Tensions between US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk seem to have reached breaking point – and their friendship appears over.
For more than a week, Musk had been complaining about Trump’s signature piece of legislation – a spending bill – and has been actively lobbying against it.
On Thursday, Trump met with the German chancellor in the Oval Office and spoke candidly about his disappointment with Musk.
In response, Musk launched a series of extraordinary attacks on X, including suggesting without evidence that Trump appears in unreleased files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump shot back several times, saying on Truth Social that Musk “went CRAZY” and was asked to leave the administration. He also threatened to cut government contracts with Musk’s companies.
Amid the fighting, Tesla’s stock price dropped a significant 14%, lowering Musk’s EV company below the $1 trillion threshold.
The public feud comes after Musk last week officially left his government post, where he was tasked with rooting out excessive spending through Doge.
It has long intrigued me that President Donald Trump never fully re-embraced X, formerly Twitter, despite Elon Musk inviting him back onto his platform.
Recall that during the first Trump administration, Twitter was Trump’s preferred favourite megaphone.
When the company (pre-Musk) removed him from the platform following the 6 January Capitol attacks, Trump started his own: Truth Social.
And today, years later, that’s the platform Trump is using, external to fire off his threats against Elon Musk.
Perhaps it was the possibility of a moment just like this one that kept Trump away.
“It’s about control,” said Noah Smith, writer of the Noahpinion Substack, who spoke with me by phone after the spat erupted.
“Trump realized that if he was dependent on Elon’s platform, Elon could have that to hold over him, and then have power over him.”
Trump has an intimate understanding of how power works after years of dealings in New York real estate and finance, Smith notes.
After purchasing the platform in 2022 and taking it private, Musk arranged for his artificial intelligence startup xAI to purchase X earlier this year.
The White House has responded Musk’s allegation that Trump appears in unreleased files held by the government related to late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Musk provided no evidence for the claim.
“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,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
The disintegration of the relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk – that most people predicted – is now a reality.
Exactly a week ago, the two of them were side by side in the Oval Office in a show of unity at the end of Musk’s stint as a special government employee – a full-blown political love-in if ever I saw one.
But that apparent harmony lasted about 48 hours. Over the weekend, Musk launched a blistering attack on Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill, calling it an “abomination.”
Today we saw the president responding in person for the first time. Speaking here at the White House, he said he was “very disappointed” in Musk.
Trump claimed that once people leave his orbit, they often turn hostile and fall victim to “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Now, Musk has completely unloaded on the president on X – his own platform, accusing Trump of ingratitude and claiming the president wouldn’t have won the election without his support; pinning all this to the top of his timeline – and dredging up lots of Trump quotes to reinforce his point.
So, now we have the richest man in the world at war with the most powerful man in the world – hold tight.
