On Thursday, their disagreements over the Republican megabill that advances most of Trump’s biggest domestic policy priorities exploded into personal attacks, with the two men using their respective social media platforms to hurl insults.
After Trump threatened on Truth Social to cut billions of dollars in subsidies and federal contracts for Musk’s companies, which include Tesla and SpaceX, Musk claimed — without evidence — that Trump appears in government documents about the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. “That’s the real reason they haven’t been made public,” Musk claimed.
The White House refused to comment on Musk’s accusation.
The blowup marks the end of an alliance between the president and the billionaire that lasted much longer than many observers expected.
After donating to Democrats for years, Musk emerged in 2024 as the biggest Republican political donor, investing nearly $300 million in support of Trump. He quickly became one of the most visible members of the president’s inner circle, appearing with Trump in the Oval Office, at cabinet meetings and leading the Department of Government Efficiency.
In February, Musk posted on X: “I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man.”
Here’s a quick summary of the Trump-Musk relationship:
Pre-2024
Musk said he voted for Democrats, including Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. He was critical of Trump during his first term and resigned from two advisory councils after the Trump administration withdrew from the Paris climate accord.
In 2022, Trump called Musk a “bullshit artist” and claimed the billionaire had told him he voted for him. Musk fired back saying Trump was too old to run. “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” he wrote.
July 2024
Musk endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt in Butler, Penn. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote on X minutes after the shooting.
Later that month, Musk revealed he had created and funded a super PAC “to promote the principles that made America great in the first place.” He had previously said he wouldn’t donate to either presidential candidate. He ended up donating about $277 million in the election cycle.
August 2024
Musk hosted an interview with Trump on X. After long technical delays, the conversation largely followed the contours of Trump’s campaign speeches, and the two men praised each other and talked over one another.
Musk also used the opportunity to propose a “government efficiency commission” to Trump, which the billionaire said he would join.
October 2024
Musk hit the campaign trail with Trump. Wearing a custom black “Make America Great Again” hat, the billionaire spoke at a rally in Butler, Penn., where he jumped on stage, described himself as “dark MAGA” and predicted that “this will be the last election” if Trump didn’t win.
Musk also took the stage at another Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in New York and held a series of $1 million giveaways for voters in swing states.
November 2024
Musk spent election night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Florida. The next morning, he celebrated by posting an apparently AI-generated image of himself saluting the American flag, captioned: “It’s morning in America again.”
Trump thanked Musk in his victory speech, declaring: “A star is born — Elon!”
Late 2024
Trump announced that Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would co-lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” focused on reining in federal spending. At the time, it wasn’t clear whether the entity would exist inside or outside the government.
Musk and Ramaswamy took their proposal to the Capitol, calling for a 75% reduction in the federal workforce, a $2 trillion cut in federal spending and the elimination of entire agencies, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Ramaswamy left the project before Trump took office.
January 2025
Musk was one of several tech billionaires who attended Trump’s inauguration. At another event that day, he sparked outrage by making a salute more prominently associated with Nazis.
After the inauguration, Musk joined the White House as an unpaid presidential adviser. His status as a “special government employee” meant he had a 130-workday clock. He quickly became the most visible face of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — which, despite the name, is not a federal department created by Congress. Musk was the de facto leader of DOGE, even as the Trump administration repeatedly tried to argue in court that he wasn’t.
February 2025
Trump and Musk appeared together in the Oval Office, accompanied by Musk’s young son, to defend DOGE’s work, which slashed across federal agencies.
“The people voted for a great government overhaul, and that’s what the people are going to get,” Musk told reporters. “They’re going to get what they voted for.”
They also addressed concerns that Musk’s many companies, which do business with and are regulated by some of the agencies targeted by DOGE, created conflicts of interest.
Trump said he would keep Musk away from any government work he thought might create a conflict. “If we thought about it, we wouldn’t let him do that segment or look at that area, if we thought there was a lack of transparency or conflict of interest,” Trump said.
Later that month, Musk attended Trump’s first cabinet meeting. Trump introduced Musk by saying the billionaire was “sacrificing a lot” with his government work.
Asked by a reporter about reports that some agency heads were unhappy with Musk’s radical cut approach, Trump asked: “Is anybody unhappy?” His question was met with laughter.
A week later, Trump took the rare step of publicly reining in Musk. On March 6, he told cabinet members that they were responsible for job cuts in their agencies, not Musk.
March 2025
Trump and Musk took the unprecedented step of turning the White House lawn into a temporary Tesla showroom. Trump sat inside a red Model S with Musk and announced his intention to buy a Tesla, in a show of support amid a global backlash against Tesla due to Musk’s controversial involvement in politics both in the U.S. and in Europe, where he backed far-right parties.
May 2025
Musk announced he was leaving the government, citing the end of his “scheduled time” as a special government employee. At a final Oval Office press conference, Trump praised Musk as “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced.”
Days later, Musk began attacking the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” saying it would increase the federal budget deficit and undo DOGE’s cost-cutting work.
June 5, 2025
The jabs escalated into all-out war between the billionaire and the president.
Trump posted on his Truth Social site: “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (which he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
Musk fired back in a torrent of X posts. “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Democrats would control the House and Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote.
He also reposted a call for Trump’s impeachment, writing simply, “Yes.”
Source: www.npr.org by Shannon Bond