Trump and Elon hate paying American workers even more than they love racism

What unites these two most is a genuine love of exploiting workers.

Because 2024 was a daily tsunami of baffling world historical events sautéed in nonsense, you’ve probably forgotten what may be the definitive moment of our presidential campaign—the moment that cemented the alliance that now imperils American democracy.

After overcoming the standard technological glitches (likely fixed by the immigrant workers indentured to Xitter), Elon Musk “interviewed” Donald Trump in August on Elon’s Trump campaign website, which you’ll remember Elon raised $44 billion to buy. It was then that we saw what was bringing these two men and their massive daddy issues together: a shared hatred of organized labor.

“You’re the greatest cutter. I look at what you do,” Trump said to Musk during a two-hour interview Monday night on X, the social media platform Musk owns.

“You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike,” Trump said to Musk, who also is CEO of the EV car maker Tesla and of SpaceX.

“I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s okay, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone,’” Trump said.

And if you’re still wondering what DOGE and its “cutting government” is all about, it’s this: Firing and firing until you’ve withered your workforce down to a useless, compliant nub.

And the example we’re supposed to believe validates this kind of rule by petulant child is X. This ignores that the purchase of Twitter is one of the worst business decisions in human history—if it were actually about “business.” Elon has destroyed some 80% of the company’s value and took a nearly profitable company, the closest thing to a global town square that has ever existed, and dowsed it with Nazism and other filth that has lost billions in ad sales. But it helped elect Donald Trump.

It did this in two distinct ways: 1) distorting the discourse around the election in favor of the right and 2) normalizing Elon as he spent an additional quarter billion electing Trump because journalists, along with candidates and activists of both parties, stayed there even as it became clear he’d do just about anything to elect the man who’d tried to make himself dictator on January 6th. So, in terms of authoritarianism, it may be the most tremendous success ever—up there with rolling through Poland.

So now it makes sense that there is some giddiness over what appeared to be a divide in MAGA between Elon and some of Trump’s trumpiest diehards like Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer, people you are cursed to know exist. The issue of importing foreign workers is just the surface of this power struggle, which is mostly just about dominance in a movement all about dominance. 

Anyone who knows Elon—a former undocumented worker himself, according to his brother—knows that two things have built his empire: government subsidies and cheap foreign labor. While DOGE is all about cutting the former (for others), Elon has made it clear that he will go to “war” to keep the latter (for himself).

Trump iced the conflict by insisting that he sides with Elon. He also seems to be begging his benefactor to come back to Maralago so they can once again celebrate their hatred of workers. 

Trump’s love of importing help, including his wife, has been known for decades. Why wouldn’t he want a workforce who can’t organize, demand fair wages, or even complain? 

Watch that video above again. Have you ever heard the former and future failed president express such fawning admiration for anyone who isn’t Vladimir Putin?

Trump’s passion for shortchanging Americans should surprise only every journalist and debate moderator he’s come across. Because while his passion for picking foreign workers over paying Americans has never abated, he has never been successfully confronted with this fundamental conflict in his “America First” worldview. 

But we can’t just blame the press. Despite Trump insisting that autoworkers are overpaid and could be replaced by children, his disdain for workers earning a fair wage has never become a real issue in any of his three presidential campaigns. 

Similarly, even in the days before Elon had outed himself as a proud enabler of neo-Nazis in America and abroad, he avoided the stink of being a union-busting abuser of taxpayer trust whose factories were ripe with racism.

Let this be a reminder that we are fish swimming in the water of right-wing bias. The bias surrounds us so completely that it’s almost impossible to notice. That’s why we are constantly drowning in reporting about crime, yet we hear little to nothing about the most common crime in America—wage theft.

While this Christmas civil war was fun, we can’t expect the MAGA base to fracture over the issue that unites Donald and Elon most. Instead, we should focus on what unites them.

“Voters don't care about intricacies of H1-B visas,” messaging master Anat Shenker-Osorio posted. “We must talk MAGA's about impact on lives & livelihoods. Ridiculing Trump et al for their incompetence, highlighting their crimes & engendering revulsion for their agenda.”

So, let’s sit with the takeaway of this moment. You’ll never love anything as much as Donald Trump and Elon Musk hate workers.