Author Archives: brendochka39

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About brendochka39

Having a wonderful time reminiscing about all my past travel (and other) adventures. Hope you’ll share them with me in my blog, “All Roads Led to Russia.”

6/10/25: The Mystery of Joseph Tater

A few days ago, an article appeared regarding a U.S. citizen, Joseph Tater, having left Russia after a detention of nearly a year on charges of “petty hooliganism,” which he denied, and later also of using violence against a police officer in connection with an incident in a Moscow hotel in August of 2024. Following a court hearing in April of this year, he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital treatment for treatment.

According to Russian news agency TASS, Tater was discharged on June 6th because “the clinic had no reason to keep [him] and released him for outpatient treatment.” [RFE/RL, June 6, 2025.]


I had first read about Tater’s plight following his removal to the hospital, and commented on it on April 6th of this year, as follows:

“[Tater] was arrested in August of 2024 following a confrontation in an upscale Moscow hotel (unnamed). He allegedly became abusive and ‘behaved aggressively’ when asked to see his documents. He was refused accommodation at the hotel, and police were called; he later is said to have grabbed the arm of a police officer, which constitutes assault. [Associated Press, April 6, 2025.]

“According to Russia’s TASS news agency, at a court hearing in September, Tater claimed to have come to Russia seeking political asylum because he was being persecuted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was scheduled to stand trial on April 14th of this year on charges of assaulting a police officer, which carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment. [Id.]

“The tale gets a big murky here. A Moscow court has ordered Tater admitted “non-voluntarily” to a psychiatric hospital on the basis of a medical evaluation on March 15th, when doctors described him as displaying signs of ‘tension, impulsivity, persecutory delusions, and lack of self-awareness regarding his condition.’ [Id.]

“Yet TASS had previously reported that he had been released from pretrial detention at the end of March. The two reports are obviously contradictory, and it is unclear when the court’s decision was actually rendered, or whether he ever was released at all.In any event, Tater is reportedly now living in the hell of a Russian psychiatric ward — a common practice in Soviet times that, according to human rights groups, is being increasingly employed by Vladimir Putin’s regime. His defense attorney has appealed his hospitalization on the grounds that it is an attempt to ‘isolate the defendant from society.’ [Id.]”

Joseph Tater in Moscow Court

*. *. *

But you haven’t heard the strangest part yet. The recent article concerning his release from the psychiatric hospital “for outpatient treatment” then states — again according to TASS — that “Tater was no longer in Russia but that his current whereabouts were unclear.” [RFE/RL, op.cit.]

To muddy the waters still further, there has been no immediate comment by either the U.S. Embassy in Moscow or the State Department in Washington. However, a Kremlin source is quoted as saying that Tater was one of nine Americans being held in Russia that the U.S. wanted returned in a prisoner exchange as reportedly discussed between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on May 20th. [Id.]

So the question remains: Where is Joseph Tater? If he’s not in a Russian prison or psychiatric hospital — in fact, not in Russia at all — and hasn’t been traded in order to return home to the U.S., then what has happened to him?

The Russian judicial system does not release foreign prisoners to wander the streets without a pre-arranged destination. If he has been receiving “outpatient treatment,” his whereabouts should be known. And if he is in U.S. custody, then the State Department should have an answer. Either he is still in Russia, or he isn’t.

There may, of course, be a logical explanation. I only hope it is a favorable one for Mr. Tater.


Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/10/25

6/9/25: It’s National Donald Duck Day

I grew up with Donald and his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, along with all of their Disney friends. Their cartoons kept my generation, and my children’s generation, laughing at their silly, innocent antics.

But if the irrepressible, though sometimes irritable, little fellow were around today, and you were to ask him what he thought of the way the world has changed since his birth in 1934, I guarantee his answer would have been:

“Awww . . . phooey!”


And who could blame him?

