Elon Musk is proposing a new political party.

President Trump is suggesting DOGE ‘might have to go back and eat Elon.’

My latest on the war of words between the president & his one-time top ally:

apnews.com/article/elon…

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— Meg Kinnard (@megkinnardap.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 10:08 AM

*Editor’s Note: Elephant Journal articles represent the personal views of the authors, and can not possibly reflect Elephant Journal as a whole. Disagree with an Op-Ed or opinion? We’re happy to share your experience here.
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“What happens to us as children, shapes who we become as an adult” ~ Alice Miller
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This is by no means an excuse for what the world is witnessing right now—but it could, however, partly explain the why.

We have two men on the world stage, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who first joined forces to behave destructively for their own megalomaniacal gain, but now, after realising their egos cannot possibly share the centre stage, cannot possibly share the limelight, have turned that destruction on each other.

We, the world, are baring witness to the equivalent of what I see as two toddlers vying for power and control, and upon realising that one of them will have more than the other, we have to endure their full-blown tantrum. Cute when the participants are two or three years old and fighting over toys. Not so cute when the participants are fully grown, supposedly intelligent and independently functioning adult men in power whose tantrums are contributing to the downfall of the United States and causing issues around the world.

If it wasn’t so dangerous and destructive, I would feel pity for them.

In my opinion, these men could be poster boys for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and whilst that is heartbreaking, the people of the U.S. are becoming the victims. And the world at large is becoming collateral damage. And whilst we’ll never know in detail or complete accuracy what occurred in their childhood, the stories Mary Trump has told, the unsettling behaviour of Errol Musk, Elon’s estranged father, and the clear behaviour of these two men—who desperately need to be seen, heard, and validated by obtaining power and control at any cost—is telling. People from loving, compassionate, nurturing homes, who had their needs met as kids and were unconditionally loved don’t typically behave like this.

So what we’re seeing are two men whose potentially damaged inner children are desperately seeking power, control, wealth, and what they deem as success to fill their gaping voids. They are trying to bandage up their wounds, but all the external things they so precariously chase do nothing to stop the sad, lonely child within who feels nothing but lack.

Despite what it may look like from the outside, I don’t believe these men are happy. Trump is married to his third wife, who so often looks like she despises him. He has five children from three different women, and Musk is said to have 14 children from four different women. Family values, at this point, are laughable.

But did they have a chance to be different? Could they have become different men? Better human beings?

Perhaps. Their environment growing up, regardless of immense wealth and power, appeared (at least from what has been made public) to lack much warmth and love. Driven instead by expectation in families where this power and control were revered. Two men hellbent on finally being the sons their fathers could love and be proud of, regardless of estrangement or even death.

Their childlike mentality seems to lack the self-awareness and emotional intelligence to see there was a better way. They seem to have no ability to emotionally regulate. They seem to have no idea how to meet their own needs, and may just spend the rest of their lives searching.

And, unfortunately, the power these two men have been given may be destructive on more levels than we could possibly anticipate or understand.

Imagine living your life driven by the need to avoid the pain of what you experienced as a child. Most of us live our lives from around 90 percent of the unconscious mind, meaning only 10 percent of our actions, behaviours, choices, and decisions come from our conscious mind. Now imagine that our unconscious carries all our childhood needs that were never met. All our guilt, shame and pain that were never addressed or worked through. All the unresolved trauma and grief of never feeling worthy or feeling invisible. All our insecurities. All our limiting and unhealthy beliefs about who we are and what we perceive the world to be. All our trust issues. Our not feeling good enough. Our maladaptive coping mechanisms.

This is what happens when people don’t do their inner work. This is what happens when they’ve never been shown unconditional love as a child. When they are not reflective and introspective and lack any semblance of self-awareness. When they are seeped in their own toxicity because rarely is their behaviour called out due to their wealth, power, and control.

And when those people become two of the most powerful men in the world? A little scary, isn’t it…

The control people like this so desperately seek is often because they’ve felt so out of control. The power they feel they need to survive is often because they’ve felt so powerless. The adoration and validation they so fervently pursue is often because they never felt adored or validated for who they are at their core, with all the fanfare stripped away.

In a sense, they may have “daddy issues,” perhaps even “mummy issues,” and strive for self-worth through destructive pursuits. And sadly, even then, the reality is they likely don’t love themselves. And the pain of that is too much, so they project all of it out into the world.

There is nothing emotionally stable or healthy about this.

But imagine if they had grown up in an environment where their emotional needs and safety were a priority. Where they felt loved and nurtured when they were vulnerable. Where they were modeled kindness, compassion, and empathy. Where they were seen, heard, and validated for who they were, without expectation and pressure to do or be something else. Where they had self-aware and emotionally available parents, whose main focus wasn’t wealth and power. Where they were taught respect and adaptive coping mechanisms. Where they were encouraged to live their life as caring human beings.

In my opinion, something seems to have gone fundamentally wrong in their formative years for them to have grown into the men they are today. And we, the world, are not only watching it, but will have to pick up the pieces of everything they break.

With all their wealth, perceived success, fame, power, and control, they still live in a world of lack. And they will always live in a world of lack until they tackle their inner demons. No amount of things will ever fulfill them because whilst they temporarily get their dopamine hit, what they are searching for cannot be found externally. It doesn’t matter how many women they sleep with. The number of kids they have. The money and power. None of these things matter without genuine connection and love. None of these things matter without inner fulfillment and joy.

So as we sit by and watch the continued sh*tshow unfold, understand that these two men, and so many others like them, seemingly have no emotional capacity to understand the needs of the people they profess to support. They are driven by a desperate need to fulfill something they potentially never received as children, and no amount of wealth or power will change that.

The saddest and most dangerous thing of all, though, is that they probably have no idea how damaged they are—and that makes them capable of anything. Because a man who feels rejected, abandoned, unworthy, and steeped in generational trauma with a desperate need to prove himself is so often a loose canon.

And a loose canon can cause insurmountable destruction.

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