The Elon Musk and Donald Trump Feud Proves Men Are Just Too Emotional to Be in Charge
The Elon Musk and Donald Trump feud is proving to women what weâve known all along: Boys are simply too emotional to be running the country.
Their once-celebrated, big, beautiful bromance that showed us all what a strong alliance between two alpha males could be has imploded this week, and the fallout is playing out in front of the entire country.
Iâd love to say I was surprised. But didnât you often find the way they spoke to each other a little hysterical? Watching their press conferences was often a bit like watching two divas mercurially circle each otherâand we all know how painful and destructive friendship breakups can be. History is riddled with them. Ryan Murphy makes a living off them!
As with all epic friendship implosions, Musk and Trump were besties for a minute. The worldâs richest man hitched his wagon to the former president slowly, beginning with his decision in 2022 to allow Trump back on Twitter, which he had bought and rebranded as X. Over the next few years, Muskâs once-left-leaning political beliefs began to morph, until he became one of Trumpâs most powerful surrogates during the 2024 campaign.
âAs you can see, Iâm not just MAGAâIâm dark MAGA,â Musk said during his first Trump rally in October 2024. He was all in.
Soon, these besties were inseparable, with Musk and his young son X a constant fixture by the presidentâs side (that was a little ridiculous, right? Shouldnât he have been at home raising his son, instead of bringing him to work?). Even as the two men presented a united front, many people could see that these two wouldnât last. A friendship can only have one superstar, and both men thought they were it. They were doomed.
The implosion that inevitably ensued was so boy-coded: dramatic, hysterical, and way too much. Isnât that so like men, though? They are always unable to stop their emotions from clouding their judgment, playing out a public bitch fight for all to see. Of course, we all tuned in. Who could resist a battle between two drama kings?
Trump hysterically threatened to kill Muskâs government contracts. Musk, like the messy bitch he is, said the president would have lost the election without his support, then claimed Trump had not released the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files because he was included in the documents. Trump called Musk âcrazy.â Musk said he hopes the president would be impeached, which is kind of the president version of Tai calling Cher a âvirgin who canât drive.â
By Friday morning, Trump told CNN that he was ânot even thinking about Elon,â which is totally something that someone who is definitely not consumed with thoughts of Elon would say. SighâŠletting his emotions get the best of him again. Doesnât he have serious president work to do?
Of course, Iâm not being serious. But I raise these issues with humor for a very serious reason. There are a lot of ways to describe the series of events that have played out on a global stage: completely humiliating to every American citizen, concerning for the future of our country, or rage-inducing when we think of what these two could be doing with their time instead. But what gives this moment a particular thread of irony is the fact that our country has never elected a woman as president, largely due to the belief that our gender does not have the emotional capacity to handle the job.
In 2019, after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton but before he defeated Kamala Harris, Georgetown University released a poll that said one in eight Americans thought that women were not as emotionally suited as men to hold public office, a figure that the pollsters said was slowly lessening but still substantial enough to make an impact.
âExpectations of women remain rooted in long-held stereotypes about their roles as caregivers and nurturers,â it reads. âThe characteristics associated with these roles are not necessarily seen as compatible with the responsibilities of the commander in chief.â
If women try to emulate these characteristics, the poll reads, they still face hurdles. Attempting to seem âstrong and decisiveâ can lead to women candidates being viewed as less âlikeable,â which, unlike for male candidates, âis more important than any other factor to a womanâs success in a political race.â
As any woman who has a younger brother knows, the idea that men are inherently less emotional than women is a ridiculous notion (sorry to mine, love you), but yet this sexist idea persists. But Elon Musk and Donald Trumpâs feud is a pretty clear-cut example that men are just as prone to emotional outbursts, bad judgment, and ridiculous behavior as any woman. Because, guess what, weâre all human. But actually, itâs hard to imagine a woman politician ever airing their dirty laundry in public in this way, considering how much more scrutiny they receive in the first place.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, the misogynists are still trying to convince us that this whole meltdown is somehow strong leadership, not a scene resembling a two-on-one date on The Bachelor between two women who arenât there For the Right Reasons.
âSome of yâall cant handle 2 high agency males going at it and it really shows,â wrote far-right influencer Jack Posobiec on Twitter. âThis is direct communication (phallocentric) vs indirect communication (gynocentric).â
Putting aside the ridiculous phrase âhigh agency males,â I have to say I donât think the bro-washing is going to work this time. Itâs almost like every excuse that women canât be trusted to be in charge is just garden-variety misogyny, and if you didnât vote for Clinton or Harris because, you told yourself, you were worried they couldnât handle the job, itâs time to look in the mirror and admit that youâre just biased.
But what do I know? Iâm just a woman after all.
