Private tensions between the world’s most powerful man and the world’s richest spilled out into a public war on Thursday, ending the alliance between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the most dramatic way possible.
Since Musk, the billionaire tech entrepreneur and former leader of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, started cozying up to Trump before last year’s election, pundits have speculated when the working relationship would dissolve given their competing egos.
That day was Thursday, just after noon Eastern. Trump, seated beside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, responded to Musk’s recent stream of attacks against the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by suggesting his former adviser has “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and claimed that Musk’s opposition to his tax bill stems from the revocation of electric vehicle tax breaks included in the text.
Musk, not to be outdone, reacted by claiming on X that Trump is blocking the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files because he’s named in the documents. Those comments resulted in a pair of Truth Social posts from the president, where he threatened to revoke all of Musk’s government contracts, before Musk again escalated the blood feud.
In a slew of posts, the tech billionaire retweeted a post calling for Trump’s impeachment, announced that he would be decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft — responsible for ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station — and predicted that Trump’s tariffs will plunge the United States into a recession in the second half of the year. Musk even posted a poll to X asking if the U.S. needs a “new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle.”
The very public breakup could have a major fallout on Trump’s presidency, Musk’s business empire, and the Republican Party that was fueled, in part, by Musk’s massive election spending.
“Only one person can survive this. The question is who,” one veteran Republican campaign strategist told the Washington Examiner. “The Left is done with Elon’s businesses. Sales are down. Tesla is operationally a mess. The Right was starting to warm to Tesla. The Right is keeping X, nee Twitter, alive. It’s conceivable that the Tesla board ousts Elon.”
A second Republican strategist predicted Musk would use his fortune to hurt Trump in the 2026 elections.
“If you think this was bad, just wait until campaign season,” the strategist said. “Musk has the means, and now the motivation, to royally screw Trump in the midterms. And I can’t imagine he’ll forget all of this by 2028 either.”
A third GOP strategist suggested the drama will only further embolden fiscal hawks resisting the passage of Trump’s tax bill that is pending in the Senate.
“Thomas Massie got the green light he’s been waiting for,” that strategist assessed flatly. “There’s no way this thing is getting passed before July 4.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), indeed, was celebrating. His concerns about the “big, beautiful bill” driving up federal spending have now been amplified by Musk, who called for the Trump-backed legislation to be killed.
“I told my colleagues, if I get hit on Independence Avenue and they have to deliver my eulogy, to say he was having his best day ever,” Massie said, smiling.
Massie, who was targeted by Trump for voting against the bill, was holding a box that he said was the “debt clock wrapped in the big, beautiful bill” text.
Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to the president and one of the most senior voices in the MAGA movement, suggested that the president’s supporters want him to weaponize the powers of the presidency against Musk, calling on the president to nationalize SpaceX, on top of investigating Musk’s immigration status before eventually deporting him.
White House officials declined to comment on Bannon’s suggestion but sought to downplay the significance of the fractured relationship in conversations with the Washington Examiner. One staffer jokingly referred to Thursday’s affair as the “One Big Beautiful Breakup,” a reference to the legislation that kicked off Musk’s flip on the president in the first place.
Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers appeared split on who exactly to support as Musk called for Trump’s signature tax cut and spending bill to be defeated.
“It’s sad,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said, but added that he doesn’t think Musk’s schism with the president will affect support for the reconciliation package or diminish the Tesla mogul’s clout with the House Republican Conference.
“My message is for Republicans who voted for the bill: the reasons they voted for it are still there,” the South Carolina Republican said. “I guess now, if they’re influenced by what somebody says, then that’s their right.”
Can Musk and Trump repair their relationship? Many expressed a desire for the two to reconcile, noting Musk has done good things for the party, while also reiterating that Trump is their leader.
“It’s in the best interest of the U.S. for them to work together,” Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL) told the Washington Examiner.
“I’m optimistic they’ll work it out, but the president has an agenda, and the voters supported that agenda, and I think what people love about the president is that he campaigned and governs the same way,” he said.
Some GOP lawmakers weren’t sure the heat-of-the-moment exchange would blow over.
“Divorces are nasty and people say a lot of mean things about each other,” Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) told the Washington Examiner.
“Listen, President Trump is the leader of our party,” the Texas Republican continued. “He’s the one who delivered a massive election victory for us. We’ve worked well with Elon Musk, especially with DOGE, and he’s done phenomenal work, and hopefully we’ll continue to work with him.”
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) told the Washington Examiner that there are some hurt feelings right now, but the two have “had great affection” for each other.
“We’re on the same side,” McCormick said. “We have the same goals.”
Thursday’s social media meltdown comes after weeks of reported tensions between the pair, first over Musk’s headline-grabbing, chainsaw-wielding approach to reducing federal government spending through DOGE before Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” included text to repeal former President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle tax credits, which helped Musk’s Tesla.
Musk started the week describing Trump’s spending and tax package as a “disgusting abomination” for being a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled” measure, supported by the Congressional Budget Office predicting it would add $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. Musk, who spent almost $300 million on last year’s election, had also encouraged the primarying of lawmakers who voted for it.
When asked about Musk’s comments during a White House meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump conveyed his disappointment in Musk, contending he was uncertain over whether they would have a working relationship in the future.
“Elon is upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles, and they’re having a hard time,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I know that disturbed him. He wanted somebody that he knew very well to run NASA, and I didn’t think it was appropriate. He happened to be a Democrat, like totally Democrat.”
Musk responded in real time on X, arguing Trump would not have won last year’s election without him and complaining about the president’s “ingratitude.”
“Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,” he posted. “In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.”
Tensions then rose on each man’s respective social media platform, including Trump threatening to terminate Musk’s federal contracts as “the easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars.” That news put even more downward pressure on Tesla’s stock price, sending it tumbling by 15% over the course of the day.
“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Musk reacted almost instantaneously to the “lie,” before suggesting he would start a third party, that Trump be impeached, and insinuating that Trump “is in the Epstein files.”
“That is the real reason they have not been made public,” he posted. “Have a nice day, DJT!”
Trump’s public attitude toward Musk was the polar opposite last week when, prompted by a desire to be less tumultuous with personnel this administration compared to the last, he held a goodbye press conference for Musk and presented him with ceremonial keys to the building.
Months earlier, amid boycotts and vandalism of Tesla showrooms and charging stations, Trump even hosted an impromptu roadshow of the electric vehicles on the South Lawn, buying a red Model S for aides to use on campus.
Musk’s 130 days as a special government employee were as tumultuous as Thursday’s social media debacle, including one of his sons, Lil X, picking his nose during a press event, him posing with the “Chainsaw for Bureaucracy” at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, and disputed complaints he gave a Nazi salute at Trump’s pre-inauguration rally at Capital One Arena.
Despite promising to decrease the federal budget by $2 trillion and then $1 trillion, as of Musk’s departure last week, DOGE has only made $160 billion in savings, amid legal challenges to his hirings and firings that could end in government employees being awarded back pay.
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At the same time, Musk did manage to upend government processes and information-sharing, in addition to dramatically reducing agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Education, and the Institute of Peace, though Democrats have already pledged to investigate DOGE’s work.
Massie called the dramatic ending between Musk and Trump “inevitable.”
“I’ve said this before,” Massie said, “but you don’t land rockets backwards or get cars to drive themselves by ignoring the people who are lying to you.”
Norman also didn’t anticipate a Trump-Musk reconciliation anytime soon.
“Personally? I don’t think it will [blow over],” Norman said. “Two strong personalities. I hope they get back together, because they’re both going in the same direction, right, to save America.”