WARMINGTON: Trump-Musk feud 'helps no one' as Mr. Wonderful offers to mediate
Dragons' Den star says president, world's richest man need to settle differences for good of U.S.
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Just as it appears their relationship is broken for good, there is still hope among conservatives that Mr. Wonderful might be the guy to get U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk back on the same page.
“They have got to do it,” Kevin O’Leary told the Toronto Sun. “It’s in the best interest of America and the whole world that the biggest industrialist and the most powerful man in the world work together, achieve greatness and not be fighting.”
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It makes sense.
But the bottom line is you can’t get the richest person in the world to do what you want him to do if he doesn’t want to do it. That may include making things right with Trump.
On Tuesday, Musk was not only posting on X about his America Party opposing Republicans and Democrats, but he was also going at Trump for the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein file with government saying the sex trafficker was not murdered, did not have a client list and did not try to blackmail guests on his infamous island.
Musk certainly doesn’t seem to believe that. He has been saying for months there is a “mountain of evidence” on the Epstein case that must be released to the public.
“How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?” Musk posted Tuesday to his X account, which has 220 million followers.
That was another shot across the bow. Weeks ago, Musk was on the inside of the Trump administration and even when he left he was given a special key to America by the president himself. But something changed. Musk started suggesting Trump is mentioned in the Epstein files and that he had also let the U.S. down by not tackling the debt.
While the X, Space X and Tesla CEO admitted he went too far with the feud, he surprised many by floating the idea of the America Party with a barrage of not-so-veiled barbs at Trump and his administration.
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste and graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom,” Musk posted to X.
Who knows if this party will really happen. Trump called it “ridiculous” and O’Leary agreed.
“It’s just bad,” he told me. “It helps no one.”
O’Leary, who said their first tiff was akin to a “lovers’ quarrel,” has offered to call both men and encourage them to bury the hatchet for the good of the U.S. He suggested they go to one of Trump’s golf clubs and talk it out.
“I’m thinking of calling both up myself and saying, ‘This is stupid’” O’Leary said on Fox News. “What matters is that these two are working together. These are giant egos and it’s not good for America.”
He said he would tell both what it was like to work with late Apple founder Steve Jobs, who was a “nasty guy,” “always right” and focused on results in which everybody around him benefitted.
“He was 80% signal and 20% noise,” O’Leary said, noting he learned a “lot” from Jobs.
O’Leary said he would remind Trump that when it comes to Musk, he says what’s on his mind and plows ahead to get things done. He would then remind Musk that in politics “there has to be give and take” and sometimes you need to have something like Trump’s “big beautiful bill” to plant the field for the future to cut down on spending and waste.
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Compromise is the word. Most people have to that in their lives. But when it comes to the richest and most powerful, it’s understandable how that word is not something they would adhere to often and it doesn’t appear Trump and Musk are ready to that.
Trump has suggested that Musk should try his luck in his native South Africa, while Musk keeps kicking the Epstein hornets’ nest.
The relationship seems broken and unrepairable to most. But not to O’Leary, who knows both men.
“I don’t think so,” said the legendary Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank star. “I have seen both change their mind. They can find a way to work this out.”
It’s not lost on Musk that his Tesla stock dropped significantly this week and Trump can do the math on what Musk’s money and influence can provide to candidates running for a third party in next year’s midterms.
“Trump and Elon have to get back together again,” said O’Leary.
As of right now, it’s a game of chicken with both cars speeding directly toward a head-on collision where perhaps no one survives.
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