The partnership between Trump and Musk breaks down in the face of public insults and threats.
Trump threatened to terminate Musk’s government contracts on their separate social media accounts, while Musk maintained that Trump would not have won the election in November without him.
The improbable partnership between Trump and Musk dissolves in a dramatic and open manner. The connection was never the most likely. Two temperamental billionaires teamed up last year and pledged to change the course of the nation. Donald Trump had the political clout.
Elon Musk possessed both financial resources and social media clout. However, their union ended on Thursday in a very public and abrupt manner, as the two guys fought over both major and trivial issues. The disintegration of the president and the wealthiest man in the world disrupted one of the most potent forces influencing Mr. Trump’s second term, in addition to the immediate drama.
Mr. Musk had described the president’s flagship domestic policy legislation as a “disgusting abomination,” and their disagreement started days earlier over it. However, on Thursday, it spiraled out of control as a dispute over who merited more credit for Mr. Trump’s election win, why Mr. Musk didn’t use makeup to cover his black eye during an Oval Office visit last week, and why Mr. Trump suddenly withdrew his support for a Musk ally who had been nominated to head NASA.
The argument quickly turned into threats on their respective social media channels, with Mr. Trump threatening to reduce the billions of dollars in federal government contracts with Mr. Musk’s firms. Mr. Musk, for his part, launched a barrage of assaults against the man he had formerly showered with compliments.
He claimed that government documents about the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein made references to Mr. Trump, hinted that it might be time to form a new political party, and expressed his backing for a petition calling for the president’s impeachment.
The public jousting turned so nasty that Ashley St. Clair, a right-leaning author who has a child with Mr. Musk but is estranged from him, intervened at one point. “Hey @realDonaldTrump lmk if u need any breakup advice,” she tweeted on X. Their abrupt break ended a partnership that lasted for almost a year, during which Mr. Musk assisted in driving Mr. Trump to the White House and rose to become one of the president’s key advisors, leading a push to significantly reduce the workforce and contracts of the government, which caused tremors throughout the federal administration.
Both men now have a lot at stake. Before the midterm elections in 2026, Mr. Musk had pledged to donate $100 million to organizations under the direction of the president’s team, but that money has not yet been given and is now questionable.
Mr. Musk invested around $275 million in supporting Trump’s election in 2024. Not only must Mr. Trump deal with the suppression of electoral backing, but he must also deal with the rage of a former ally who seems intent on weakening his position on the right. Mr. Trump is now posing a threat to the billions of dollars in government contracts that Mr. Musk’s companies have profited from and are in line to receive billions more, a profitable income stream for his business empire.
One individual with intimate knowledge of internal discussions told on the condition of anonymity that Mr. Trump’s political advisors are planning for the possibility of a protracted battle with Mr. Musk in which supporters of both men in politics and technology are compelled to take sides.
In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that “this is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.” “The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.” As for Mr. Musk’s friends and colleagues, they said they were stunned by the nasty and sudden split and spent Thursday glued to their phones and computers, observing their friend debate with Mr. Trump without knowing what he was up to.
The tech CEO would ultimately have more influence over the world than Trump, some around Musk said with assurance. However, even by Mr. Musk’s standards, there was still concern in his inner circle that he had chosen a battle that might backfire on him and the “tech right,” the network of Silicon Valley CEOs who have supported the Trump administration.
The connection was not expected to endure indefinitely by many of Mr. Musk’s colleagues. However, they expressed regret that the conflict had ended so bitterly. Mr. Musk had been a constant presence at Mr. Trump’s side during the first few months of the administration, accompanying him on weekends to Mar-a-Lago and sitting for a joint interview on Fox News while supervising a government-wide initiative to reduce federal spending.
However, his collaboration with the Department of Government Efficiency resulted in conflicts with senior cabinet members, who debated with Mr. Musk about his reductions and strategies. According to those familiar with the dynamics, Mr. Trump mostly backed Mr. Musk, but as concerns about Mr. Musk’s approach grew, their relationship began to deteriorate.
