"I am the alpha in this relationship": What Musk's romantic history reveals about his hold on Trump

"I am the alpha in this relationship": What Musk's romantic history reveals about his hold on Trump
How Elon love-bombed Trump's MAGA cult

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published March 12, 2025 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Donald Trump is over-the-top on an hourly basis, but even by his standards, his frenetic defense of Tesla CEO Elon Musk this week was unsettling. "Elon Musk is 'putting it on the line' in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!" Trump posted on Truth Social at 12:14 AM on Tuesday. Musk's company is seeing plummeting stock prices and sales, around the world, due to his association with Trump and his efforts to illegally decimate the federal government through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump went on to bemoan "the Radical Left Lunatics" for "trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s 'baby, in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for." Trump, pledging to purchase a Tesla, spent a large part of Tuesday afternoon cutting a commercial for Musk's car company.

It's important to note briefly that it is not a crime to refuse to buy a Tesla, throw the bird at people who drive Teslas, make fun of Tesla drivers online, or hurriedly sell off your Tesla at half its previous market value after being called a "Nazi" in a parking lot. Musk's crashing brand reputation is just the free market in action, something Republicans used to claim they supported. But what's striking about Trump's post is not his baseless threats, which constitute much of his communication on any given day, it's his tone. The president talks about Musk not like a valued colleague or even a friend. No, Trump's plea resembels that of a lovesick woman angrily defending her worthless boyfriend to skeptical friends.

Trump and Musk are consenting adults, of course, but unfortunately, their team-up is ruining lives and threatens to destroy the American economy, so they've made their relationship the public's business. For months now, it's been baffling how Trump, whose narcissism is boundless, has allowed himself to become a supplicant to Musk, instead of getting annoyed and competitive with the billionaire meglomaniac. Looking over Musk's romantic history, however, offers a strong clue. Musk lacks charisma as a public speaker, but his long line of failed and frankly strange relationships with women — which have produced an estimated 14 children — suggests the tech executive is well-versed in the art of interpersonal manipulation. Musk got a lot of practice on the women in his life, and now appears to be using similar strategies on Trump.

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Entertainment journalist Kat Tenbarge told podcast host Matt Bernstein that this form of "love-bombing" is what many of Musk's former partners describe experiencing. "At the beginning of the relationship, he is really doting. Presents himself as like, 'I'm going to save you.'" On Bluesky, she added that Musk has "a well-established pattern of pursuing younger women" only "to humiliate them later." For instance, he famously had a years-long relationship with the musician Grimes, having 3 children with her — while having children with other women, seemingly behind her back. At one point, his biographer recalls, Musk showed up at a studio while she was recording with a gun and demanded to be included. He dated actress Amber Heard, giving her Teslas as gifts, but she later worried they were bugged, because she said he was "controlling." After their break-up, he appeared to taunt her by posting a private photo online. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/03/12/i-am-the-alpha-in-this-relationship-what-musks-romantic-history-reveals-about-his-hold-on/