Expert in international relations, about the uneven positive effect of the Trump-Musk scandal: “For Europeans and opportunity”

Beyond the fact that it undermines the confidence of the Americans, but also of the international partners, in the Trump administration, the president with Elon Musk can be an opportunity for the EU, says Gabriela Ciot, a university professor of international relations and European studies at the UBB.

The collaboration between Musk and Trump ended with scandal. Photo: X/US Presidency

The relationship between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk has experienced a significant public break, marked by an exchange of acid replicas on social and social social networks.

The conflict broke out following Musk's critics to the legislative project “Big, Beautiful Bill” (BBB), who had already been adopted by the Chamber of Representatives. Musk has accused the law of increasing national deficit and undermine the activity of the Department for Government Efficiency (Doge), an institution he has led. After Musk resigned from the leadership position of Doge, he publicly condemned the provisions of the law, especially those regarding federal expenses in the fields of health, energy and social services.

Trump responded in the defense of the draft law, claiming that it significantly reduces government expenses. In reply, Musk accused Trump of misinformation and making decisions motivated by personal interests. Trump suggested that Musk would be unhappy due to reducing subsidies for electric vehicles, which affected Tesla and other billionaire projects.

On the other hand, Musk challenged Trump's tax coherence and insinuated a possible connection between him and Jeffrey Epstein's files, the American billionaire accused of trafficking in minors and sexual abuse in series, an emblematic case of organized sexual exploitation.

Musk has threatened with the withdrawal of the Dragon of Spacex, in the context in which Trump suggested the reduction of federal contracts. The withdrawal of the Dragon of Spacex ship would mean a significant loss for the American space program, given that this is currently the only active American ship transporting to and from the International Space Station (ISS). In addition, Spacex has government contracts worth about $ 22 billion, including for defense and space exploration, which could be affected by such a decision.

Although Musk has quickly retracted this threat, political tensions persist and can influence the direction of the American space program.

“It could be an understanding between the two”

Gabriela Ciot, a university professor of international relations and European studies at the University of Babes-Bolyai Cluj-Napoca, analyzed, for “Adevărul”, the implications of this scandal.

The teacher points out that neither foreign nor internal policy is done in this way: “Instead, they are made on the basis of strategies, measures designed with representatives of the business environment, not only by personal decisions, because in the end, not the personal relationship of the president with various political actors and outside the politics must be drawn the internal action lines, but especially at the external level.”

She believes that probably one of the reasons why Musk withdrew from the Trump administration has been related to lowering Tesla shares and selling vehicles, especially in Europe. In this context, CIOT does not exclude an agreement between the two leaders, so that following this scandal the Tesla sales increase.

“Therefore, in the end, these commercial relations also influence the transformation of the contemporary international system, because it can diminish the scope, for example, of a global actor, because when they appear in the internal level, there are also effects in the international markets ”said Ciot.

“A negative signal that eventually affected the credibility of the American market”

It is a matter of stability and credibility, the expert believes.

The teacher also commented on Trump's decision to designate Musk at the head of a government department to reduce the administration's expenses: “Now, of course, there are these billionaires, so-called plutocracy, who gave him the support of the candidate Donald Trump and probably, in the sign of, let's say, appreciation, have received a kind of” reward “for this support. We see that this relationship has continued at the level of government policies. But here, we have on this occasion another proof that at the governmental level, the way strategies and measures for efficiency are not similar to what is happening in the private environment. ”

Those measures to abolish some jobs in the administration or the cases in which people were announced that they are dismissed, and in a few days they have been recalled to work, are a proof of misunderstanding the functioning of the government apparatus: “Also, these operations and these gifts were a given negative signal and external, which eventually affected the credibility of the American market, not to mention this upset of the international trade brought by the tariff policy of the new Trump administration.”

Regarding the internal effects of this scandal in the US, CIOT claims that the level of distrust of the population in the Trump administration will increase, but also in the American economy.

Regarding the effects externally, the teacher is of the opinion that it could be an opportunity for the European Union, which could take advantage of this moment to reach an agreement regarding the war of tariffs, but also to the conflict in Ukraine.

“Beyond the posts on different media platforms, we would like to see from European politicians and some concrete actions or especially a strategic vision. Here I think it is the most important element”stressed the specialist.

“The US President will be obliged to act as a state man”

Gabriela Ciot is of the opinion that I did not attend the first and certainly not even the last such moment in Donald Trump's presidency.

“Analysts and experts in the often unpredictable behavior of President Trump, in which idiosyncrauses predominate from how decisions are made, can certify that he acts, unfortunately, sometimes under the empire of such impulses. I believe that European partners have already become accustomed to this type of behavior moments, let's say, less pleasant, in the conduct of the US president”, The teacher said.

As for the effects of this scandal, the teacher shows:

“After all, this type of incidents will have a greater impact on the internal level of the president's credibility and then, I think due to the decrease in popularity, as a result of such behavior, practically, the US president will be, let's tell him, obliged to act as a state man, as a leader of the Western world. He has as a man of domestic level. ”