But happy birthday anyway, Donald. (And sorry about that other guy with the same first name . . . )

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/9/25

6/9/25: Stop the Presses! Alert the Media! “DOGE” is now a verb!


It may be this decade’s ultimate irony. At the very least, it made one hell of a headline for Saturday’s “Wall Street Journal”:

“DOGE Staffers Fear Getting DOGE’d Themselves.” *

[* Scott Patterson and Ken Thomas, WSJ, June 7, 2025.]


They were mostly young, well-educated, but inexperienced; and they were suddenly given jobs of great responsibility and importance, no doubt flattered to have been the chosen ones, promised great things in terms of future prospects. They were working for the richest man in the world and the occupant of the Oval Office in Washington, D.C. They really can’t be blamed for their arrogance and stupidity.

But the men who created the agency that hired them — the two who will suffer no financial hardship or moral uncertainty whatsoever — are certainly to blame. Because now, all the young, naive agents of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency — DOGE — who were recruited to slash costs by cutting government jobs and creating massive unemployment, are having to face the possibility that they themselves may be the next in line at the unemployment office.

They are in jeopardy of being DOGE’d.


On a human level, I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who, through no fault of their own, suddenly loses a job and a source of income. It is devastating, both emotionally and financially.

But looking at DOGE, not as a group of people but as its own entity — a dark, destructive, demonic, soul-sucking force, slashing away indiscriminately at everything in its path without a thought for the end result — well, then, the irony of the situation becomes almost too good to be true.


There are creatures on this earth — cockroaches, for example — that cling to life for a time even after the loss of their heads. And some other-worldly demons are said to be capable of resurrecting themselves after seemingly having been destroyed. While it remains to be seen whether DOGE will carry on without its head now that Elon Musk has fled Washington, it seems safe to assume that there will be changes . . . and possibly cutbacks in staff.

In all likelihood, DOGE — an illegitimate spawn from the time of its inception — will ultimately prove to be the genesis of its own destruction. Unfortunately, as with most of life’s mistakes, it will be the most vulnerable people who will suffer for it.


Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/9/25

6/8/25: Round Five: Do the Combatants Appear to be Getting Tired?

When we last dropped in on Washington’s version of the Hatfields and McCoys — could it have been only yesterday? — Steve Bannon had entered the scene to mix things up by suggesting a multi-pronged investigation of Elon Musk, whom he apparently considers to be the country’s Public Enemy #1.


So let’s catch up on the last 24 hours.

Later on Saturday, when asked by NBC News if he thought the relationship was at an end, Donald Trump himself replied, somewhat tersely: “I would assume so, yeah.” [Brandon Drenon, BBC News, June 7, 2025.]

As to Musk’s earlier threats to back Democratic candidates in the next elections, Trump said there would be “serious consequences” if that were to happen. But in a telephone interview with NBC News, he declined to comment further on what those consequences might be.

He did say — as to Steve Bannon’s suggestion of an investigation of Musk — that he had not yet had any discussions on that subject, and added that he had not thought about terminating any of the U.S. government’s contracts with Musk’s companies.

And when asked about the possibility of trying to repair their relationship, he replied:

“No. I have no intention of speaking to him.” [Nandita Bose, Reuters, June 7, 2025.]

“No!”

The spark that ignited this bonfire seems to have been Musk’s criticism of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” of which Trump is so nauseatingly proud: over 1,000 pages of what Musk — who would like us to believe he’s grown a conscience — called a “disgusting abomination” that would actually increase the budget deficit by some $2.4 trillion dollars over the next ten years. But Trump remains confident that the Senate will pass the bill by the upcoming 4th of July holiday, saying, with his usual brilliant clarity and articulation:

“In fact, yeah, people that were, were going to vote for it are now enthusiastically going to vote for it, and we expect it to pass.” [Id.]

And then the parrot so often seen perched on Trump’s shoulder, JD Vance, tossed in his two cents’ worth of gobbledegook, calling Musk’s criticism a “huge mistake,” and adding:

“I’m always going to be loyal to the president, and I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear. But I hope it is.”

