He can still generate some cash (although that runs out fast if Tesla is hammered in the markets), but most importantly, he’s got Twitter. He could weaponize it against Trump like he did against the Dems, and he could also cut off Trump’s followers, or at least Trump’s messaging in one fell swoop - they aren’t flocking to truth social in large numbers, and its reach is tiny, and they know it. They’d be prone to go to Threads (they all have Facebook accounts). Musk is more than happy to fuck around with Twitter against his enemies, so lots of things can happen.
And he can try and get his followers to at least vote against Trump’s people without spending much, and try to get some of the environmentalists on his side. The irony is that the Dems are more friendly to Tesla than the Rs. Leon should not have burned that bridge.
But this is not good for him - anti-Musk head of NASA and anti-Musk head to NHTSA being nominated within a week of each other. If things have been at an 11 the past week, he’s going to break the knob in the coming weeks. I could easily see NASA dumping money onto Boeing to get an alternative to SpaceX out there. Trump has already talked about it not being good to rely on Musk.
Musk is a liability to Trump, and Trump sees every problem as a nail and he’s got a huge hammer in the federal government. Pop some popcorn.