Summary
In a Fox News interview, Elon Musk and Sean Hannity repeatedly talked over Donald Trump, sidelining him in a discussion about government efficiency.
Musk dominated the conversation, warning of national bankruptcy and presenting himself as a savior.
Hannity largely directed questions to Musk, while Trump struggled to interject.
The awkward exchange fueled speculation about Musk’s influence, with some questioning who is really in charge.
Trump is waxing and waning. The man is 80 and looking quite unhealthy. When geriatrics start to wax and wane there are recognizable patterns but it can vary a bit by personality. Biden and Trump are the same in that respect.
What waxing and waning means is you can have a perfectly normal exchange with Biden on day 1 and on day 2 get the debate performance and on day 3 get perfectly normal again. Inertia and habit carries people a lot further and longer than you think, depending on what they spent most of their lives doing. It’s not uncommon to have career domination in this inertia.
I suspect Trump will look much more odd and awkward than Biden going forward.
High odds it’s one reason Elon is with him and the interview isn’t solo, so Elon can be a handler of sorts and talk over him rather than having Trumps Biden moments on full, singular focus. One of the other reasons, ofc, is to maintain this idea that they are the same person in power, to keep that tight association going.
My personal theory with zero hard evidence to back it is that Trump does his disengagement thing when his internal pacemaker with defibrillator zaps him. And that he’d be dead already without it.
I like that defibrillator theory, though usually I’ve seen patients react with pain when it goes off. Maybe the disengagement is him going into v-tach and his blood pressure tanking before it pops him.
As for Musk covering for the dementia, I doubt it. If you look at Trump’s transcripts over the years, he’s had a propensity for dementia soup when he speaks for a while now, but his supporters just dismiss it, hear what they want, and say it’s fake news. I don’t see why they’d suddenly be worried about it now. No, this is Musk just plain old taking the driver’s seat.
People with dementia have increasing difficulty following conversations, especially with multiple people, as the dementia gets worse.
It could be that Trump just can’t follow the conversation well. They’re not covering so much as Trump can’t handle so many people talking.
This fits that YMCA dance party he had in lieu of a town hall.