And then Vance inexplicably described Musk as an “incredible entrepreneur.” [Id.]

I just wish those two — Frick and Frack, or Abbott and Costello, or Trump and Vance, or whatever their names are — would get their stories straight before opening their mouths. Because we members of the public would really like to understand what the hell they’re saying.


Or maybe that’s the whole idea . . .

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/8/25

6/8/25: Putin’s Hostages: Bring Them Home, Week 74: The Forgotten Hostages

One of the bloodiest, most notorious battles of Russia’s war against Ukraine took place in the early months of the invasion in Mariupol, a city on the Sea of Azov, where the last heroic defenders held out against the Russian onslaught in the Azovstal steel factory for three long months, from February 24th to May 20th. The difficulty of that battle has been a thorn in the Kremlin’s side for three years, leading Vladimir Putin to designate the Azov Brigade a terrorist organization and to call for its members to face tribunals and possible execution.

Wounded Azov Brigade Soldiers – Mariupol, Ukraine – May 10, 2022


Little wonder, then, that those fighters who were taken alive, and remain in Russian captivity, have consistently been passed over for exchange during the bilateral prisoner swaps, including the most recent one on May 25th of this year.

Following completion of the last phase of the exchange of 1,000 prisoners, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov, called the absence of any Azov fighters in the process a “disgrace to the entire state.” [Mykyta Peretiatko, RFE/RL, June 3, 2025.]

While Russia is generally being blamed for refusing to return any of the Azov prisoners, Prokopenko believes that Ukrainian officials are also at fault for sticking with a negotiating “mechanism that stopped working.” He has said:

“This feels like a mockery. If that were truly the case [that Russia was solely to blame], neither I nor other Azov fighters would have returned from captivity. [Id.]

Ukraine’s deputy head of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Andriy Yusov, disagreed and accused Russia of purposely complicating the exchange process in order to increase pressure on the Ukrainian government. He argued that “Our prisoners are in Putin’s hands . . . [Russian special services] exploit the prisoner issue for the purpose of warfare against Ukraine.” [Id.]

But, though Yusov is certainly not wrong, Prokopenko maintains that “We must find alternatives, offer them someone more valuable than a contracted soldier. Ukraine is packed with Russian agents; all our special services know this very well.” [Id.]

In other words, Ukraine should up the ante.

Regardless of the reasons for Russia’s continuing to stonewall the return of any members of the Azov Brigade, it is clear that three years is far too long a time to hold them when so many others have been sent home. The Ukrainian, European and U.S. negotiators must make this a priority in their continuing talks.

*. *. *

And in the meantime, here again is our list of those known to be held hostage of the Putin regime throughout Russia, Belarus and Ukraine:

Prisoners of War:

The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12

Political Prisoners:

David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Ihar Karney (in Belarus) on
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Mikita Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have missed.

You are not forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/8/25

6/7/25: Round Four: This Just Keeps Getting Better

As though this week’s exchanges between Donald Trump and Elon Musk weren’t enough to keep us amused, who should come crawling out from under his rock to add to the fun but Trump’s former friend and noted right-wing conspiracy theorist . . . none other than Steve Bannon.


And it sounds as though he may be trying to get back into Trump’s good graces. In addition to pushing for an unconstitutional third term for his ex-boss . . .

“Say what?!!”

. . . he is now taking Trump’s side against Musk by urging the administration to investigate the world’s wealthiest man for a variety of alleged misdeeds, including drug use, being in the pay of the Chinese government, and endangering national security in his role as head of DOGE.

Oh, and by the way — Bannon also questions Musk’s immigration status, and believes he may be subject to deportation.

In his own words:

“They have to do that. You have to take his security clearance. Investigate drug use and investigate his involvement [with China]. And you have to investigate his status as a citizen. If it turned out he overstayed visas and lied about it, it’s not right. It has to be investigated.” [Robert Costa, CBS News, June 6, 2025.]


