Elon Musk Goes Nuclear on Trump

From the moment Elon Musk bounded onstage, midriff bared, to campaign for Donald Trump, cynics predicted that the two men’s egos were too large to allow for a lasting alliance. Improbably, however, the bond persisted, despite the rocky rollout of the U.S. DOGE Service, disagreements over legislation, and even covers of The New Yorker and Time that seemed designed to troll Trump and drive a wedge between the men.

Now it seems the cynics weren’t wrong—just premature in their predictions. A feud that simmered all week broke into outright hostility this afternoon, with Trump appearing to threaten to cancel all of the contracts and tax subsidies Musk’s companies have with the government, and Musk alleging that Trump hasn’t released files related to Jeffrey Epstein because he’s implicated in them. The falling-out feels both inevitable and still shocking. (The Germans must have a word for this situation; perhaps Trump could ask Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who visited the White House today.)

It was only Friday that Trump and Musk held an amiable press conference in the Oval Office to mark the end of Musk’s time as a “special government employee,” as he returns to his somewhat battered companies. Trump presented Musk with a key to the White House—gilded, but you knew that—and Musk promised to continue to offer Trump advice as much as desired. “I hope so,” the president replied. He’s apparently having second thoughts now. “I’m very disappointed in Elon,” Trump said in an appearance alongside Merz.

The rift opened over the past few days, as Musk began campaigning against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the sprawling legislation that Republicans are trying to move through both houses of Congress to extend Trump’s first-term tax cuts, slash entitlements, and achieve whatever else of the president’s agenda they can cram in or sneak past members and the Senate parliamentarian.

“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk posted on X on Tuesday. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” In another post, he wrote, “Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.” In yet another: “The Big Ugly Bill will INCREASE the deficit to $2.5 trillion!” And a fourth: “This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”

What Musk wants is not entirely clear. His understanding of government spending has always been muddled, which is one reason DOGE was doomed to miss its cost-cutting targets. His sudden emergence as a strict deficit hawk is difficult to believe, though if he’s really concerned, he could call for higher taxes. (Somehow it’s not surprising that a multibillionaire would prefer to cut social services for average citizens.) One hint about the true source of his fury is that he keeps bringing up reductions in subsidies for electric vehicles, something that could directly affect his bottom line.

At first, in an unusual display of circumspection and restraint, the White House tried to avoid directly responding to Musk. Then officials began pushing back, mostly in policy terms. Trump unleashed a flurry of announcements last night that seemed intended to distract from Musk. But then Trump’s patience ran out, producing today’s sound bite. The president also said he’d rather Musk criticize him personally than the bill, which sounds false.

The situation puts Trump in an ironic position: He likes to be the guy on the outside, attacking government officials for failing to accomplish some impossible task. Now Musk is doing that to him, while Trump has to defend the imperfect process of legislation. As of this writing, Musk had pinned to the top of his X profile a repost of many screenshots of Trump arguing for fiscal discipline before having won his first term. “Where is this guy today??” Musk sniped.

A clash between Musk and Trump will be a test of what happens when two of the greatest promoters in mass-media history square off. Both are adept at driving a news cycle; both are the owners of social-media platforms; and although X is much larger than Truth Social, Trump also has the advantage of being, you know, the president of the United States. Which of them can control the news more?

But the most interesting clash is the one between two guys who thought they had bought each other off. For a time, they both must have thought they had a great deal. Trump got at least a quarter of a billion dollars in campaign support from Musk, and he got the joy of having the world’s richest man as his sidekick. Maybe Trump even believed that DOGE would be able to make huge budget cuts via improvements in efficiency.

Musk, meanwhile, was able to wield unprecedented power as an unelected, unconfirmed bureaucrat. In 2023, during an onstage discussion, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the South African–born Musk, “You can’t be president of the U.S. last time I checked, right?” Musk replied with a smirk, “Not officially.” For a moment, he seemed to achieve that unofficial reign. DOGE was given wide latitude. Musk skulked around the Oval Office with his young son and mugged in interviews with the president. He could also help direct contracts to his companies, hurt competitors, and install allies in key posts. At the peak of their bond, and a nadir of propriety, the president arranged an infomercial for Tesla on the White House lawn.

Now, as they drift apart, both men are feeling burned. “I’ve helped Elon a lot,” Trump groused today. Later, he unloaded on Musk on Truth Social. “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 wrote, adding in a threat: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

Musk’s anger, though just as hot, was tinged with imperious presumption. “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote on X this afternoon. “Such ingratitude,” he added. You can kind of see his point: He thought that investing massive amounts of money into Trump would allow him to get whatever he wanted from Trump, and Trump did little to dispel that impression. Musk’s transparency about DOGE’s actions was wanting, but he’s making it crystal clear what he thought he bought. Trump and Musk are both learning the limitations on their purchases—and the public is getting an illustration of the danger of someone like Musk having so much personal influence on the government.