President Elon Musk is calling the shots and Mike Johnson, Trump, and Republicans are falling in line. It\u2019s clear who\u2019s in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n Ruh-roh!<\/p>\n Meanwhile, President-Unelected Musk started whining on Friday what seemed to me an implicit admission that he is indeed calling the shots: \u201cThe political & legacy media puppets all got their new instructions yesterday and are now parroting the same message to drive a wedge between [Trump] and me. They will fail,\u201d he tweeted<\/a>. I noticed his message is not that Trump is really in charge but that there\u2019s no wedge between them.<\/p>\n Well, maybe no wedge yet. The New Republic<\/a> reported yesterday, \u201cOn Thursday, a Trump spokesperson\u00a0insisted<\/a>\u00a0that the president-elect, and no one else, was in charge, saying, \u2018President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.\u2019\u201d Which is a good indication that a wedge is forming, if not already there.<\/p>\n Friday morning, Fox & Friends quickly got to sending the same message. Their discussion about the budget negotiations, just a few minutes into the show, displayed large photos of Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson.\u00a0 Musk was not in those pictures. Cohost Lawrence Jones offered up his written notes of a conversation with Trump the night before.<\/p>\n First, Jones relayed that Trump has \u201cfull confidence\u201d in Johnson and that Trump blames the House Freedom Caucus, not Mike Johnson for the Republican revolt against the bill.<\/p>\n Jones \u201cforgot\u201d to mention Musk\u2019s role in killing the original bill.<\/p>\n Then Jones inadvertently revealed that Trump is too lazy to deal with the negotiations himself. \u201cI asked him about him going to Washington himself to handle negotiations,\u201d Jones reported. \u201cHe said that\u2019s a possibility but there\u2019s about to be a shutdown and he\u2019s prepared for the shutdown.\u201d Then, Trump blamed his own laziness on President Joe Biden, \u201cWhy am I handling this negotiation when we have a current president in Joe Biden?\u201d Jones quoted Trump as saying. Then why is Musk? The question did not seem to occur to Jones.<\/p>\n Finally, Jones got to President-Unelected Musk. Rather than tell viewers that Musk hasn\u2019t been running the show, Lawrence attacked Democrats for stating the obvious. The deflection was another sign that the President Musk title is appropriate.<\/p>\n JONES: The last thing I say on this, because a lot of people are coming out there and saying that Elon Musk is the president-elect. The Democrats have to pick a talking point. Either Donald Trump is going to be a dictator on Day One and run everything and ruin the infrastructure of the country, or he\u2019s ceded his power to Elon Musk. It can\u2019t be both.<\/p>\n Yes, it can be both. Clearly, Trump sees Musk as his soulmate in far-right dictatorship, and with good reason<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cohost Brian Kilmeade jumped in to tweak the messaging. The Democrats were beside the point, for the moment. \u201cThe Musk thing didn\u2019t bother the president,\u201d Kilmeade gently prompted.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, it did not bother the president,\u201d Jones agreed. \u201cAs I said yesterday, the Musk tweet was a warning shot from the president. They\u2019re in lockstep on this. This is why the president appointed him for this commission [cutting spending for regular folks to help pay for<\/a> more tax cuts to billionaires). Him and Vivek, they\u2019re doing what the president wants them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n So, the Trump\/Fox spin is that Musk is secretly doing Trump\u2019s bidding and that\u2019s why he\u2019s not bothered by references to President Musk. Got it.<\/p>\n But Jones did not say Musk is doing what Trump wants. He said Musk is “doing what the president wants.” Freudian slip as to who the president really is? I don’t pretend to know. But I do know that Donald Trump is not the president, Joe Biden is.<\/p>\n You can watch what I think is evidence that Trump is<\/em> bothered below, from the December 20, 2024 Fox & Friends.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n