The End of the Trump and Musk Honeymoon
The End of the Trump and Musk Honeymoon
It seems one of the most powerful alliances in U.S. domestic politics has ended.
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk engaged in a heated argument on their social media platforms on Thursday.
Donald Trump suggested cutting the tech billionaire’s various government contracts and Musk’s turn towards nuclear energy, while Musk claimed that Trump’s name appears in the so-called Epstein files, which accused him of sexual exploitation of underage girls.
The conflict on Thursday began when Trump confirmed the deterioration of his relationship with Musk, stating he was very disappointed after the tech billionaire repeatedly criticized the President’s domestic agenda bill in recent days.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, ‘Elon and I had a very good relationship.’
He added, ‘I don’t know if we’ll have a relationship anymore,’ which came less than a week after the two praised each other during Musk’s last day as a special government employee.
Musk responded on his social media platform X, saying Trump couldn’t win the 2024 election without him. Apparently, this stance further angered the U.S. President and intensified their social media dispute.
Musk said, ‘Without me, Trump would lose the election, Democrats would control the House, and Republicans would be 51 to 49 in the Senate.’ He added, ‘How ungrateful.’
Musk initially started the public spat on Tuesday by harshly criticizing the Republicans’ massive bill on taxes, cost reductions, energy, and borders for its projections that would significantly increase the deficit.
The bill passed narrowly in the House last month and is under Senate review, with the tech billionaire clearly stating his intention to have it repealed or force Republican lawmakers to rewrite it.
Multiple sources told CNN that Trump and Musk have not spoken since Musk’s initial outburst.
The fight and bickering between Trump and his major financial backer, former first buddy, and billionaire turned special government employee, indicate a very public separation of a former power center from Trump’s second administration.
The U.S. President had given Musk full authority to take significant steps to change the size and scope of the federal government through his so-called Ministry of Productivity, which Musk did with varying levels of success.
However, this friendship quickly soured after he left the government, as Musk objected to Trump’s major agenda.
The situation escalated further by Thursday afternoon as Trump threatened to terminate Musk’s subsidies and government contracts, an action that could have devastating effects on his business and even major repercussions for SpaceX’s International Space Station. In turn, Musk claimed without evidence that Trump’s name was in the Epstein files, suggesting this was the real reason for not releasing more records about the notorious child abuser publicly, without explaining where he saw these unpublished files.
Of course, the inclusion of a person’s name in these files does not in itself indicate that they have been accused of any wrongdoing.
On Thursday evening, following Musk’s accusation against Trump regarding Epstein, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, ‘This is an unfortunate incident from Elon, who is unhappy with this big beautiful bill because it doesn’t include the policies he wanted.’
The President is focused on passing this historic law and restoring greatness to our country. A source familiar with the matter told CNN that the government has released the Epstein-related files with Trump’s name, questioning Musk’s claim.
Trump was friends with Epstein decades ago and has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with him. The Attorney General said Trump instructed him to review the investigation files and create transparency.
The source, quoting a post from Musk on X in February, said, ‘If Elon truly thought the President was more deeply involved with Epstein, why did he spend six months with him and say he loved him like a straight man can love another straight man?’
The tech billionaire also attacked the President’s tariff policy, writing that it would cause a recession in the second half of the year. At one point, Musk even supported the possibility of impeaching the President and removing him from office, replacing him with Vice President J.D. Vance. Trump responded relatively mildly, saying he wouldn’t be upset if Elon took a stance against him but should have done it months ago.
Shortly after, he refused to answer any reporters’ questions at an afternoon event with the Fraternal Order of Police.
The stunning statements from the two on Thursday significantly escalated the dispute and raised questions about Musk’s business future and what he will do with his vast wealth in the upcoming elections.
Musk, who was the largest financial donor to Trump’s campaign in last year’s election, had pledged to donate millions to Republican candidates in 2026, but later announced plans to reduce his political spending. Tesla’s stock also fell on Thursday following the collapse of the Musk-Trump relationship.
The company had previously taken significant hits following Musk’s numerous controversial political actions. Trump’s threat to terminate Musk’s government contracts could be devastating for his companies.
During Thursday’s appearance in the Oval Office alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump repeatedly claimed that Musk’s concerns about the bill focused on repealing electric vehicle subsidies, which were not in Tesla’s favor.
Trump also said that Musk never had a problem with the bill until right after he left. The President wrote on Truth Social, ‘Elon was getting thin. I asked him to leave. I canceled his electric car orders that forced everyone to buy electric cars that no one else wanted, and he went crazy.’
Musk responded by saying that this statement was an outright lie. In further posts on X, Musk denied Trump’s claim that the Tesla CEO was aware of the bill’s internal mechanism beforehand, responding that the removal of electric vehicle tax incentives had nothing to do with his opposition to the massive domestic policy bill. In a separate post, Musk said, ‘Whatever it is, keep the reduction of solar electric vehicle incentives in the bill, even if no oil and gas subsidies are untouched, very unfair, but set aside a mountain of pork in the bill.’ In American political literature, the term ‘pork’ refers to projects that are more political or promotional.
Throughout the history of civilization, there has never been a law as big and beautiful as this.
Everyone knows this, or you get a big ugly bill or a concise and beautiful bill. Concise and beautiful is the way.
