The First Breakup of Pride
“We’re having a broligarchy blowup of the highest order.” — Casey Newton, Hard Fork, 06/06/2025
By Jenny Braddock
June 8, 2025
We know a little something about the Broligarchy. In fact, we run a regular “Broligarch of the Month” column here at BatShitCrazy.com. We shamefully skipped May, but this one earns an honorary plaque: our Broligarch of the Month is the great split of Elon and Trump.
Peter Thiel’s got the official June BoTM wrapped up and the UAE’s own Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al Nahyan is leading the pack for July. Trump? He’ll get his spotlight — much like Jamal Khashoggi. With any luck, from inside a courtroom he helped defund.
We weren’t going to cover this. It felt too petty, too meme-driven, too thirsty. But it turned. It turned into market turmoil, petty vengeance, deleted Epstein posts, and two billionaires melting down in real time while pretending to save civilization.
But we must, for posterity.
In case you’ve been living under a rock — or just wisely avoiding the digital breathalyzer formerly known as Twitter — here’s what happened.
“This is the first breakup of Pride… the Trump–Elon bromance is officially over,” said Kara Swisher on Pivot. “Let’s say broken up. This is like Housewives of New York like times 20.”
Scott Galloway: “Oh my God, oh my God. Mean Girls, except with old men.”
If you’ve ever witnessed a big Palm Beach/DC divorce — who gets the friends? Who gets the Whiter House? Who keeps the 747? — you already know the energy.
Please be forewarned: this piece will be more quote-heavy than our typical dispatch. This is intentional, in part because there are too many lines to hit them all — and also because we want to set up the possible future conflict between Elon and Scott Galloway, who said:
“I had several people reach out to me, including friends who are lawyers and go, ‘You have a shit ton of liability insurance? Because I think your comments in the last day make it very likely that someone from the Musk universe just decides to file a nuisance lawsuit against you.’ He said, ‘I hope you’re ready, because it’s coming.’”
Kara teed it up: “You gave an incredible speech on Piers Morgan.”
“I think his legacy is not going to be EVs or putting rockets into space. I think it’s going to be unnecessary death, disease, and disability of the world’s most vulnerable. That is not what it means to be an innovator. It’s not what it means to be an American. It’s not what it means to be a man.”
Then, as if not to back down from a bet, Scott doubled down: “This drug addict, who says his daughter is dead to him on a podcast and has cut aid to the neediest people, such that 1500 babies a day now are being born HIV positive. Has two women concurrently suing him for sole custody of their child. This is exactly what it means to not be a man. It is exactly what you’re not supposed to do when you receive the blessings of this type of prosperity.”
Back in Washington, Trump, naturally, took to the stage like a man trying to deliver a eulogy, an alibi, and a stand-up set that nobody wanted — all at the same time.
“You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the oval desk and uhh, even with the black eye… I said do you want a little makeup? …But he said no I don’t think so, which is interesting and very nice, he wants to be who he is, so you could make that statement too, I guess. Elon and I had a great relationship… I don’t know if we will anymore.”
“Don’t know if we will? This is such a great breakup,” said Kara.
“I’ve been talking about this breakup for a while now. I knew this day was coming.”
“You did. You predicted it,” said Scott.
And she had.
“It’s like two people… desperate for attention sponges. This is Highlander to me — there can be only one. I think they’re going to have such a falling out, it’ll be delicious to watch when it comes.”
“I think this is a great example of what it means to not be a man. Grown men are supposed to be able to take blows and be a bigger man and walk away. I think it’s just two fucking man-children… I guess it’s so beyond sad, I’m sorry, I was looking for some insight aside from this is just two toddlers. A drug addict versus a malignant — a malignant toddler…”
Meanwhile, on the Hard Fork pod, recorded Thursday, the tone shifted from amusement to semi-genuine alarm.
“I was somewhat cynical when all of this started — how real it was,” said Casey Newton. “But I would say that by approximately mid-day on Thursday, all of it seemed extremely real.”
“Why is Elon so mad? …This is not what he thought he was paying for when he tried to buy the 2024 election.”
