The Trump-Musk Breakup

WSJ (“The Day That Trump and Musk Torched Their Partnership“):

This is exactly what President Trump and his advisers were trying to avoid.

Just six days ago, senior Trump aides swallowed their irritation with Elon Musk and planned a chummy Oval Office send-off for him. They briefed the president on allegations of Musk’s drug use so Trump would be ready to defend the billionaire if reporters raised the issue at his goodbye event, aides said.

As late as Wednesday evening, Trump played down any conflicts with Musk in a meeting with Republican senators, according to people familiar with his remarks, even though the billionaire had spent the past few days disparaging the president’s legislative agenda. Over the weekend, after Trump dumped Musk’s ally as the head of NASA, the president made it clear to associates that he wasn’t planning a high-profile confrontation with his former adviser, according to a person who talked to the president.

That goodwill disappeared on Thursday.

Thirteen minutes into an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump laid out his frustrations with Musk, marking the start of a whirlwind day in which two of the world’s most powerful men went from friends to foes.

By Thursday night, Trump had publicly toyed with cutting off government contracts to Musk’s companies, said the billionaire “went CRAZY” and suggested that he is suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.”

In response, Musk, the world’s richest man, floated starting a new political party, suggested that Trump should be impeached, argued that Trump’s tariffs would trigger a recession and pledged to decommission a valuable piece of space equipment on which the government relies. He also alleged that Trump’s name appears in documents stemming from a federal investigation into convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, insinuating that Trump was in some way linked to his criminal behavior.

The extraordinary fight between Trump and Musk that rippled across the country threatens the new MAGA governing coalition that the president built and Musk funded. It puts a target on Musk’s six companies, many of which are heavily regulated by the federal government. And it gives Democrats a rare moment of reprieve at a low point for the party. Shares of Tesla tumbled 14%, their worst day since 2020.

The Trump-Musk blowup was long predicted. Even people close to both men believed privately that their relationship was destined to implode. But the fast-paced, rat-a-tat escalation still came as a shock to a White House that has grown used to curveballs—and a president who often defended Musk as his aides grew frustrated.

White House officials and other allies of the president spent the day refreshing their social-media feeds, watching as the situation escalated and texting Musk’s posts to each other.

“It was a matter of time before all this started, because two giant egos can’t be there together,” said Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. “It’s hard to imagine seeing it collapsing as fast as it has, but you can’t be surprised by this.”

AP (“Trump and Musk’s relationship flames out just as intensely and publicly as it started“):

Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s alliance took off like one of SpaceX’s rockets. It was supercharged and soared high. And then it blew up.

The spectacular flameout Thursday peaked as Trump threatened to cut Musk’s government contracts and Musk claimed that Trump’s administration hasn’t released all the records related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein because Trump is mentioned in them.

The tech entrepreneur even shared a post on social media calling for Trump’s impeachment and skewered the president’s signature tariffs, predicting a recession this year.

[…]

Trump had largely remained silent as Musk stewed over the last few days on his social media platform X, condemning the president’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” But Trump clapped back Thursday in the Oval Office, saying he was “very disappointed in Musk.”

Musk responded on social media in real time. Trump, who was supposed to be spending Thursday discussing an end to the Russia-Ukraine war with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, ratcheted up the stakes when he turned to his own social media network, Truth Social, and threatened to use the U.S. government to hurt Musk’s bottom line by going after contracts held by his internet company Starlink and rocket company SpaceX.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote on his social media network.

“Go ahead, make my day,” Musk quickly replied on X.

Hours later, Musk announced SpaceX would begin decommissioning the spacecraft it used to carry astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station for NASA.

Musk also said, without offering evidence of how he might know the information, that Trump was “in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

The deepening rift unfurled much like their relationship started — rapidly, intensely and very publicly. And it quickly hit Musk financially.

After Trump started criticizing Musk, shares of his electric vehicle company Tesla plunged more than 14%, knocking about $150 billion off Tesla’s market valuation. Musk lost about $20 billion on his personal holding of Tesla.

Politicians and their donor patrons rarely see eye to eye. But the magnitude of Musk’s support for Trump, spending at least $250 million backing his campaign, and the scope of free rein the president gave him to slash and delve into the government with the Department of Government Efficiency is eclipsed only by the speed of their falling-out.

Musk offered up an especially stinging insult to a president sensitive about his standing among voters: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” Musk retorted. “Such ingratitude,” Musk added in a follow-up post.

You really hate to see it.