A Republican strategist closely working with the tech billionaire downplayed the idea that Musk’s opposition was only about electric vehicle subsidies, telling CNN that Musk is genuinely concerned about the bill’s projected increase in the deficit. This is an argument Musk has repeatedly publicly mentioned.
The Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan entity, estimated that the law passed by the House would increase the deficit by 24 trillion dollars due to massive tax cuts.
More than an hour after the argument with Trump, Musk seemed ready for reconciliation, posting that he hoped this dispute wouldn’t harm their relationship.
Trump, from his Oval Office, recalled his friendly campaign relations with Musk, who had contributed at least a quarter-billion dollars to efforts supporting Trump’s candidacy for the 2024 presidency.
Trump, referring to his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who apparently hinted at tensions between Wiles and Musk, said, ‘Elon supported me strongly. He really campaigned for me. I think I would have won. Susie said I would win easily in Pennsylvania.’ While Musk intensified his attacks on Trump’s spending bill this week, White House officials were largely surprised, disappointed, and completely caught off guard by the harsh rhetoric of Trump’s former close friend. Trump was openly saddened when discussing their deteriorating relationship in the Oval Office.
A White House official told CNN, ‘All of this has been on the President’s mind for the past few days. He hasn’t been angry but more shocked and disappointed in Elon.’
Another official said Trump asked his advisors how Musk’s comments were spreading in the media, including whether these statements could affect the final Republican vote on what he calls the big beautiful bill.
The second official said the President respects Musk and genuinely likes him.
Because of this relationship, he didn’t want to attack him publicly. However, officials said Trump’s attitude and lack of anger towards Musk are now changing after a series of posts by the Tesla founder attacking Trump, especially the post stating ‘Without me, Trump would lose the election.’
Trump seemed to sometimes moderate his tone during the meeting with the German Chancellor, saying he always liked Elon. Trump said, ‘He’s not the first one. People leave my administration, and they love us, and then at some point, they really miss it, and some of them accept it, and some of them become really hostile.’
‘I don’t know what’s going on. They leave, and they wake up in the morning, and the glitter is gone.’
‘The whole world has changed, and they become enemies.’ Despite these hostilities, a symbol of friendship remained at the White House. The red Tesla sedan that Trump had purchased at an event to boost Musk’s business was still parked in the driveway Thursday evening.
The Future of Musk-Trump Relations
It’s yet to be seen where things will go from here. Trump often reconciles with his allies even after harsh words are exchanged, but it’s rare for the other party to be as powerful and outspoken as Musk.
The power dynamics are usually such that the other party feels pressured to yield to Trump. Musk says he’s ready for a power battle and for anyone else, buckle up.
Tesla’s stock rose in the months following the November presidential election as investors were convinced Donald Trump was about to give big concessions to his biggest financial backer, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO.
But Trump could also cause significant harm to Musk’s multiple business interests. The risk of this harm is one reason Tesla’s TSLA stock fell 14% in Thursday’s trading following the very nasty and public argument between Trump and Musk.
But it’s not just Tesla that could be at risk. SpaceX is heavily reliant on government contracts for a significant portion of its revenue.
And Tesla, SpaceX, and Musk’s other companies, including the social media platform X, the AI company xAI, and the brain-computer interface company Neuralink, all face federal government regulations.
Additionally, Musk is facing potential investigations into his activities from organizations like the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are examining whether he violated rules when buying his initial shares in the platform X, then known as Twitter, before making a bid to acquire the company.
It seems Trump has threatened to take such action against Musk as he wrote on his social media platform Truth on Thursday, ‘The easiest way to save our budget billions and billions of dollars is to end Elon Musk’s subsidies and government contracts.’
‘I always wondered why Biden didn’t do this,’ and Musk responded on his social media platform, saying, ‘That’s much better and better,’ followed by two smiling face emojis along with ‘Go make my day.’
Tesla has relatively few government contracts, but several federal policies directly impact Tesla’s finances, including the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle buyers, allowing Tesla and other automakers to raise prices.
This credit likely had a value of billions of dollars for Tesla last year alone.
Additionally, Tesla reported over $8 billion in sales over six years from regulatory credits to other automakers to help them comply with federal and state emission standards.
Trump favors repealing these standards and stripping states of the authority to set rules that eliminate the market for these credit sales.
A note from JPMorgan to clients on Thursday estimated that losing the electric vehicle tax credit could cost Tesla $12 billion annually, and losing regulatory credit sales another $2 billion.
Musk has also tied Tesla’s future growth to launching a driverless taxi service. Tesla’s current Full Self-Driving (FSD) offer requires a driver to control the vehicle.
This service is set to launch later this month in Austin, Texas.
He acknowledges that his ambitious expansion plans could be constrained by regulations. Additionally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has previously announced investigations into accidents involving existing Tesla vehicles operating with FSD.
Many Tesla supporters believed these investigations would favor Tesla under the Trump administration, but apparently, that is no longer the case.
According to USASpending.gov, SpaceX has received $152 billion in contracts from NASA and $58 billion from the Department of Defense, along with several million dollars from other agencies. However, replacing SpaceX in these contracts is not realistic.
The reason is that no other company is available to replace it.
For example, Boeing is the only company capable of transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS).
But recently, in its only crewed flight, it faced issues requiring Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to return to Earth without two astronauts, who were stranded at the ISS for nine months instead of the planned few-day trip. However, SpaceX is also under NASA and FAA oversight.
The Starlink satellite internet service is also seeking FCC approval to expand its services.