Well, it finally happened. This town wasn’t big enough for the two towering egos of billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, and now they’re duking it out publicly, albeit from their own separate corners of the web.
Musk is taking to his own social media platform, X, to take jabs at Trump, and Trump is firing back on Truth Social and Fox News.
The squabble comes a few days after Musk stepped down from leading DOGE, and after Musk repeatedly disparaged Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” a spending package that House Republicans passed in May. Musk has called the bill “a disgusting abomination,” saying it would significantly increase the federal budget deficit by up to $3.8 trillion in additional debt over the next decade through increased defense spending, immigration enforcement measures, and tax cuts.
In a way, the siloed nature of this shouting match feels poetic. It exposes the cracks in the Musk-Trump political alliance and underscores how powerful social media and loyal fan bases have become in shaping policy narratives and swaying voter perception.
Trump is doing what he often does, trying to discredit a potential rival. For Musk, it’s more of a gamble. Tesla has already taken a hit from his political grandstanding and flirtations with the Trump administration. More of the same could further damage his business. Or it could cement his status as an anti-establishment voice — a tech mogul who doesn’t need traditional power structures to influence the American political landscape.
Musk has suggested in X posts that he would unseat politicians who backed Trump’s budget bill in the 2026 midterms. Pinned to the top of his X account is a poll asking if it’s “time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?” Two hours after the post, 82.3% of nearly 1 million voters said “yes.”
Musk said just a couple weeks ago that he would be taking a step away from politics to focus on his businesses. And it’s those businesses that Trump seems keen to punish. On Truth Social, Trump accused Musk of going “CRAZY” because the administration “took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!).”
Trump, here, is referring to the EV tax credit under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. There never was a mandate that forced anyone to buy EVs. Trump’s spending bill would end the tax credit by the end of this year.
On X, Musk countered that claim, and said he never had eyes on the bill before it passed the House.
Trump also said that Musk blew up after the president refused to put someone Musk “knew very well to run NASA” because he didn’t think it would be “appropriate.” He suggested that the easiest way to save money in the federal budget, “billions and billions of dollars,” would be to “terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts.”
Musk’s businesses have been awarded at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits over the next two decades, with nearly two-thirds pledged in the last five years, per a February Washington Post report.
Axios reported Wednesday part of Musk’s frustration with Trump’s spending bill and the administration at large was failing to win favorable treatment for his ventures. Not coincidentally, Musk spent more than $260 million to get Trump elected.
As the fight between Musk and Trump develops, it’s starting to get personal.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk posted in response to a video of Trump throwing shade at Musk on Fox News. “Such ingratitude.”
A few hours later, Musk decided to drop “the really big bomb.”
“[Donald Trump] is in the Epstein files,” Musk wrote on X. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
A number of politicians, including Republican senators, have called for Trump to release government files on financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was implicated in a child sex abuse ring and later committed suicide.
Musk said that his aerospace company, SpaceX, would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft “immediately” in response to Trump’s threat to cancel contracts awarded to the billionaire’s companies. (NASA uses Dragon for some missions.) And in a reply to a post on X about whether Trump should be impeached, Musk responded, “Yes.”
