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Trump has called Musk 'crazy' and said he insisted he asked the tycoon to leave because he was 'wearing thin'.
US President Donald Trump with businessman Elon Musk on stage during a rally at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. Picture: EPA-EFE
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s unlikely political marriage exploded in a fiery public divorce Thursday, with the US president threatening to strip the billionaire of his huge government contracts in revenge.
Trump said in a televised Oval Office diatribe that he was “very disappointed” after his former aide and top donor criticised his “big, beautiful” spending bill before Congress.
The pair then hurled insults at each other on social media — with Musk even posting, 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 programme.
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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, noted in a 10-minute diatribe that it had been only a week since he hosted a grand farewell for Musk as he left the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Trump later called Musk “crazy” and insisted he had asked the tycoon to leave because he was “wearing thin.”
Trump’s ‘ingratitude’
Musk hit back in real time on his X social media platform, saying the Republican would not have won the 2024 election without him and slamming Trump for “ingratitude.”
As the spat got increasingly vindictive, Musk also posted that Trump “is in the Epstein files,” referring to US government documents on Epstein, whose 2019 jail cell suicide, while awaiting trial, sparked a major conspiracy theory.
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“Have a nice day, DJT!” added Musk.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told AFP that Musk’s Epstein tweet “is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ because it does not include the policies he wanted.”
Musk, who was Trump’s biggest campaign donor to the tune of $300 million, separately claimed the Republican would not have won the 2024 election without his support and accused him of “such ingratitude.”
Impeachment?
He replied “yes” to a post suggesting Trump should be impeached, and blasted Trump’s global tariffs for risking a recession.
Trump finally 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 said on Truth Social.
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Again, Musk fired back, with the SpaceX chief saying he would begin “decommissioning” his company’s Dragon spacecraft — vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station — in response.
“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk wrote on X.
He later appeared to walk that back, replying to a user on Twitter: “OK, we won’t decommission Dragon,” though his tone was unclear.
SpaceX’s Dragon
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon — a gumdrop-shaped capsule that flies atop a Falcon 9 rocket and splashes down in the ocean — is currently the only US spacecraft certified to carry crew to the ISS under a contract worth more than $4.9 billion.
A variant, Cargo Dragon, delivers supplies, as the name suggests.
Following Musk’s announcement, NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said on X that the government space agency would “continue to execute upon the President’s vision for the future of space.”
“We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the President’s objectives in space are met,” she said.
NASA had hoped to certify Boeing’s Starliner for crewed missions, but that programme has faced severe delays.
Its most recent test flight last year ended in failure after the spacecraft experienced propulsion issues en route to the orbital lab with its first astronaut crew.
The Starliner ultimately returned to Earth empty, while the two astronauts were brought home by SpaceX earlier this year.
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Crew Dragon’s certification in 2020 ended nearly a decade of US reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets to transport astronauts following the retirement of the Space Shuttle programme in 2011.
American astronauts still fly aboard Soyuz rockets, while Russian cosmonauts ride on Crew Dragons under a longstanding seat-swap agreement.
In addition to NASA missions, Crew Dragon also flies private missions — most recently Fram2, which carried tourists over the Earth’s poles.
The next scheduled crew launch is Tuesday’s Axiom-4 mission, which will see a Crew Dragon transport astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary to the ISS.
Musk on Trump’s ‘Abomination’
When the crossfire finally relented after several astonishing hours, Tesla had seen more than $100 billion wiped off the company’s value.
Trump and Musk’s whirlwind relationship had initially blossomed, with the president backing DOGE’s cost-cutting rampage through the US government and the tycoon sleeping over at the White House and traveling on Air Force One.
But the 53-year-old ultimately lasted just four months on the job, becoming increasingly disillusioned with the slow pace of change and clashing with some of Trump’s cabinet members.
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The two men had, however, kept tensions over Trump’s tax and spending mega-bill relatively civil — until Musk described the plan, the centrepiece of Trump’s domestic policy agenda for his second term, as an “abomination” because he says it will increase the US deficit.
Washington will now intently watch the fallout from the row.
Musk posted a poll on whether he should form a new political party — a seismic threat from a man who has signalled he is ready to use his wealth to unseat Republican lawmakers who disagree with him.
Trump ally Steve Bannon — a vocal opponent of Musk — meanwhile called for the tycoon to be deported, the New York Times reported.
