You conflate bitterness with objectivity. It is well documented that both Trump and Musk are conmen, as was (is) my ex-wife. I’ve been conned before. Ergo, before doing business with a known conman I’d make the contract as airtight as possible. That’d be being smart, not being bitter.

I’ve been self-employed a long time (almost 28 years) and plan on being in business quite a while longer. We have improved our contracts immensely since the early days, to cover exceptions we didn’t anticipate but then had to deal with. Again, that is being smart, not bitter.