I don’t know about you, but I haven’t had this much fun since I discovered “Would I Lie To You?” on British TV.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/7/25

6/7/25: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Is Back At Home … To Face Criminal Charges

In April of this year, the Trump administration caused yet another furor over its tyrannical and unconstitutional methods of dealing with the country’s large — and largely law-abiding — immigrant population . . . this time, in the person of one Kilmar Abrego Garcia.


Abrego Garcia, as you may recall, is a Salvadoran national, married to an American woman, who has been living in the United States since 2019 under a ruling by an immigration judge stating that he could not be deported to El Salvador because a gang there was targeting him and threatening him with death. He was never found to have had any connection with terrorist or other criminal organizations; and for six years, he has regularly checked in with immigration officials as required, and has never been convicted of a crime in the U.S.

But, in direct violation of a federal court order, Donald Trump and his henchmen in the Department of Justice decided he was a danger, labeled him a terrorist, and deported him to El Salvador, where he was immediately incarcerated in that country’s most notorious prison.

An order was issued by federal Judge Paula Xinis to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., to which Trump adviser Stephen Miller responded on social media:

“Marxist judge now thinks she’s president of El Salvador.” [John Fritze and Devan Cole, CNN, April 7, 2025.]

And when DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni was asked under oath why Abrego Garcia couldn’t be returned to the U.S., he answered frankly:

“The first thing I did when I got this case on my desk is ask my clients the same question.” [Id.]

As a “reward” for his honesty, both Reuveni and his supervisor were placed on leave.

*. *. *

Two months have passed, during which the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody. Donald Trump responded that he would try, but that he couldn’t tell the president of El Salvador what to do. And, to no one’s surprise, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele followed suit with his own gem:

“I hope you’re not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.” [Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak, CNN, April 14, 2025.]

Salvadoran President Bukele at the White House

Even when Senator Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Glenn Ivey refused to let the matter die, traveling to El Salvador in hopes of effecting the prisoner’s return, nothing happened, despite the government’s grudging admission that the deportation had been the result of an “administrative error.”

But now — after two months of delays — it seems that something has been happening behind the scenes after all: While the administration stalled, a case was being built and an indictment prepared against Abrego Garcia. That indictment — charging him with one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens — was unsealed in the federal district court in Nashville, Tennessee.

Apparently, all the Salvadoran president needed to change his mind was an arrest warrant. According to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi:

“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice. This is what American justice looks like.” [Melissa Quinn, Jacob Rosen and Nicole Valdes, CBS News, June 6, 2025.]

If this is what Ameican justice looks like now . . .

Bondi said that the grand jury had found that Abrego Garcia “played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring” involving women and children, and is “a danger to our community,” adding that, if convicted, he would be returned to El Salvador after serving his sentence in the United States. She also claimed that he had played a role in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother, and solicited naked pictures from a minor — though neither of those allegations had been mentioned in the indictment. [Id.]

*. *. *

Whether Abrego Garcia is guilty or innocent will be for a judge and jury to decide. But regardless of the outcome, there is no doubt that this entire matter has been botched from beginning to end, and that this man has already been punished without the due process of law guaranteed him — and each of us — under the U.S. Constitution. As his attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a statement:

“[Due process] means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice. [The government] disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order. Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him.”

I would hope, as we all would, that he will receive a fair and impartial trial of the charges against him. But I have to ask: Why Tennessee? He lives in Maryland. Where are the alleged crimes supposed to have been committed? At first face, Tennessee seems an odd venue for his trial; and if there is a good reason for it, I’d very much like to know what it is.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/7/25

6/6/25: How do you take the heat off of yourself? Simple: just shine the spotlight on someone else.

It’s called deflecting . . . and Donald Trump is an expert, with many decades of experience under his belt.

