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June 8, 2025 - Lionel Nation
19:35
Trump vs Musk: The Battle That Could Split the Right around because she
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I bet you're sick and tired.
You're sick and tired of everybody commenting about this Trump and Musk thing.
You're sick and tired of all these ridiculous, stupid analyses and people telling you what it means.
Well, one more is not going to kill you.
It's bigger than that.
I'm going to throw something else into the mix, too, to help you understand this, help you triangulate your feelings.
You see, right now, we're in a nation that's already stretched thin.
We're stretched thin.
We're being pulled apart by these cultural fault lines, these tectonic plates, if you will.
But there's two headline-making developments that have blown up.
Simultaneously.
And at first, they may not seem like they're connected, but oh my God.
Both of them illustrate this new kind of a kinetic volatility that's happening on the American political and social battlefields.
One involves a fiery public feud between conservative activist Riley Gaines and Olympic legend.
she might have been a legend, Simone Biles, who just threw away all of her post-Olympic endorsement career, ignited...
ignited yet again over the explosive issue of transgender athletes in women's sports, and nobody in America, nobody, but nobody thinks men should be competing against women.
I don't know what the hell she's even...
Now the other issue involves something which is even more interesting.
A deepening rift, a deepening chasm between two of the most powerful figures in America and how this rift is redefining positions.
President Trump and tech titan and a lunatic, Special K and Dorsey, ostensibly, Elon Musk.
Now, on the surface, these stories may seem absolutely disconnected.
You might say, what the hell are you talking about?
But they reveal something more interesting.
A deeper pattern.
A pattern you should be aware of.
One of ideological realignment.
The Great Reset.
The Great Reset.
Sound familiar?
Generational tension and the widening gap.
The widening gap in the intellectual and social collision between populist America and...
This is redrawing the lines.
Listen to me.
I can't say it any other way than what I'm saying.
And remember, there's always a concatenation of sorts.
Things are always related.
Now, let's look at it this way.
Let's start with this.
Gains, bile, I'm sorry, Mr. Edmonton, you have Gaines-Biles disease.
Oh my God!
What does that mean?
I don't know, but it just, it sounds horrible.
Riley Gaines, of course, the former NCAA swimmer, now the conservative sweetheart and firebrand who stands up for, believe it or not, genetic, you know, gender?
I mean, anyway, to think that that's going on on a limb.
Anyway, she's made headlines for her outspoken defense of biological women in sports.
Imagine that.
She is a vociferous, a vocal critic of policies that allow trans women, translation, men, to compete against women or females.
Now, Gaines, Riley has repeatedly warned that these policies, these policies that have been the darling of the left, threaten fairness and safety and the integrity of women's athletics.
You think?
You think so?
Now, Simone Biles, one of the most decorated gymnasts in history, for some reason, maybe because they paid her a couple of mil to open her yap, decided to enter the fray and recently expressed support for trans athlete Marissa Rothenberger.
Who the hell is that?
Anyway, a man whose inclusion in the world I guarantee you, Riley would change her tune if some dude beat her at what she was doing.
See, it's okay when you're winning.
It's okay when you're number one.
It's okay when you're the gold medalist.
But if somebody impedes upon your realm, that's a different story.
So Riley Gaines, in her typical direct fashion, very abrupt, very straightforward, responded by invoking the issue, and this gets me, the issue of sexual abuse survivors.
Pointedly, pointedly including Biles herself, who has spoken in the past about her own particular horrible experience with that sick predator, that former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
Okay, remember that one?
So they said, wait a minute, you can't bring that up.
You think it would somehow inspire and invoke sympathy on her part.
Well, no, no, no.
Now, the move drew swift condemnation.
Simone Biles labeled Riley Gaines' remark as truly sick.
That's sick?
The remark is sick?
Let me get this straight.
The remark is sick.
Talking about women who have been victimized is sick.
And she then accused her of weaponizing trauma to bully the transgender community.
Can you believe this?
And of course the internet and social media caught fire.
Because people have nothing better to do.
They want to catch fire or set fire.
So accusations flew back and forth from both sides.
You got one camp that was defending Riley Gaines her passion.
Her passion for female athletes.
And this thing called fairness and competition.
