People had a lot of worries at Butterworth’s on Thursday night. In the hours after the near-apocalyptic online showdown between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, a palpable angst permeated the fashionable MAGA bistro on Capitol Hill. As the Velvet Underground crooned “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’” over the sound system, patrons let loose with their anxieties: Was the gas station erectile dysfunction drug “Rhino Dick” safe? Would the guy from The Heritage Foundation ever stop stealing their beef tallow-soaked french fries?
These were the pressing concerns for this far-right crowd. But Elon Musk’s online attacks on Donald Trump? Those were mere trifles at the Trumpist haunt where lamb tartare, not cheeseburgers, is on the menu.
In the hours after the Musk-Trump feud blew up online, with the tech billionaire bashing the Republican spending bill, suggesting Trump should be impeached and tying him to notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, those criticisms barely registered. As the denizens of Butterworth saw things, the kerfuffle was simply the temper tantrum of a disgruntled administration official who’d run afoul of a popular president. And Trump’s counter attacks dismissing the world’s richest man as “going CRAZY”? Now that was gospel.
At a night in which MAGA personalities congregated to greet the British Ambassador, Lord Mandelson for the unveiling of a plaque in his honor at the restaurant, the spat was little more than a sideshow.
Still, the men and women bumping up to the bar all had their opinions.
Raheem Kassam, the longtime ally of Nigel Farage, who is a part owner of the restaurant, waved off Musk’s Twitter spree as the rantings of a mega donor disappointed that he could not bend the Republican Party to his will. “The Tea Party sold out to Koch,” said Kassam. “MAGA will not sell out to ketamine,” in a reference to first, the billionaire Koch brothers and second, Musk’s admitted use of the anesthetic.
Matt Boyle, the Washington bureau chief for Breitbart and longtime conservative media powerhouse, opined biblically, “Pride cometh, before the fall. Elon Musk got too big for his britches. This was destined to happen. It’s better now than later. President Trump is going to win, as he always does.”
One key theme last night: For all his wealth, Elon Musk has never run for office. Donald Trump was on the ballot, not the billionaire. As conservative influencer C.J. Pearson noted, “The reason I’m in this movement is because of President Trump. And the person that was on the ballot was President Trump. The American people voted overwhelmingly for him — not for Elon Musk.”
Pearson added of those defending the tech mogul, ”I think it’s unfortunate to see people who are so desperate for validation from someone like Elon Musk, they’re betraying the very person who made them who they are.” As one Trump administration appointee, who asked not to be identified because they were there for drinks, not work, put it starkly, “This is Elon’s insurrection. He’s disloyal.”
Not everyone there was willing to go quite that far. Mandelson, the evening’s honoree, had witnessed titanic personality clashes across the pond, notably, the decades-long drama between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He dismissed the Trump-Musk drama as “a small earthquake.” He added as a careful diplomatic caveat, “I don’t really follow it because I’m not on social media. So I have no idea what they’re saying to each other.”
Natalie Winters, the hard right media personality on Steve Bannon’s War Room, coyly responded “I’ll let the men handle that one.” Another administration appointee, who asked not to be identified so they could speak freely, noted that Musk represented a different libertarian element on the right than the more populist aspects of Trump’s party. Both, the appointee said, have a place in the GOP. “It was a very valid conversation.” However, the appointee noted that Trump had not run his campaign on what the billionaire wanted. Musk, they said, would have few defenders.
“People want careers in politics and when they see the writing on the wall,” the appointee said, “they see the writing on the wall.”
Outside the Capitol Hill restaurant, Musk did not find a sympathetic audience from other members of the right, either. After former top White House aide Steve Bannon suggested that the South African born billionaire should be deported, one administration official, who asked not to be identified so they could speak frankly, told POLITICO Magazine, “Elon should be careful. Trump could easily drug test him based on erratic behavior and nationalize SpaceX.”
Other Beltway Republicans merely groaned at the additional work that this online drama created. “A lot of staffers are having to explain what Ketamine is to their bosses this week,” one said.
But inside Butterworth’s on Thursday, all of that was irrelevant. For the blazer-and-slacks crowd at the bar, all that really mattered was that the Guinness taps were flowing for a steady pour and a solid drink.