Americans considered the consequences yesterday of the spectacular split between Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump, who threatened to strip the world’s richest man of his huge government contracts.
Trump and Musk’s unlikely political marriage exploded in a fiery public divorce on Thursday.
The president said in a televised Oval Office diatribe that he was “very disappointed” after his former aide and top donor criticized his “big, beautiful” spending bill before the US Congress.
Photo: AFP
The pair then hurled insults at each other on social media — with Musk saying, without proof, that Trump was referenced in government documents on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The row could have major political and economic fallout, as shares in Musk’s Tesla car company plunged and the South African-born tech tycoon vowed that he would end a critical US spaceship program.
Speculation had long swirled that a relationship between the world’s richest person and its most powerful could not last long, but the speed of the meltdown took Washington by surprise.
“I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looked on silently. “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.”
A hurt-sounding Trump, 78, said it had been only a week since he hosted a grand farewell for Musk as he left the cost-cutting US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk, who was Trump’s biggest campaign donor to the tune of US$300 million, slammed the president for “ingratitude” and said the Republican would not have won the election last year without him.
As the spat got increasingly vindictive, Musk also wrote that Trump “is in the Epstein files,” referring to US government documents on the sex offender who killed himself while awaiting trial.
Musk, on his X social media platform, replied “yes” to a post suggesting the president should be impeached, and blasted Trump’s global tariffs for risking a recession.
Trump suggested hitting the “crazy” entrepreneur where it hurts, threatening Musk’s multibillion-dollar government contracts, including for launching rockets and for the use of the Starlink satellite service.
“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 Truth Social.
Again Musk fired back, with the SpaceX chief saying he would begin “decommissioning” his company’s Dragon spacecraft, which is vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
He later appeared to walk that back, replying to a user on X: “OK, we won’t decommission Dragon.”
Trump and Musk’s whirlwind relationship had initially blossomed, but the latter lasted just four months at DOGE, becoming increasingly disillusioned with Trump and his Cabinet.
However, the two men had kept tensions over Trump’s tax and spending mega-bill relatively civil — until Musk described the plan as a “disgusting abomination” because he said it would increase the US deficit.
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