President Donald Trump and entrepreneur Elon Musk have a unique opportunity to show the world how strong, deeply held convictions of injustices can be settled peaceably without damaging, lingering consequences.
It is precisely what is needed in every conflict from the Middle East to the middle of Main Street America.
As a student of Speech, at Maury High School, Norfolk, Va., I was taught never to begin a presentation with an apology. It was “before ever,” to use a phrase of Senator John Kennedy, my favorite member of Congress.
Of necessity, I’m failing to follow what I learned, but here is my apologetic disclaimer. I have never met President Donald J. Trump or Elon Musk. I have no personal knowledge of either man. I am not offering a psychiatric interpretation of these two remarkable people. It would be unethical and useless.
As Wil Rogers said, “All I know is what I read in the newspaper.” Like most people, I am more often in front of a TV screen or computer monitor than a newspaper, the exception being Theroanokestar.com.
Too often, TV news is disturbing, causing me to switch to a movie channel. Truthfully, I use several search engines to look more deeply into a subject. I also love books, including the Bible. They are the life-preservers of my mind.
Altruistic is the most accurate description of President Trump and Elon Musk. They selflessly provide essential services for our nation, hardly counting the personal costs.
President Trump, a bruised veteran of political combat, a survivor of a nearly successful assignation, has tasted the dregs of evil in the hearts of his opponents.
Elon Musk’s shock and agony must have been unbearable when anti-American evil political opponents relentlessly burned, damaged, and destroyed his electric vehicles and dealerships.
Elon Musk, the epitome of a loving father to his 5-year-old son, acting out of love for his country, surely expected a warm, but not burning hot, modicum of gratitude.
President Trump (Powerful Nation) and Elon Musk (Wealthy Nation)
Aristotle (384 BC–322 ) defines friendship in his Nicomachean Ethics as reciprocated goodwill. Friends wish well to each other for their own sake.
He distinguishes between three different types of friendship: friendship based on pleasure, friendship based on utility, and friendship based on virtue.
Aristotle thought that pleasure is good, but when it is no longer pleasurable or fun to be a friend, the friendship ends.
Aristotle thought being useful to another is also good, but when usefulness ends, such a friendship also ends.
Aristotle described the third kind of friendship as perfected. A perfected friendship is based on virtue: A wants what is best for B for his or her own sake, and B wants what is best for A for his or her own sake. Friendships based on virtue are lasting.
Do President Trump and Elon Musk have a Friendship?
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021. He was born in Queens, New York City, U.S.
Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded PayPal and founded SpaceX. He is the CEO of Tesla and acquired Twitter (later X) in 2022. Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency in Donald Trump’s second administration in 2025. As of 2025, he is the world’s richest person with a net worth of $393 billion.
Elon Musk was ingeniously interested in computers as a child and at age 12 invented a computer game he successfully sold.
One cannot deny that Elon Musk is a creative, inventive, cognitively gifted individual.
Twitter, an online social media company, removed President Trump’s eligibility, blaming him for the U.S. Capitol event on January 6, 2021. Soon after purchasing Twitter, Musk reinstated President Donald Trump.
Musk, once a “moderate Democrat,” shifted to conservative views after purchasing X. He endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump following an assassination attempt on Trump in July 2024.
Through his Political Action Committee (PAC), Musk donated $288 million to Trump and other Republicans.
Elon Musk’s enthusiastic support of President Donald Trump was frequently shown on national TV.
During his campaign, Trump promised that Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy would lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to make the government more efficient.
Musk pledged to balance the budget by cutting $2 trillion in spending, acknowledging it would cause temporary hardship.
On January 20, 2025, hours after President Trump’s inauguration, Ramaswamy resigned from DOGE. That same day, President Trump issued an executive order establishing DOGE within the United States Digital Service, which was subsequently renamed the United States DOGE Service.
The executive order mandated that each federal agency have a team of at least four DOGE employees. Elon Musk became a “special government employee,” a designation for individuals who work temporarily for the government.
Yes, President Trump and Elon Musk have a friendship, a historically unique friendship based on the greatest virtue: their friendship is held together by altruistic love for America.
As a nation let us do all within our power, including prayer, to renew the attachment between President Trump and Elon Musk.
DOGE’s actions sparked numerous lawsuits. Critics argued that it caused a constitutional crisis, with the executive branch violating the separation of powers by not spending funds allocated by Congress for USAID and NIH. Republicans in Congress contended that a new administration reviewing government spending was routine.
If one can believe news, a big “if,” Elon Musk is seething with anger over the failure of the US House of Representatives “passing” President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” The bill, Musk claims, is filled with “pork” that unnecessarily increases America’s national debt.
Elon Musk’s strong negative feelings are understandable from his perspective. After all, he brought the brightest minds in America to join him in an unprecedented governmental spending overhaul operation.
Much of what they found was a long list of disgusting long-term misspending.
Much of the poorly spent money caused laughter. Realistically, we should still be crying while correcting our mistakes. Sadly, we neither cried nor fixed the problem.
Elon Musk’s disappointment is burdened by increasing, not decreasing, the national debt.
President Trump and Elon Musk are two very different men. President Trump, the Father of our country, has a creative, inventive mind populated by people, relationships, and skyscrapers. He is an altruist whose gifts include social skills that inspire, encourage, and increase hopefulness in others. His love for this country is sincere, beyond question.
Elon Musk has a creative, inventive mind populated by ideas and idealism. His genius is driven by altruism. The major decisions of his life have been determined by an incomparable capacity to tolerate long periods of solitude which for him, like Wordsworth, is a special bliss. I am, of course, guessing at this, but I believe his creativity is most rewarded when working alone or, at most, in a small group of like-minded others.
Anger and disappointment are common, part of “the common miseries of life.” No one whether rich or poor, creative or political, is perfect. Jesus was the only one who was without sin. But even Jesus angrily threw the wicked “money changers” out of the Temple. John 2:15.
I’ve found several biblical verses helpful when I am annoyed or disappointed:
“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1.
“So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 1:19-20.
The following image reminds me of the US Marines raising the American flag in Iwo Jima during WW11 (2/23/1945). It was and remains a powerful memory of a pivotal moment in the war. It demonstrates our nation’s strength and resolve in the face of challenges such as these in which we live today.
On national TV, we often saw togetherness for which we long. We saw a congenial 53-year-old Elon Musk, his devoted 5-year-old son, “X,” and a pleasant, smiling 79-year-old President Donald Trump. With the American flag prominently displayed, the altruism and palpable love between the three generations is telling us that the “land that we love” is getting back on the right track.
Show us, President Donald Trump and entrepreneur Elon Musk, aces of altruism, two gifted entrepreneurs in a pod, how togetherness is restored and energized after differences and perceived injustices are corrected.
God bless our leaders at every level of responsibility. In particular, President Trump and Elon Musk.
Robert S. Brown, MD, PHD a retired Psychiatrist, Col (Ret) U.S. Army Medical Corps devoted the last decade of his career to treating soldiers at Fort Lee redeploying from combat. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Education at UVA. His renowned Mental Health course taught the value of exercise for a sound mind.