Key Points – The relationship between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk publicly imploded this week, escalating into open warfare.
-The feud ignited after Musk, having recently stepped back from his government role overseeing the DOGE initiative, criticized Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
-On Thursday, Trump reportedly threatened to pull government contracts from Musk’s companies, including SpaceX.
-Musk retaliated on X (formerly Twitter), publicly agreeing with a call for Trump’s impeachment and alleging, without providing evidence, that Trump is named in secret government files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
-This major rift between the president and his top 2024 donor threatens to create a “massive crack in the MAGA coalition.”
Donald Trump and Elon Musk Go to War
That Donald Trump and Elon Musk would ultimately have a falling out was perhaps inevitable.
The president of the United States and the world’s richest man are both used to being the unquestioned number one in their organizations; they both have long histories of public breaks with former friends and allies, and they’ve been at odds before.
And yes, the acrimonious split, which seemed to have hit a breaking point on Thursday, was just as public and messy as everyone likely expected.
After Musk became a “special government employee” and oversaw DOGE in the opening months of the second Trump presidency, there were noises in recent weeks that the Musk government epoch was coming to a close.
His companies, especially Tesla, had suffered from Musk’s getting involved in contentious political fights on the opposite side of the company’s core customer base, while also not appearing to be spending much time working at the companies where he is CEO. Tesla’s stock plunged on Thursday amid the split.
Signs of Trouble
Soon after Musk announced he was stepping back from his government position, he started complaining about Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” legislative agenda, which he felt had undermined what he had accomplished with DOGE. Musk then said, earlier this week, that he planned to dial back his political spending after he donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s election effort in 2024.
Parts of the MAGA base, meanwhile, began to complain that DOGE had overpromised and underdelivered. They have also inaugurated a new genre of scams, involving “DOGE checks.”
And then, it all exploded on Thursday, with Trump threatening to pull government contracts from SpaceX and other Musk companies, before Musk declared on X that Trump is named in the alleged secret government files related to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. Also on Thursday, Musk agreed with a social media post calling on Trump to be impeached.
Trump in the Epstein Files?
That accusation, in particular, jumped out. It’s been public information for many years that Trump and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were once friends, although solid evidence has not surfaced that has ever tied Trump to any of Epstein’s crimes.
The Trump Administration has made promises about releasing “The Epstein Files,” although it’s not clear whether the government has any cache of previously unreleased information related to Epstein’s crimes and the government investigations of them. Earlier this spring, Attorney General Pam Bondi released folders, containing “Epstein Files” information, to a group of conservative influencers at the White House, but the files contained little information that was not previously public.
At any rate, it’s not clear why Musk would have inside information about this, or why, for that matter, he would have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect such a person president, or serve in his administration.
Midterm Trouble for the GOP?
Meanwhile, it’s probably bad news for Republicans’ hopes to keep control of Congress, if their top campaign donor in the last cycle has left the building.
According to a Friday Politico analysis, Musk can not only not be counted on to help the Trump agenda in the midterms, but has even threatened to fund primary challenges to individual members of Congress.
“This is a massive crack in the MAGA coalition,” Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett told Politico. “This town is historically built on Republican versus Democrat, and this seems to be crazy versus crazy. It is asymmetric and it seems, for the first time, President Trump seems to be out-crazied.”
Politico also said that Republicans were concerned about how well Musk’s PAC had allocated money in last year’s midterm elections, in which Republican gains were modest despite Trump’s decisive victory.
“What Elon has is money, and if he’s not going to put $100 million in the [midterms], that’s a hole that has to be filled,” Chris Mottola, a GOP media consultant, told Politico. “On the other hand, there was a question about how effective the money was that he spent, because he spent it the way he wanted to.”
About the Author:
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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