You have heard about Trump’s Art of the Deal. The sequel could be Elon Musk’s Art of the Grift. A sample chapter might be devoted to the way Musk – through his Tesla EV grift – reportedly made billions, in part by selling devices produced by his Tesla EV grifting operation to other Tesla grifts, such as Space X and xAI, which is his artificial intelligence grift.

For example, Tesla reportedly “sold” 1,279 Cybertrucks to SpaceX during the fourth quarter of 2025 and a grand total of one out of every five Cybertrucks Tesla made during the 2025 model year. Musk’s xAI grift, meanwhile, also bought a bunch of Tesla Cybertrucks, too – to the tune of $430 million, which constitutes the lion’s share of the $573 million Musk raked in from SpaceX and xAI.

One hand washes the other, as they say. It’s especially nice when you own both hands.

The beauty of this grift is that we paid for it all. Via the taxes we pay that go to pay for SpaceX and xAI in the form of government “contracts,” which provide the wonderfully fungible revenue stream that is then used to purchase otherwise unsellable Cybertrucks from Tesla.

This grift is institutionalized – legalized – thievery.  It is (morally) far worse than the old-timey grifts that merely tricked people into handing over their money, which they did freely (if foolishly). A multi-level marketing grift, for instance, requires persuading the marks assembled at the Holiday Inn that they’re going to make a fortune if they get in early. If they “invest” in the scam. It is of course not openly called a scam. That would be telling. It is important to the success of the scam that the scammers and the scammed all pretend together that – somehow – this is all a legitimate sales operation, though of course all that’s being sold is a new crop of marks. The point is that no one is forced to go to the Holiday Inn to listen to the spiel, much less “invest” in this “opportunity.” There is a degree of moral sanitariness in this – in that when you choose to “invest” in “opportunities” of this type, you know (after you’ve lost all your money) that no one made you “invest.” You also probably know, deep down, that the whole thing was a scam. The dictum about it being difficult to cheat an honest man comes to mind.

Musk and his grifts are morally unsanitary to an extreme degree because they embroil (and  fleece) honest people who want nothing to do with any of this – and who are aware it’s a grift – but who are nonetheless forced to “invest” via the taxes they’re compelled to pay and more than just that. To cite one specific example of the etiolating shit-tide, the cost of everyone’s car (and home) insurance has increased because of the actual and potential losses incurred or risked by EVs, including spontaneous combustion. It is true that just about every other vehicle manufacturer also makes EVs but it was Tesla that (effectively) forced them to make them. It was either that – or pay Tesla for “carbon credits” in lieu of making them. Tesla legally blackmailed the so-called “legacy” vehicle manufacturers, who were effectively compelled to bankroll Tesla (and line Musk’s pockets).

The costs imposed by Tesla’s so-called “self driving” technology are another example of this wealth transfer. Who do you suppose pays for the damage (and death) arising from “self driving” Teslas? Why, we do! Once again, in the form of spread-out costs (via mandatory insurance) we all have to pay.

Musk’s social media grift – Xcrement – is yet another scam. It is the only “free speech” platform that requires people to pay for “reach” and even when they do, their “reach” is subject to arbitrary throttling by an inscrutable algorithm. Xcrement now openly admits the platform is all about the money. About “monetizing” the marks who buy into the scam. They are encouraged to believe that if they pay for a “boost” they will get “reach” as well as “revenue.” That they will make a fortune via “influencing.”

What this has to do with free speech is something along the lines of what being compelled to buy health insurance has to do with enjoying good health.

Finally, there is DOGE – the ballyhoo’d Department of Government Efficiency? Does anyone remember this scam? In particular, the promise made to the marks that all the “efficiency” gains achieved by DOGE would result in rebates for the American taxpayers who were forced to pay for all the “inefficiencies”?

Where’s are those $5,000 rebate checks? Well, they’re in the same room where you’ll find Trump’s 2024 campaign promises that energy prices would be cut in half if he got re-elected.

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