He used it against Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris, inventing dirt when he couldn’t find any, and magnifying whatever bits and pieces he did find. But those were active political opponents, and everyone knows that politics is a dirty game.


But what purpose does it serve for Trump, now firmly ensconced in the Oval Office once again, to lodge scurrilous charges against former President Joe Biden . . . a man who is now out of the political arena, and who — in what should be his golden years — is fighting a devastating health issue?

In an act of sheer meanness, Trump has ordered an investigation into Biden and his former White House aides, alleging a “conspiracy [to] deceive the public about Biden’s mental state.” [Kelly Ng, BBC News, June 4, 2025.]

His argument is that Biden’s aides’ use of an autopen — a signature device used for decades by other presidents, including Trump himself — was actually a ruse to “conceal Biden’s cognitive decline.” [Id.]


Toward the end of Biden’s presidency, it had become evident that he was slowing down. He was a man in his 80s, who walked a little more slowly, and occasionally stumbled. I do that. He sometimes took a few seconds to find just the right words to make a point. I do that, too. It’s a natural feature of physical aging, and it doesn’t necessarily indicate senility.

Franklin Roosevelt ran the country from a wheelchair. And before him, when Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke while in office, his wife Edith — an unelected non-official — became the country’s “secret president,” managing the Executive Office and deciding which matters to bring to her husband’s attention.

Corporate executives, professors, physicians, and other professionals have aides and assistants to ease the burden of the multitude of routine matters that arise on a daily basis. So do presidents . . . because there simply are not enough hours in the day for one person in a position of authority to handle them all. If Donald Trump had to attend to every minuscule detail himself, when would he ever find time to wage all of his personal battles against people like Biden, Obama, and now Elon Musk?


So why is he doing this, and why now? Is it merely to distract the public from some other issue? Does he consider Biden a continuing threat because of his potential influence over a segment of the voting public? Or — most likely — is he looking for an excuse to invalidate more of Biden’s earlier programs and executive actions?

Whatever his reasons, demeaning an 82-year-old man who has already faced challenges Trump cannot even imagine — the loss of his first wife and young child in a tragic accident, loss of an adult son to cancer, and now himself battling an aggressive form of cancer — is personally and professionally abhorrent. But it is typical of the sort of reprehensible behavior we have come to expect — and, worse, to accept — from a man who has spent a lifetime serving only himself and blithely destroying anyone who gets in his way.

Joe Biden was not a perfect president, because there is no such thing as a perfect person. But he is a man who has served his country to the best of his ability for many decades, and who does not deserve to be hounded by a mean-spirited, vengeful individual who has never had an altruistic thought or given of himself to anyone.

It simply isn’t right.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/6/25

6/6/25: Round Three of the Donnie/Elon Bout

At the risk of becoming annoyingly repetitious, I find myself thoroughly enjoying the continuing saga of the breakup of Washington’s most famous (or infamous?) duo . . . mainly because they seem to have been the only two people on Earth who didn’t see it coming.

While the whole world knew from the start that two such power-mad, egomaniacal narcissists could not possibly maintain such a close relationship for long, it was those very egos that kept each of them from admitting that the other one might dare to challenge him. But that is what happened, and now we are seeing the escalation of what promises to be a protracted, down-and-dirty separation.

What fun!

To recap briefly, first Elon criticized Donnie’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” as being the opposite of what it professed to be. Then Donnie said Elon was ungrateful for all the favors he, Donnie, had done for him, Elon (the richest man in the world, who clearly doesn’t need favors from anyone). Then Elon doubled down and said Donnie should be grateful to him, because it was he, Elon, who had put him, Donnie, in the White House in the first place.

Fighting words, indeed . . . because we all know that Donnie can’t tolerate anyone else’s taking credit for anything. So he fought back yesterday with the biggest weapon in his arsenal: his executive power. He has threatened to attack Elon where it really hurts — in the old profit-and-loss statement — saying:

“The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts.” [Anthoy Zurcher, BBC News, June 5, 2025.]