And the other, blasting Riley Gaines for exploiting the personal pain to score political points.
Now, Riley Gaines said, I'm not exploiting.
This has nothing to do with her.
I'm talking about women who are victimized.
Just because you happen to share a particular, one would think, empathy.
Or identification with these people, you never know.
So anyway, here's the thing.
The conflict touches apparently a raw nerve because it collapses and combines two major cultural taboos into one moment.
Gender identity and sexual trauma.
So Riley Gaines believes that invoking real stories of pain, you know, Biles is included, Adds moral urgency to her cause, okay?
Biles, Biles, however, sees it as some kind of a betrayal of a survivor's solidarity and a misuse of, you know, deeply personal history.
Now, you're saying, what the hell does this have to do with Trump?
Just wait!
Just wait!
Now, beyond the personalities, this clash signals a larger, a larger cultural reckoning.
I like that word lately.
The Reckoning.
Americans are growing sick and tired of top-down moral lectures and forced imaginary consensus and the alleged weaponization of empathy.
Let me explain something to you.
Whether the media spins it as cruelty or courage, whatever, the gains, biles, This feud reflects a country that is locked in a cold civil war over identity and biology and the very nature of competition.
Now, now wait.
Let's turn to the political drama unfolding on a much grander scale.
Listen to this too.
Donald Trump is Two, I heard they were called alpha disruptors.
Once seemingly aligned in their disdain, their hatred for the establishment.
Once, I mean, a-hole buddies.
Now they're publicly clashing.
If you believe this.
And the stakes are potentially enormous.
Now listen to this.
Trump, who's fresh off a And who's now going into, by the way, the midterms.
Because remember, the midterms are just around the corner with a fired up MAGA base.
So forget, they're not Republicans.
They're MAGA.
MAGA.
He recently issued a chilling warning to Elon Musk.
He says there will be very serious consequences, Trump said, very serious consequences, his word, if Musk starts funding Democrats in future elections.
Trump says don't even think about it.
And the warning wasn't just BS or bluster.
No.
It was signaled strategically.
To the Republican donor class.
And the conservative media machine.
And he better say, the same goes for you.
I may be talking to Elon now, but I'm talking to you.
This comes right after Elon.
We don't know about Elon.
Elon's a billionaire.
He does this politics thing.
And he a lot of times was kind of like humored by Trump.
Like, oh, that's great.
walking around with that chin on his shoulders, got the...
I mean, the chainsaw.
Okay, he's got that hat on.
Okay, all right.
Oh, you want to bring Teslas to the White House?
Okay, yeah.
He uses his used car a lot.
Okay, sure.
I mean, because Trump kind of said, like, okay, all right.
Yeah, that's cool.
Because Trump can only go so far.
And Trump, in many respects, saw in Elon kind of his own thing.
But anyway, Musk is now criticizing this spending package from the big, beautiful bill.
That despite its conservative branding, he says, balloon the national debt.
Oh, for God's sake, this is it?
They always balloon the national debt.
But what about the other things about it?
And it's not perfect.
There's some big stuff.
I told you the AI, the 10-year moratorium is ridiculous.
So Trump, ever the pragmatist at heart, viewed Musk's kind of argument, you know, not as some policy disagreement, so to speak.
And while Musk donated a mind-boggling $250 million to Trump's 2024 campaign and GOP candidates, that alliance is now on life support, supposedly.
Because I'm still not sure how much they just love stirring their shirt.
Now, Elon Musk, never one too shy from provocation, fired back.
By floating the idea of launching a new political party, which is stupid, but one that, in his words, would represent the politically homeless.
If he thinks the average American is going to be able to differentiate a third party, no.
And if you think, what, who's attracted?
The left can't stand him after they destroyed him after the Tesla.
The right's going to hate him.
So I don't know what he's talking about.
But anyway, this is not an empty threat, no matter how you look at it.
With X, I like when they say the former Twitter, yeah we know that, and Neuralink and Starlink and Tesla and SpaceX and God knows what else he owns.
With all of that under his control, Elon possesses the infrastructure and the audience and the war chest to at least attempt a third party insurgency.
But doing so would fracture, destroy the populist coalition.
The coalition that Trump built, by the way, perhaps permanently, but we'll see.