Mr. Trump seemed reluctant to engage in a dispute with Mr. Musk for days, even as the tech entrepreneur blasted the president’s signature law as a deficit-increasing measure, calling it “massive, outrageous, pork-filled.” Mr. Musk, however, remained persistent. In addition to implying that he would be targeting Republicans who supported the law in the midterm elections the following year, he claimed that it would undo all of his efforts to reduce government expenditure.
When reporters questioned him about Mr. Musk’s criticism on Thursday, Mr. Trump retorted. “I’ve helped Elon a lot,” Mr. Trump stated from the Oval Office during a meeting with Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz. “I’m very disappointed in Elon.”
He also minimized the financial assistance he had gotten from his former ally during the campaign, claiming that he would have won Pennsylvania even without Mr. Musk, who invested a lot of his money and time into the crucial battleground state. Mr. Musk retaliated. “The Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate, the Dems would rule the House, and Trump would have lost the election if it wasn’t for me,” Mr. Musk posted on X.
In a manner that he never had before, he claimed responsibility for Mr. Trump’s election a few moments later, saying, “Such ingratitude.” On their respective social media sites, the two males kept up their attacks. “Ending Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts is the easiest way to save billions and billions of dollars in our Budget,” Mr. Trump stated on Truth. Social. “I was always shocked that Biden didn’t do it!” Mr. Musk replied that SpaceX, his space technology firm, would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft, but he later seemed to retract that threat.
The spacecraft is used by NASA to transport food, astronauts, and other equipment to the International Space Station. According to a source familiar with the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions, Mr. Musk seemed to be in high spirits as he recently left his government employment. He told friends that he wanted to continue to be involved in certain aspects of his cost-cutting effort, such as preventing funding for programs that he thought encouraged illegal immigration.
However, in a manner that is similar to the many former Trump advisors who have fallen by the wayside, he made fun of the president in a way that showed he had given up all his caution on Thursday. Mr. Musk openly theorized that a “body double” had taken Mr. Trump’s place, who had formerly opposed increasing the deficit, and then floated away from the Republican Party in the afternoon to start a new one.
The stock of Tesla lost 14% of its value when their fight began on Thursday at about noon. Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent business of Truth Social, saw an 8% drop in its stock price. Only last week, in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump gave Mr. Musk a personal farewell. He presented Mr. Musk with a golden key bearing the White House emblem, calling him “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced.” Mr. Musk pledged to continue to be the president’s “friend and advisor.” Mr. Musk claimed that his black eye was the result of his young son striking him in the face during the incident.
The fact that Mr. Musk refused to use cosmetics to hide the injury was mocked by Mr. Trump on Thursday. He also hypothesized that the technology executive, like other former assistants, was now experiencing “Trump derangement syndrome” as a result of quitting the White House inner circle.
The president stated, “They wake up in the morning, the glamour is gone, the whole world is different, and they become hostile.” In response, Mr. Musk shared old social media posts from Mr. Trump in which he attacked Republicans for failing to address the widening deficit and predicted that Mr. Trump’s tariffs will bring about a recession by the end of the year.
Mr. Trump argued that Mr. Musk’s criticism of his domestic policy bill was motivated by self-interest, and that he only opposed the legislation after Republicans eliminated the electric vehicle subsidies that would have helped Tesla, Mr. Musk’s business. (Previously, Mr. Musk had advocated for the end of those tax breaks.)
Elon knew that, I asked him to go, I revoked his EV Mandate, which required everyone to purchase Electric Cars that nobody wanted and he knew that I was going to do! , and he simply lost his mind, Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Such an obvious lie,” Mr. Musk wrote in response on X. “What a tragedy.” It seems that Musk is willing to de-escalate his conflict with Trump. “For the sake of our great country, Musk and Trump should make peace,” the hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman tweeted on Thursday.
When we are together, we are far stronger than when we are apart. “You are correct,” Musk retorted. Elon Musk, the owner of the aerospace technology business SpaceX, appears to have reversed his intention to retire the Dragon spacecraft belonging to SpaceX.
In response to Musk’s first threat to decommission the spaceship, an apparently random X account urged Musk to reconsider his choice. “Good advice,” he posted on X. “Okay, we won’t decommission Dragon.” For NASA, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft transport cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.
The future of the struggling and aging space station would be even more uncertain if SpaceX were to shut it down.
