Now that the relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump has soured, one of them could be wearing a sloganned cap less than that other. Or not at all

Suddenly, we are seeing a pair of fighting fish in a bowl. Or, for those who prefer a sight more combative, two fighting cocks in a cockpit. One is the world’s powerful man and the other, the richest. Once pals, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are, in the last 24 hours, at each other’s throats. Who will emerge victorious has not panned out. But the entertainment, as both probably intended, is not ending any time soon. Like fighting fowls or fish, their conflict is openly displayed for public consumption. And each has their own own platform. Unlike private political disagreement, both have used their respective social media pages as the primary arenas for their verbal jousting. Whether X is the cockpit or Truth Social the bowl, or vice versa (take your pick), the apparent desire for an audience that both men seem to possess is clearly unmistakable.

But this isn’t just a political disagreement; it is a serious personality clash playing out on a global stage, driven by perceived slights, diverging interests (particularly around Trump’s new spending bill impacting EV subsidies [read: Tesla]), and a shared penchant for showy bickering. It’s a prime, and prime-time, example of how today’s U.S. political and economic power dynamics can be displayed, totally raw and unfiltered, for the world to see. The media is calling the squabble a “flameout”, but who is the more able and effective flame-thrower, we can’t say. They sure make for a truly high-octane spectacle. Mr Trump practically invented or perfected the art of the personalised barb in modern politics. Mr Musk is a tech-savvy provocateur, adept at using internet culture, memes, and rapid-fire responses; he happily leans into his “disruptor” persona that appeals to a certain segment of the online population.

The media is calling the squabble a “flameout”, but who is the more able and effective flame-thrower, we can’t say. They sure make for a truly high-octane spectacle

Now that Elon Musk has publicly criticised Donald Trump in a tirade of over two dozen social media posts between them, and seemingly distanced himself from the president, will we be seeing him abandon the MAGA cap that he has been wearing with considerable frequency? One of the most undeniable and striking markers of Mr Musk’s rapid and very public adoption of Donald Trump’s rhetoric and strategy was his frequent and varied use of the MAGA cap. This wasn’t just a casual accessory; it was a deliberate, powerful visual cue that signaled ideological alignment and solidarity with the MAGA base. Mr Musk, wearing the MAGA cap, has told the audience at Mr Trump’s campaigns rallies, “put the hat on, let’s go”.

He has worn the cap in different colours, unlike Mr Trump, who mostly sticks to red with white text. Mr Musk has worn them in gold to possibly denote a golden era or the economic wealth that the Trump campaign was selling hard, as well as all-black—the “Dark MAGA”, as he called it, presumably to signal a deeper, perhaps more extreme or specific, ideological alignment within the broader MAGA movement. Not since Mahatma Gandhi made the dhoti (widely translated as “loincloth”) the uniform of the Indian independence movement has there been a simple article of clothing so symbolic in political campaigning. Both the dhoti and the MAGA cap, despite their fundamental differences in origin and context, demonstrate how a simple, seemingly ordinary item of clothing, when infused with powerful political meaning by a charismatic leader and a mass movement, can become an incredibly potent symbol, capable of both rallying and fragmenting populations. Nondescript can indeed be profound.

Illustration: Just So