suggesting without evidence that Trump appears in unreleased files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nHis press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, offered only a tepid pushback to Musk\u2019s allegations and accusations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Musk may not win a fight against the whole of Trump\u2019s government, but he could exact a high political \u2013 and personal \u2013 price for Trump and the Republicans.<\/p>\n
Trump, perhaps aware of this, appeared to tamp down the heat a bit by the end of the day, avoiding comment on Musk during a public appearance at a White House police appreciation event and posting a message on Truth Social that said he didn\u2019t mind \u201cturning against him\u201d but wishes he had quit government service months ago. He then pivoted to boosting of his \u201cbig, beautiful\u201d tax and spending legislation.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult to envision an easy walk-down after Thursday\u2019s heat, however.<\/p>\n
Trading insults and threats<\/h2>\n
The feud started at a simmer last week, began bubbling on Wednesday and became a full-on boil on Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office. As new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz \u2013 the day\u2019s visitor \u2013 sat in awkward silence, the president sounded a bit like a spurned lover.<\/p>\n
He expressed surprise at Musk\u2019s criticism of his legislation. He pushed back against the notion that he would have lost last year\u2019s presidential election without Musk\u2019s hundreds of millions of dollars in support. And he said Musk was only changing his tune now because his car company, Tesla, will be hurt by the Republican push to end electric vehicle tax credits.<\/p>\n
Musk quickly took to his social media site, X, with a very Generation X response for his 220 million followers: \u201cWhatever\u201d. He said he didn\u2019t care about the car subsidies, he wanted to shrink the national debt, which he says is an existential threat to the nation. He insisted that Democrats would have prevailed in last year\u2019s election without his help. \u201cSuch ingratitude,\u201d he told Trump.<\/p>\n
The billionaire then launched a series of extraordinary attacks throughout the afternoon, and the feud was on in earnest.<\/p>\n
Musk and Trump had formed a powerful but unlikely alliance, culminating in the tech billionaire having a key position of budget-slashing authority in the Trump administration. Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, became one of the biggest stories of Trump\u2019s first 100 days, as it shuttered entire agencies and dismissed thousands of government workers.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long, however, before speculation began over when \u2013 and how \u2013 the two outsized personalities would ultimately fall out.<\/p>\n
For a while, it seemed like those predictions were off the mark. Trump stood by Musk even as the latter\u2019s popularity dropped, as he feuded with administration officials and as he became a liability in several key elections earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every time it appeared there would be a break, Musk would pop up in the Oval Office, or the Cabinet room or on the president\u2019s Air Force One flight to Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n
When Musk\u2019s 130 days as a \u201cspecial government employee\u201d ended last week, the two had a chummy Oval Office send-off, with a golden key to the White House and hints that Musk might someday return.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say that any invitation has been rescinded and the locks have been changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cElon and I had a great relationship,\u201d Trump said on Thursday \u2013 a comment notable for its use of the past tense.<\/p>\n
There had been some thought that Trump\u2019s surprise announcement on Wednesday night of a new travel ban, additional sanctions on Harvard and a conspiracy-laced administration investigation of former President Joe Biden were all efforts to change the subject from Musk\u2019s criticism. The White House and its allies in Congress seemed careful not to further antagonise him after his earlier comments.<\/p>\n
Then Trump spoke out and\u2026 so much for that.<\/p>\n
\u2018A zero-sum game\u2019<\/h2>\n
Now the question is where the dispute goes next. Congressional Republicans could find it harder to keep their members behind Trump\u2019s bill with Musk providing rhetorical and, perhaps financial, air cover for those who break ranks.<\/p>\n
Trump has already threatened Musk\u2019s government contracts, but he could also take aim at Musk\u2019s remaining Doge allies in the administration or reopen Biden-era investigations into Musk\u2019s business dealings.<\/p>\n
Everything at this point is on the table.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Democrats are on the sidelines, wondering how to respond. Few seem willing to welcome Musk, a former donor to their party, back into the fold. But there\u2019s also the old adage that the enemy of an enemy is a friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a zero-sum game,\u201d Liam Kerr, a Democratic strategist, told Politico. \u201cAnything that he does that moves more toward Democrats hurts Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the very least, Democrats seem happy to stand back and let the two men exchange blows. And until they abandon this fight, the din is likely to drown out everything else in American politics.<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t expect this spat to end anytime soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump has 3.5 years left as president,\u201d Musk wrote on X, \u201cbut I will be around for 40-plus years.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
June 6 \u2013 What happens when the richest person and the most powerful politician have a knock-down, drag-out fight? The world is finding out \u2013 and it\u2019s not a pretty picture. Donald Trump and Elon Musk have two of the biggest megaphones, and they have now turned them on each other, as a disagreement has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}