Oh, dear!

But wait . . . Elon has his own armory. First he called for — dare I even say it? — Trump’s impeachment. Next he threatened to prematurely decommission his SpaceX company’s Dragon spacecraft, which the U.S. relies on to shuttle our astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.

And then, yesterday afternoon, he dropped what he called the “really big bomb” . . . suggesting, though without evidence (yet), that Donnie appears in unreleased files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. [Id.]

Holy . . .

Now it’s getting really personal. And nasty. Though, come to think of it, another disgusting episode from Donnie’s past shouldn’t really come as a huge surprise to anyone. But still, something may have struck a nerve, because later, the White House’s Press Secretary — the always exhilarating Karoline Leavitt — had only this to offer:

“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.” [Id.]

In all fairness, Ms. Leavitt has one of the world’s most difficult jobs — right up there with my favorite Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov — requiring them to keep a straight face while delivering the most blatant, outrageous rubbish. In her place — where I would never allow myself to be, but if I were — I would be updating my c.v. about now.

Anyway, Donnie himself wisely avoided mentioning his former friend for the rest of the day, and only posted on his Truth Social site that he didn’t mind Elon’s “turning against him,” but does wish he had quit sooner. [Id.]

And then he made another pitch for his proposed tax and spending bill, and called it a night.

Thank the gods for small favors . . . I’m not sure I could take much more in one sitting.

But happily, there’s still tomorrow to look forward to.


Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/6/25

6/5/25: The Breakup of the Ultimate Power Couple


Forget the Hollywood megastars; forget the music industry elite. The real power couple of the past year has been seen — not at the glitzy New York clubs, the Met Gala, or the Cannes Film Festival — but in the Oval Office, on the golf course, and at Mar-a-Lago, discussing far weightier subjects than couture fashion or which baby daddy is coupling with which baby momma this week.

We are, of course, talking about that dynamic duo in Washington — Donald Trump and Elon Musk — who have been busy demolishing the U.S. government and carving up the rest of the world.


Or they were a duo until this week, when Musk’s 130-day tenure at DOGE — the quasi-governmental agency created especially for him and his chainsaw gang — came to an end, and he was finally free to speak openly and honestly about Trump’s horrific piece of legislation, bizarrely named the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” (With Trump, everything has to be big and expensive, or it isn’t beautiful.)

Well, when Musk pointed out that the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the U.S. budget deficit, and called it a “disgusting abomination,” the world knew that it was bound to be the start of something big. In Trumpland, no slight goes unanswered, and no insult unpunished. Today, the gloves were off, and Trump came out swinging.


Starting with a mild statement that he was “very surprised” and “disappointed” with Musk for his criticism, he went on:

“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.” [Mike Wendling, BBC News, June 5, 2025.]

But he wasn’t done. During a news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz today, Trump addressed Musk’s comments:

“We are doing things in that bill that are unbelievable. I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here. All of a sudden he had a problem. He hasn’t said bad [things] about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next.” [Id.]

Well, there’s a challenge if I’ve ever heard one. Let the name-calling begin!

He also suggested that Musk was upset about the removal of subsidies and mandates for electric vehicles, as they might affect his Tesla business.

Musk, of course, immediately came back with a denial of that accusation, and posted on X that he had never seen a copy of the budget bill. He also reposted former tweets from Trump in which the latter had promoted a balanced budget.

Then Musk played the ace up his sleeve: He took credit for Trump’s having won the 2024 election in the first place:

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude.” [Id.]

Considering the nearly $300 million he contributed to the campaign, and his tireless lobbying (and arm-twisting) on behalf of Trump and some Republican congressional candidates, he does have a point.



And so ends round two of the Fight of the Century between the world’s wealthiest man and the one occupying the most powerful office on the planet.

Wouldn’t you love to know what’s going on behind the scenes as they prepare for round three?


Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/5/25