Now, the Trump-Musk feud isn't just personal.
It exposes tectonic shifts that are happening within the conservative movement itself, and this is important.
This is what you've been waiting for.
You see, Trump's base is nationalist, populist, anti-globalist, and weary, very weary of technocratic, big tech, Silicon Valley.
You know, power.
Elon, on the other hand, remains this, I don't know what you call him, a techno-libertarian idealist who sees, you know, AI and global connectivity and Mars colonization as the solution, not the problem.
So, okay, maybe that's not a big difference, but it is.
Now, in 2016, they shared enemies.
Remember that?
The corrupt Uniparty, legacy media, bloated government bureaucracy.
They were asshole buddies in 2016.
But in 2024 and beyond, they might find themselves on opposing sides of what the conservative coalition even is.
Now, is it the America First movement of working-class patriots, religious conservatives, and war-skeptical populists like me?
Or is it the innovation class?
Those who believe the system is broken but can be disrupted with and maybe reconnected with software and crypto and AI overlords or whatever.
I don't know.
I don't even know even if we've really defined adequately enough the breadth of Elon's worldview.
But Elon represents a very different future than Trump.
One that's grounded in nationalism and traditional values.
The other in technocracy and transhumanism dreams.
Remember, is he really against this Peter Thiel and Palantir?
They tell us he is.
Now, both of these people speak.
Both speak to different facets of American disconnect.
But only one can dominate the direction of the right.
Okay?
This is important.
Now, the implications of this are huge.
If Musk follows through and builds a third party, he'll split not just donors, but minds.
Think about this.
The Great Reset.
Trump's core supporters, are loyal to a fault.
But young libertarian types, disaffected...
But yet, here's the danger.
This is what's important.
Elon Musk's political instincts.
Or uneven, to be fair.
And his loyalty to American traditions, free speech, sovereignty, religion, family, is conditional, at best.
Trump, for all his flaws, speaks the language of the American soul.
Elon, by contrast, speaks...
Which brings us back to the broader point.
America is at a crossroads, my friend.
Not just politically, but spiritually.
Whether it's Gaines versus Biles or Trump versus Musk, these aren't just random, you know, X or I keep calling it Twitter fights.
They are flashpoints.
In a larger cultural war over who we are and what we value and whether this country has a shared future at all.
Listen to me.
What we are watching, what we are observing in real time is the breakdown of old alliances and the birth.
It's the birth of strange new consortia.
Conservative icons and the like are...
And the American public, you and me, we're retired and bored and oversaturated.
We're being told to pick a side while the foundations, listen to this, while the foundations of what?
Truth, fairness, and sovereignty.
Erode beneath them.
So what comes next?
If Trump and Musk escalate their feud, the 2026 midterms and the 2028 election may seem an unprecedented political realignment.
A new party could rise, or the Republican Party could split irreparably.
The culture war, meanwhile, while only getting hotter.
Especially as the issues of gender and sports and all that, which will not go away, and the notion of institutional credibility, all of this continue to roil and boil.
In both, it gains Biles and Trump-Musk.
In the fallout, one message rings clear.
Listen.
The fight is no longer left versus right.
It's insider versus outsider.
Legacy versus disruption.
Human values versus post-human or trans-human ambition.
And whether you cheer for, it doesn't matter, whether you cheer for Riley Gaines or Biles or you stand with Trump or Elon, the thing you've got to remember, one thing is certain.
We are not going back to normal because normal is gone.
What comes next is up to us.
This is bigger.
And I'm going to say it again.
If you're still using this Fox News world of left versus right and CPAC, it's done.
America doesn't know left and right.
There's no Democrat and Republican.
It's different.
This is the Great Reset.
Pay very close attention to this, my friend.
And in the meantime, ask yourself this.
Why haven't you not subscribed to Lionel Nation?
Why?
What is the matter with you?
80% of the people...
What the hell is that all about?
So like this.
Liking this helps our numbers, which are growing exponentially thanks to you.
It puts us in the HOV lane and allows our message to go out.
Because I'm trying to recalibrate.
I'm trying to tell people, this isn't your father's election anymore.
It's not Barry Goldwater and George McGovern.
That's done.
It's a different time.
And I put some good questions up for you.
So do me a favor, my friends.
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