The Trump-Musk Conflict Runs Through Los Angeles – and Ukraine
The Kremlin is becoming increasingly unhappy with Donald Trump as it struggles to realize its war plans. Will he fall in line?
Many are viewing the recent dust-up between Elon Musk and Donald Trump as a clash among billionaires with big personalities. It's an entertaining spectacle, and everyone has a pet theory about what's driving each man's grievances; however few are actually looking at the roots of the conflict and what it means for the broader global rift that encompasses everything from the current unrest in Los Angeles to Putin's war in Ukraine. Here's what our analysis shows.
Kremlin Dissatisfaction with Trump
In recent weeks, Donald Trump has adopted a didactic tone with Vladimir Putin, calling him “crazy” and demanding “peace” in Ukraine. While Trump has taken care to reserve equal or greater criticism for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the Kremlin still seems displeased with Trump's sloppy execution.
As a result, many Kremlin-aligned voices have been speaking up against Trump. Julia Davis, a journalist who monitors Russian media, noted that Vladimir Soloviev (a prominent regime propagandist) and Dimitri Simes (an author and pundit) “surmised that Trump is failing on every front and has no discernible master plan.”
Likewise, a survey of Russia-aligned social media accounts conducted by America 2.0 revealed that a significant number had sided with Musk over Trump in their battle over the “Big Beautiful Bill” appropriations legislation currently in reconciliation in the Senate. Musk has defended the positions of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who are adamantly opposed to the bill on grounds that it will significantly increase the deficit and the national debt.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has long shared views with Rep. Massie, came out strongly against the ‘BBB’ legislation after Musk's attack on the bill seemed to give her cover. She focused her derision on the fact that the legislation bans any state-level regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) for a period of ten years, claiming that she had not read the whole bill and didn't know it contained such a provision.
Several other prominent voices came out in support of Musk, Massie, and Paul, including Russia-aligned right-wing influencers Patrick Bet-David, Candace Owens, Cassandra MacDonald, Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Andrew Tate, and Naomi Wolf; UK journalist Kit Klarenberg, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and the Russian propagandist Vladimir Soloviev also expressed support.
Many others indicated a desire for the two men to reconcile their differences, including Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, Kanye West, UK author and podcaster Konstantin Kisin, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson, and influencer Mike Benz.
Los Angeles Unrest and the Big Beautiful Bill
Trump's allies have found that as conflict has erupted in Los Angeles, it provides useful grounds for attacking Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, and by proxy, Elon Musk. Stephen Miller, an advisor to the president who has also architected the administration's deportation program, has come out hard in favor of the BBB, which contains provisions alleged to improve border security, and against Massie and Paul.
Yesterday Miller wrote, “Stand with ICE. Pass the BBB.” He also attacked a post by Sen. Paul critical of spending specified in the bill, calling it “dishonest.” Mike Cernovich, another pro-Trump influencer wrote, “Massie and Rand Paul do not support open borders, they merely find a way to oppose border security whenever we are about to get it, ‘on principle.’”
Massie and Paul have become the default targets of BBB proponents, earning them the title “open borders libertarians” from many critics. However, some libertarians are openly endorsing a “Paul/Massie 2028” ticket, with Jack Dorsey amplifying one such post.
While Elon Musk may have agreed to temporarily halt hostilities with the President, that may represent only a tactical retreat. The rift over spending is real and irreducible; Massie, Paul, and Musk are clearly on one side, and Trump is on the other. Trump seems content to keep extending the debt ceiling and increase spending to suit his personal interests, but this will not ultimately serve those of the Kremlin.
And while Putin is surely happy to see Los Angeles burning as the country lurches towards default on its debt, the looming schism over spending within the GOP will become unavoidable in the run-up to the 2026 midterms. Musk seems prepared to shape that contest in multiple ways, including with his vast wealth and his proposed new America political party. He may also unleash other less conventional ideas; for example, no one knows what purpose his Texas-based corporation called “United States of America, Inc.” might be intended to serve.
The Kremlin has hooks into both sides of the divide. And if Trump doesn't deliver for them, it's reasonable to expect a full-blown battle between Musk, Massie, Paul and other Kremlin proxies, and Trump and MAGA remnants.
Kremlin's Ukraine War Plans Depend on American Disengagement
The Institute for the Study of War recently released a report that concluded that Russia intends to seize much of southern and eastern Ukraine by the end of 2026. The report suggests that “Putin’s theory of victory depends on the Western alliance backing Ukraine abandoning Ukraine as a necessary condition to bring about this scale of advance.”
In practice, this means that the remainder of the Kremlin's long-standing war plans against the West, and specifically the US, must be implemented soon. Sources like Project Russia and the work of Sergei Glazyev, architect of the BRICS currency project, explicitly seek to undermine the US dollar, the Federal Reserve, and to diminish US standing in the world.
Glenn Diesen, an academic and commentator aligned with the Kremlin's positions, said regarding Musk, “Elon Musk is correct. The US is exhausting itself with unsustainable debt. The US must make big cuts and accept a more modest role in the world, or it will hit a wall soon. Nobody in the world would benefit from the latter, which would be disruptive and destructive.”
This week, Elon Musk's father, Errol Musk, was in Moscow as a headliner at the Forum of the Future 2050, an event held by Konstantin Malofeyev, a traditionalist Putin ally who has partnered with Russian geopolitical theorist Aleksandr Dugin on the Tsargrad Institute, a Russian think tank and media outlet. The elder Musk suggested that Elon made a mistake in tangling with the president and that they would soon be back on good terms.
Sergei Glazyev, whose book The Last World War: The US to Move and Lose outlines the dollar collapse agenda, also spoke at the event, as did Dmitry Simes (cited in the Soloviev video above.)
Glazyev co-founded the Rodina (Motherland) Party in Russia, and has been supportive of Vladimir Putin, while criticizing banking policies, arguing in favor of a new BRICS currency regime, apart from the country's central bank. Glazyev was also close with Lyndon Larouche, whose think-tank, the Schiller Institute, is now run by his wife Helga Zepp-Larouche.
The Schiller Institute has been close with Ron Paul and the libertarian faction within the GOP, along with networks aligned with Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Thomas Massie has also repeatedly introduced legislation to “End the Fed,” which would terminate the Federal Reserve system — another longstanding Kremlin wish, and an explicit part of the Kremlin's war plans.
This Is a War — Not a Soap Opera
Americans have fallen into cripplingly provincial and destructive frames for evaluating domestic politics. While it's facile (and fun!) to view the Musk-Trump conflict in terms of personalities, greed, and business interests, they are also avatars for much wider networks. If, for example, one believes the Trump-Musk fight is theater (or kayfabe) then the Massie-Paul vs. Miller conflict must be as well. That's just not the case.
Russia's war isn't just against Ukraine — it is against the entire West. What happens here is critical to the rest of the world, thanks to interconnected webs of capital and information flows.
The Musk-Trump conflict resonates everywhere from Washington and Moscow to Kyiv, and includes Massie, Paul, Glazyev, the dollar, and the future of US power. And while that conflict may be pushed into the background for the moment, it's anything but resolved.
Expect the MAGA-libertarian rift to come into sharp relief in the run-up to the 2026 midterms, and as the Kremlin becomes increasingly anxious to see its strategic war plans fulfilled. Trump has to decide whether to serve himself or to serve Putin. And the Kremlin is making it clear that he has only one choice. Should he make the wrong decision, impeachment or the 25th amendment await.◼
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Dave Troy
Dave Troy
Dave Troy
Joe Walsh Senior Editor, Politics
