Being fully pardoned assumes that he and/or Musk do not end up annoying Trump enough that he'd rather burn them. Franky even Musk should be concerned given how easy it is to get on the wrong side of Trump, but anyone involved in this relying on Musk being prepared to risk political capital shielding them if something goes wrong should be terrified and working on escape plans.

Musk pledged $45 million per month in donations to help Trump win a second term[1], he won't have done that for nothing. He owns Twitter, the social network the President uses to talk to millions of followers, another big donor was Palantir owned by Peter Thiel who was key Trump advisor last administration[2]. I've seen people on Reddit praising Musk for "uncovering billions of dollars of wasted money already" so he has political capital for himself and Trump already from his DOGE actions.

We've seen Trump dismiss people before, sure, but we've known for years that the administration has been pre-vetting people as Trump loyalists[3], planning who will become head of what department and why, which executive orders to move on right at the start of the presidency. This suggests Musk is not a casual appointment and advisers will advise Trump not to dismiss him casually.

And, apart from literal death, what does he have to fear with hundreds of billions and two companies to fall back on? For all my criticism I am not expecting Trump to pull a full Putin, confiscate X, SpaceX and Tesla and send Musk to Camp Guantanmo or have him die by falling out a window. Are you?

[1] https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/elon-musk-has-said-he...

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38315682

[3] this was 2023: https://www.axios.com/2023/11/13/trump-loyalists-2024-presid... "Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents. The screening for ready-to-serve loyalists has already begun, driven in part by artificial intelligence from tech giant Oracle, contracted for the project."

> what does he have to fear with hundreds of billions and two companies to fall back on?

Not having those anymore. With the new emergency powers Trump has claimed, he could shut down every company of Musk’s except X. Depending on how bad the breakup is, that could be on the table. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Wouldn't that be disastrous PR for all companies and investors? Especially when this administration campaigned on unleashing American energy and economic productivity. To send the message that your company can be taken from you if you annoy the President and nothing - wealth, public adoration, providing jobs in multiple states - can save you.

Just thinking of Musk's behaviour, if he felt that was a real possibility wouldn't he be walking on eggshells? Instead he acts like he feels untouchable.

You're assuming that not just one of them, but both of them, will be acting rationally. There's plenty of evidence to suggest both of them are capable of acting extremely irrationally.