In the heat of the moment, Elon Musk threatened to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and then he took it back. In doing so, however, the rocket billionaire dragged NASA into his messy breakup with Donald Trump, with the agency’s access to orbit now at stake.

Musk is not about to overtake Trump himself as the dominant figure in the party, to be clear. But the jilted former “special government employee” is uniquely suited to become a chaos agent who could terrorize the GOP — potentially wreaking havoc on Trump’s legislative agenda and the party’s midterm election plans.

After a rift between President Trump and billionaire backer Elon Musk erupted publicly, Washington was assessing the damage to Trump's policy priorities and Musk's businesses.