U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have a conversation before departing the White House on his way to his home in Mar-a-Lago in Florida on March 14, 2025.ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
The months-long union between the world’s richest man and the commander-in-chief of its most potent military was intense and fruitful, a surprisingly bromantic marriage of money and power.
“I love the President,” Elon Musk, who embraced being called the “first buddy,” said of Donald Trump in February.
“He’s been amazing,” Mr. Trump reciprocated, after Mr. Musk had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support his return to office, first staying at a cottage at the President’s Mar-a-Lago resort, then ripping what he called a “chainsaw” through the spending and hiring plans of numerous federal agencies.
“I’d keep him as long as I could keep him,” Mr. Trump said in April.
That was then.
The bonhomie and mutual interest vanished this week, as Mr. Musk fired a barrage of insults at the President and appeared to call for his impeachment, while Mr. Trump in turn threatened to strangle the business interests of the billionaire who was, until very recently, one of his most profitable political pals.
The rupture unspooled in real-time Thursday, as the two men waged a social-media war – each writing on their own platforms – before a global audience, not least political opponents who shrieked with glee as they caught up on the latest messages.
Mr. Musk “just went CRAZY!” Mr. Trump wrote to the 10 million who follow him on Truth Social, saying the chief executive of carmaker Tesla could not tolerate a cut to federal electric-car subsidies.
“Elon was ’wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave,” Mr. Trump wrote.
“Time to drop the really big bomb,” Mr. Musk responded in a post to his 220 million followers on X – the platform he owns, formerly Twitter – in which he said, without evidence, that Mr. Trump’s name appears in files that document associations with Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide after being arrested on allegations that he co-ordinated an elite sex-trafficking operation.
“That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” Mr. Musk wrote.
The President, for his part, threatened to slash the federal contracts that sustain some of Mr. Musk’s other business interests, rocket company SpaceX and its orbital internet provider Starlink.
“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!” Mr. Trump wrote.
“Go ahead, make my day,” Mr. Musk responded, reposting a comment from a space journalist that cutting out SpaceX “would both end the International Space Station and simultaneously provide no way to safely deorbit it.”
Moments later, Mr. Musk said “Yes” to a post from Ian Miles Cheong, a right-wing influencer, who wrote: “President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.”
Mr. Musk created a poll asking if the time has come “to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”
Mr. Musk, who was born in South Africa and attended university in Canada, had wielded remarkable influence over U.S. domestic and foreign policy since Mr. Trump’s return to office.
The falling-out between the two men held immediate repercussions for Mr. Musk’s wealth, with shares in Tesla plunging right away by roughly 15 per cent.
But the rift also portends consequences for Mr. Trump and his Make America Great Again agenda.
Trump's messaging to his supporters could be thrown off track if Musk blocks his content on X.Jose Luis Magana/The Associated Press
“The number one thing that keeps Trump’s base on message, in line, obedient – it’s Twitter,” said Rick Wilson, a Florida political strategist who co-founded The Lincoln Project, a prominent organization devoted to dissuading Republicans from supporting Mr. Trump.
If Mr. Musk adjusts the algorithm “and stops promoting Trump’s content automatically, I think it starts to change the messaging environment for MAGA,” Mr. Wilson said.
It also “makes Trump less imposing to members of Congress,” he said. “Remember, the number one thing they fear is that Trump will turn the mob on them.”
Musk calls Trump’s big budget bill a ‘disgusting abomination’
Mr. Musk began criticism of the White House earlier this week for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a major budgetary measure that will add an estimated US$2.4-trillion to the country’s debt over the next decade.
The President on Thursday sought to defend that legislation, saying “This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.”
But Mr. Musk now appears determined to undercut the White House economic agenda. “The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year,” he warned.
The tit-for-tat is “a great reminder that nothing is getting done in Washington that’s doing anything to help regular people. This is all about a handful of corrupt billionaires and their egos and their pocketbooks,” said Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and fundraiser.
“This is not,” he added, “functioning government.”