THE KING AND THE MOGUL: The Thermometers December 31

THE TRUMPOMETER SCORE: 5

Today, on the very last day of the year, President Trump decided to veto a few things. I haven’t reviewed the full list, but I sincerely hope he didn’t veto 2026-I’m ready to move on. My concern is not far-fetched. Trump already controls borders in countries he doesn’t govern, television programming he doesn’t produce, global pandemics he didn’t cause, history (which updates regularly), and justice (via the strategic appointment of friends). Time itself feels like a reasonable next target. One thing he did veto today was a pipeline to provide clean water to Colorado-legislation that had passed both the House and the Senate. The reason given: it costs too much. Cost too much to turn Colorado from Democrat (since 2008) to Republican perhaps, so why bother to help them?

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THE MUSKOMETER SCORE: 6

Today, Elon Musk announced that X will pay content creators more than YouTube. This could mean he desperately wants better content, wants to control the content, or genuinely enjoys the 99% of YouTube that consists of reaction videos, conspiracy rants, and mansplaining. Personally, I think it’s simpler: Musk considers himself a content creator and would like another trillion-dollar compensation package-on top of the trillion he’s already hoping to extract from Tesla. After all, you can never have too much money. You can, however, have too much love, according to Elon.

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TRUMPYMUSK BROMANCE SCORE: 3

Musk has never commented on the Colorado pipeline-publicly, at least-nor on whether Native American tribes should get more or less land. Trump, for his part, has never commented on the cost of content creation. Could this mean our two great leaders are preparing to diverge in 2026, each pursuing a distinct policy focus on separate paths?

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Originally published at https://thethermometers.substack.com.