Rainer Zitelmann has been predicting a rift between Musk and Trump ever since the two started working together. Now that this has happened, the French daily newspaper L’Express has spoken to him again. The interview was conducted by Thomas Mahler.

“I never believed that the alliance between Elon Musk and Donald Trump would last,” you told L’Express in April. Why were you so certain that the alliance between the two men would fall apart so quickly?

Zitelmann:
I have read every single biography about these two men and have been following their exploits closely for many years. Trump only tolerates people who completely subordinate themselves to him, whereas Musk won’t bow to anyone. And especially not to someone he is so superior to both in terms of intelligence and as an entrepreneur. This is something I have stated on numerous occasions, including in an interview with L’Express in April. On top of that, Trump is not an advocate of economic freedom, his only two convictions are these: he is the greatest and should be all-powerful, and that tariffs are amazing. Trump thinks that tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary (which, by the way, is just as absurd as saying that taxes are the most wonderful word in the dictionary). Musk, in........

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