They were buddies. They were seen together at every public appearance and spent hours developing the campaign strategy that would lead Donald Trump to a second term as president.
In public settings, Elon Musk seemed like a shadow of Trump, always at his side, wearing his cap with the famous MAGA logo. On weekends, they were also together, and they seemed happy, content, two people who had been made for each other.
Trump, the showman, who succeeds equally in real estate and on reality TV. Controversy is the natural thread of his message. He wants to transform and… benefit (according to various media reports, which point to the Trump family’s financial gains in the first months of his term) from the most powerful position on earth.
Musk, the visionary, the richest man in the world, who dreams of populating Mars and selling millions of electric cars worldwide. And well, it’s all over, as the song goes. It was all a lie. The businessman distanced himself from Trump and in recent days has accused the economic plan of being absurd, among other adjectives, and launched a forceful phrase: “He wouldn’t have won without me.”
Trump responded in the way he knows how. He announced the end of federal contracts with Musk’s companies and (suspiciously) affirmed his appreciation for the visionary of South African origin.
But from the beginning, both had a problem: their egos. And sooner or later it would explode one way or another.
All of this has escalated to a level that no one would dare predict. This rupture will shake Trump’s plans and put Musk in a difficult position at the helm of his companies.
There will be no happy ending.
Their unlikely alliance dissolved into open acrimony, with the two men hurling personal attacks at each other over matters both significant and petty.
Elon Musk is now setting his sights on Speaker Mike Johnson, essentially calling him a hypocrite for voting for a package that would add to the debt, at a time when the House is expected to vote. to adopt a package that would codify spending and budget cuts put forward by the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
Johnson and many fiscal conservatives in the House have voiced support for approving these cuts, which the Trump administration already enacted through executive orders. But the cuts are chiefly identified with Musk, which may make for an awkward debate as the billionaire feuds with Trump, who exerts considerable influence on rank-and-file members.
The origin of the dispute between the two former allies lies in the tax law whose passage in Congress the White House is pushing. The owner of Tesla and Space X, concerned about the increase in debt that this law—dubbed the “big, beautiful law”—will bring, called it on Tuesday “a disgusting abomination.” “Elon and I had an excellent relationship,” Trump added on Thursday in response to reporters’ questions. “Now I’m not so sure about that.”
The US president also said that Musk “knew about the law” and that he “had no problem with it.” with it.” He accused the tycoon of changing his mind when he saw that his businesses, especially Tesla, were going to be harmed by the new wording of the law, a text of more than a thousand pages. Live, the businessman of South African origin, who last week said goodbye to his position as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after 130 days in which he sowed chaos in the Administration with his cuts, responded to his former boss on X, the social network of which he is also the owner. “That is a lie,” Musk wrote. “That bill was never shown to me, and it was approved overnight. So fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”
