Donald Trump Threatens to Cut Elon Musk’s Government Contracts as Online Feud Escalates
The open acrimony between the two men comes after the billionaire denounced President Trump’s signature domestic policy bill as an “abomination.”
Here’s the latest.
The unlikely alliance of two mercurial billionaires deteriorated in remarkably swift and public fashion over the course of a few hours on Thursday, as Elon Musk and President Trump sniped at each other from their own social media platforms, escalating their feud with incendiary attacks over matters significant and petty.
What started as simply a fight over Mr. Trump’s domestic policy bill mushroomed into who deserved more credit for Mr. Trump’s election victory, why Mr. Musk did not cover up his black eye with makeup during an Oval Office appearance last week and Mr. Trump’s abrupt drop in support for a Musk associate nominated to lead NASA.
Their sparring swiftly degenerated into threats on social media, as Mr. Trump questioned whether the government should cut its billions of dollars in contracts with Mr. Musk’s companies, and Mr. Musk claimed that there were references to Mr. Trump in government documents about the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while also seemingly approving of calls for Mr. Trump to be impeached.
Until last week, Mr. Musk was a top presidential adviser. But their fraying relationship finally unraveled on Thursday, months after their marriage of convenience — Mr. Trump had the political base, Mr. Musk had the money and social media might — helped enable Mr. Trump to return to the presidency.
Mr. Musk deployed over $250 million to back Mr. Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. After Mr. Trump won, he gave Mr. Musk free rein to slash the federal work force. Just last week, Mr. Trump gave Mr. Musk a personal send-off in the Oval Office, praising him as “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced,” while Mr. Musk promised to remain a “friend and adviser to the president.”
But while meeting on Thursday with Friedrich Merz, Germany’s new chancellor, in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump broke days of uncharacteristic silence and unloaded on Mr. Musk, saying he was “very disappointed in Elon.”
The billionaire responded quickly on X.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Mr. Musk wrote. “Such ingratitude,” he added, taking credit for Mr. Trump’s election.
Mr. Musk in recent days had mostly trained his ire on Republicans in Congress, not Mr. Trump himself. But he discarded that caution on Thursday, ridiculing the president in a pattern familiar to the many previous Trump advisers who have fallen out of favor.
Here’s what else to know:
- Musk’s leverage: Elon Musk created a poll on X that asked his followers if there should be a “new political party” that represents “the 80 percent in the middle.” He has often portrayed himself as a centrist, despite his engagement with right-wing leaders around the world. Although he promised $100 million to groups controlled by the Trump political operation, he has not delivered it, and could funnel his considerable wealth into this idea as his next political project.
- Financial impact: Tesla’s stock prices dropped and shares in publicly traded competitors to Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX rose in value amid the public spat.
- Stephen Bannon: One of the most vocal critics of Musk for months, Mr. Bannon said he was advising the president to cancel all of Mr. Musk’s contracts and start several investigations into the world’s richest man.
