Total and irreversible war. The honeymoon between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has ended, turning into a furious, violent exchange of reproaches, insults, and threats within hours. An unprecedented battle that has plummeted the stock prices of the entrepreneur's companies and is exposing unimaginable dirty laundry. "The reason the Government has not released the Epstein files," X's owner said about one of the great obsessions of the MAGA world and conspiracy theorists, "is because Trump is in them," he wrote, boasting that he was going to drop "the big bomb."
The strange relationship between the world's richest man and the most powerful president on the planet had all the ingredients not to work: two huge egos, two individuals with a unique ability to generate global attention, with incredibly ambitious agendas and extreme, jealous, and competitive personalities. It was no secret that something like this would happen, but surprisingly, they managed to work together for almost a year, both during the campaign and in the Government.
Praise and pats on the back are a thing of the past. Musk has launched a crusade against the president's major fiscal bet: his new budget law designed to maintain the tax cuts initiated in 2017. And after two days of silence enduring it, Trump has decided to end the truce: "he has gone crazy," he said on Thursday, threatening to terminate his contracts with the federal government if he is so "concerned about the budget," causing Tesla's stock to drop by 14% in the market.
There is no turning back. "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!" the president wrote on his social media, picking up the gauntlet thrown by his former partner and friend. "The easiest way to save billions of dollars in our budget is to cancel Elon's subsidies and government contracts. I always wondered why Biden didn't do it!" he added as a warning.
The attacks and responses, in real-time, are violent, an escalating frenzy. Musk is unleashed, posting all kinds of messages and reproaches. "Without me, Trump would have lost the elections, the Democrats would control the House of Representatives, and the Republicans would have a 51-49 majority in the Senate," he claimed. "Such ingratitude," he reproached. Shortly after, he accused Trump and his team of blocking the promised release of supposedly secret documents that the federal government would have regarding lists of powerful men in financier Jeffrey Epstein's orbit and his prostitution and abuse of minors scheme.
The escalation is total, without brakes or controls. The entrepreneur, seeking every possible angle to inflict harm, says that the White House's tariffs will cause a recession in the US this year. And even that Congress should impeach Trump, a political trial for his removal, so that JD Vance succeeds him.
What everyone anticipated and the protagonists and the administration denied for months. They even did a joint television interview, the first in history between a president and a collaborator face to face. The question was not if the clash would come, but when. And what the consequences will be. There are many secrets and sensitive issues, and Musk has made many enemies and rivals in Washington. Steve Bannon, the president's advisor in the first term and leader of the alt-right and a figure in the MAGA universe, said today that not only should Musk's contracts with the Government be canceled, but his papers should be reviewed because "he is sure he is an illegal immigrant."
Musk's Campaign: "Kill the Bill" and Pressure on Social Media
Trump had been holding back for days, not directly responding to Musk's growing provocations. The South African entrepreneur not only called the tax law a "disgusting abomination" and warned that it would lead future generations to "slavery," but he leads a political campaign alongside Republican Senator Rand Paul to defeat the project in Congress. "Kill the Bill," he writes gleefully on his social media, using Tarantino's movie image while urging citizens to pressure their congressmen to stop the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, the "beautiful law" of the White House.
Until now, Trump had let his spokespeople downplay the issue. But on Thursday, the president raised his voice. "Elon and I had an excellent relationship. I don't know if we will continue to have one. I am disappointed," the president added on Thursday, at an event from the Oval Office with the German chancellor. Later, in private, he lashed out on social media, accepting what he had previously denied, that he considers Musk more of a liability than an asset, a top political problem, useful in the campaign, now a burden due to his unpopularity.
Shortly before his meeting with Chancellor Mertz, Musk dug up some tweets that Trump posted over a decade ago criticizing Republican governments for raising the spending ceiling. "No member of Congress should be eligible for reelection if our country's budget is not balanced... Deficits are not allowed!" Trump wrote in 2012. "I couldn't agree more," Musk responded today, linking the message to his millions of followers. And that was the last straw.
"I have always liked Elon, and I am very surprised to see what he has said about my law and that he has not said anything about me. That's bad. I prefer him to criticize me rather than the bill because it is incredible. It is the biggest tax cut in our country's history. Elon is upset because we have cut the electric car subsidies, which were a lot of money and are now struggling to get them. He wanted us to pay billions of dollars in subsidies. Elon knew that from the beginning, but I know that disturbed him," the president said.
And it wouldn't be the only reason for his anger. "Elon recommended someone he, I suppose, knew very well. I am sure he respected him, to lead the NASA. And it didn't seem appropriate to me because he turned out to be a Democrat, completely a Democrat. I told him that we won the elections and have certain privileges. And one of them is appointing a like-minded person at NASA. He wanted that person, we said no, and I can understand why he is upset," he added.
Trump's Disillusionment: "I Am Very Disappointed with Elon"
While answering questions about other topics, Trump repeatedly spoke about Musk, a sign that the matter is persistently on his mind. "He wants to be who he is. Elon and I had a great relationship, I don't know if we will continue to have one. I am surprised because we had a wonderful farewell. He said wonderful things about me," he lamented, saying that what happened to his special advisor has also happened to other employees, especially in his first term until 2020.
"I'm very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it, All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that's billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair. And when that was cut, and Congress wanted to cut it, he became a little different. And I can understand it, but he knew everything," he emphasized. "But I am very disappointed in Elon. I have helped him a lot."
Almost in real-time, Musk responded by saying that the president was lying. "False! 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," he retorted while spreading more old messages from the president, when he was not in politics, saying, "Where is that man today?"
Trump speculated that Musk suffers from what is known in the United States as the "Trump Derangement Syndrome," an obsession. "Elon is not the first to leave my administration. They appreciate us, but when they leave, they start to miss it a lot. Some accept it, and others become hostile. I don't know what it is. It's a kind of Trump disorder syndrome, I guess they call it. They leave, and when they wake up in the morning, the glamour has faded. The whole world is different, and they become hostile. I don't know what it is. Someday a book will be written about this."