Newton flagged Elon’s fury at Trump’s proposed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which included elimination of the electric vehicle tax credit.
“It emerged over the past several days that Elon did not like the beautiful bill,” Newton said. “In fact, he did not think it was beautiful at all.”
Axios had also reported that Musk was pushing the FAA to adopt Starlink infrastructure.
“But let me throw out an even spicier possibility for why this could be trouble for Musk,” Newton said. “And I want to say that Elizabeth Lopatto noted this in The Verge, but she reminded me that The Washington Post had reported that Musk began his career in the United States by working here illegally… and Elizabeth is wondering, could this actually complicate his naturalization? Would Trump try to go after Musk and strip him of his citizenship?”
“Let’s just say he wouldn’t be the first person who thought he was a citizen who found himself deported during the Trump administration.”
The boys over at Pod Save America hit the stage like emcees at a political wake. Favreau opened with what might be the most honest sponsor read of 2025.
“Today’s Pod Save America is brought to you by Ketamine.”
“Donald Trump’s third divorce. This one from his campaign sugar daddy… his Doge-bag in chief… his dark MAGA brother from another mother, Elon Musk.”
Dan Pfeiffer: “It’s a classic story. Two lonely, love-starved people meet online. They bond quickly over shared passions, like taking food and medicine away from the world’s poorest people.”
The Pod Save crew circled back. Jon noted:
“Dan, it was just four months ago, it was February when Elon tweeted, ‘I love Donald Trump as much as a straight man can love another man.’”
“Elon has responded by unleashing a flurry of tweets… quote, ‘Without me, Trump would have lost the election.’ Quote, ‘Such ingratitude.’ And, my personal favorite, which he directed towards Republican politicians, ‘Trump has three and a half years left as President, but I will be around for forty plus years.’”
“In response, Trump posted that he pushed Elon out of the White House because he was, quote, ‘Wearing thin.’ And then threatened to terminate all of Elon’s government contracts and subsidies.”
“Elon then said (exhales) — I guess this is my new personal favorite… ‘The reason Trump hasn’t released the Epstein files is because Trump is in the Epstein files.’”
“And then Elon called for his impeachment.”
Back in Kara and Scott’s corner, Scott gamed out some real-world repercussions:
Kara – “We’re in the middle of a wrestling match with one of those idiot narratives that they have there… but in this case, Elon can truly do a lot of damage, to this man. Especially those who were so effusive about him, Mike Johnson and others, right? He can pick them off, one at a time… Trump can’t go nuclear on him in a similar way.”
Scott – “If our biases are coming out here… what we’re discovering here is that you hate Trump more than Musk, and I hate Musk more than Trump.”
As for how Musk’s businesses may fare, Scott opined:
“This could be terrible for Tesla. It could be even worse for Starlink. Trump could decide: ‘I don’t give a shit about communications technology on the battlefield in Ukraine… I’m going to tell the Joint Chiefs and the Department of Defense that they need to seize Starlink and take control of it, because it’s a security threat… This is when Iraq is in a war against Iran. You’re hoping the bullets win… But if you’re talking about who is exposed to greater risk here? President Trump has the CIA… I was going to watch ‘Friends and Neighbors’ tomorrow, no way, I’m watching this.”
Kara concluded, “… I think he’s absolutely going to lose control of congress. Absolutely, with no question.”
A few days have passed now. So aside from Trump sending the National Guard into LA to squash legal protests… surely calmer minds will win out, right?
Maybe not.
“If he does that, there will be very serious consequences,” Trump said Friday, warning Elon not to fund Democratic candidates. “I will take appropriate action, and if necessary, things will be proven to be not as pleasant for him as he might think.”
As for Elon’s delicate condition, Kara Swisher smirked as she gave him some final words:
“Call me, Elon. I’m here. I’m here for you. I’m your shoulder to cry on.”
Whatever happens, we’ll follow up on it… and that piece will be the first in a new series called The Hangover — and while the name is meant to forecast how the second Trump administration might reshape our country, our government, and our world, this feels like the place to begin.
Filed from: The digital ruins of a bromance buried under $800 billion in shareholder value, half a dozen subpoenas, and one very large chip on each shoulder.
