Musk and Trump: Surprised That They Are Both Petulant Children?
They told us who they were — but we just didn’t want to listen
Donald Trump spent decades preening for tabloid cameras, feuding with celebrities, dodging taxes, cheating contractors, and failing upward through a string of bankruptcies.
Elon Musk built his empire on hype, public subsidies, and borrowed genius, firing employees for disagreeing with him and spreading memes instead of managing companies.
Both were media darlings — not because they were wise, accomplished, or virtuous, but because they were loud, rich, and entertaining.
And then, somehow, we gave them power.
We handed the nuclear codes to one and the infrastructure of information, transportation, and finance to the other. In doing so, we didn’t just gamble with our institutions. We enabled the rise of a new American archetype: the adolescent strongman, a boy-king with money and influence but no discipline, compassion, or moral compass.
The myth of genius and strength
Our culture has always had a thing for the “great man.” We like to believe that history bends around exceptional individuals — visionaries with the courage to defy convention and drag the world forward. But when we stop distinguishing between greatness and narcissism, we mistake petulance for principle and impulsivity for leadership.
Musk’s fans insist he’s a genius — and he certainly helped scale some transformative technologies. But much of the engineering brilliance behind Tesla and SpaceX came from people he hired, bullied, and eventually discarded. What Musk excels at is branding. He’s a master illusionist, selling stock valuations and cultural myths with the same bravado he uses to insult journalists and wreak havoc with DOGE. That’s not leadership. That’s performance.
Trump, likewise, sold himself as a dealmaker, a titan of business who could “fix” government. But behind the gold-plated façade was a man obsessed with loyalty, terrified of accountability, and incapable of sustained focus. His strength was an act — one honed on reality television, refined at rallies, and weaponized on Twitter. It was never about governing. It was about attention.
When ego meets authority
The real danger comes when adolescent ego is combined with actual power.
Both Musk and Trump demonstrate a defining trait of arrested development: the inability to tolerate limits. Whether it’s regulatory oversight, constitutional checks, or basic human decency, they regard any constraint as an insult. Trump lashes out at judges and generals. Musk taunts regulators and torpedoes his own acquisitions just to show he can.
They surround themselves with sycophants, dismiss experts, and insist that “only they” can fix things. Their default response to criticism isn’t reflection but revenge. They don’t lead — they rule, like playground bullies with billions.
This isn’t just annoying. It’s corrosive. It erodes norms, undermines institutions, and normalizes chaos. When a president calls the press “the enemy of the people” or a tech mogul amplifies conspiracy theories and antisemitic memes, it’s not just juvenile — it’s dangerous.
They didn’t steal power — we gave it to them
We’d love to pretend that Trump and Musk hijacked the system. That they conned us, or gamed the rules, or slipped through the cracks. But the truth is more damning: they are who we chose.
Trump didn’t seize the presidency — he won it with tens of millions of votes, a willing media, and a compliant political party. Musk didn’t wrest control of Twitter, the electric vehicle market, and satellite technology— we handed it to him through subsidies, investment, and cult-like adulation.
We were complicit. We rewarded cruelty with airtime, meanness with memes, and disruption with deference. We mistook cynicism for savvy, petulance for authenticity, and volatility for vision.
Worse, we built systems that catered to their worst impulses. Social media monetized outrage. Capital markets rewarded hype over substance. Our political discourse collapsed into culture war theater, where facts and values mattered less than who could “own” the other side.
In such a landscape, of course two emotionally stunted narcissists would rise. The system wasn’t broken — it was functioning exactly as warped incentives dictated.
Adolescents in a burning house
Now we’re living with the consequences.
Trump is back in power, unrepentant and unleashed. He’s purging civil servants, empowering loyalists, and weaponizing ICE and the DOJ. His administration’s war on democratic norms is no longer hypothetical — it’s happening in real time.
Musk, meanwhile, has turned Twitter (X) into a playground for trolls and fascists while claiming leadership in everything from electric vehicles to space exploration. He positions himself as a free speech absolutist while silencing critics and promoting authoritarians.
They aren’t building the future. They’re breaking the present.
Worse still, they are modeling dysfunction for a new generation. Every tantrum Musk throws, every lie Trump tells, is absorbed and echoed by followers who mistake petulance for power and cruelty for conviction. They aren’t just leading — they’re training others to emulate their worst traits.
What do we do now?
We can’t pretend to be surprised anymore. The warning signs were always there. The question is what we do about it.
First, we must stop worshiping wealth and charisma. Being rich or famous doesn’t make someone smart, wise, or fit to lead. In fact, the accumulation of vast wealth or power without corresponding accountability is often a red flag, not a recommendation.
Second, we need to rebuild the institutions they’ve weakened. That means restoring the independence of the press, the rule of law, the integrity of public service, and the regulatory guardrails that keep private empires in check.
Third, we must recognize the difference between innovation and disruption. Not all change is good. Not every “disruptor” is a visionary. Some are just vandals in expensive suits.
And finally, we need to grow up — as a culture, as voters, and as citizens. A mature democracy doesn’t hand the reins to bullies and man-children. It demands character, competence, and humility from its leaders.
Tell our senators and representatives that enough is enough — stop enabling this insanity and do your jobs — or pay the price at the next election.
The bill always comes due
The truth is that Trump and Musk are not anomalies. They are symptoms — of a political and economic culture that mistakes noise for significance and dominance for wisdom. They rose because we mistook adolescent rebellion and egotistical bravado for adult leadership.
But adolescence, left unchecked, turns reckless. And when that recklessness is given real power, the damage multiplies. We’re no longer dealing with impulsive tweets or broken promises. We’re watching constitutional norms unravel, public trust evaporate, and the machinery of governance bend to the whims of ego.
We have a choice: continue indulging our fascination with rich narcissists and strongman cosplay — or reclaim our democracy from those who treat it like a toy.
Because if we insist on handing the keys to petulant adolescents, we should not be surprised when they wreck the car.
