Buildup to a meltdown: How the Trump-Musk alliance collapsed

Straits Times

13 hours ago

The long-awaited breakup between President Donald Trump and Mr Elon Musk was as personal and petty as anticipated, and yet it's a sign of something much more than a conflict between two of the world's most powerful and mercurial men. PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump was peeved.
Just minutes before he walked into the Oval Office for a televised send-off for Mr Elon Musk last week, an aide had handed him a file.
The papers showed that Mr Trump's nominee to run Nasa - a close associate of Mr Musk's - had donated to prominent Democrats in recent years, including some who Mr Trump was learning about for the first time.
The president set his outrage aside and mustered through a cordial public farewell. But as soon as the cameras left the Oval Office, the president confronted Mr Musk. He started to read some of the donations out loud, shaking his head.
This was not good, Mr Trump said.
Mr Musk, who was sporting a black eye that he blamed on a punch from his young son, tried to explain. He said Mr Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who was set to become the next Nasa administrator, cared about getting things done. Yes, he had donated to Democrats, but so had a lot of people.
Maybe it's a good thing, Mr Musk told the president - it shows that you're willing to hire people of all stripes.
But Mr Trump was unmoved. He said that people don't change. These are the types of people who will turn, he said, and it won't end up being good for us.
The moment of pique was a signal of the simmering tensions between the two men that would explode into the open less than a week later, upending what had been one of the most extraordinary alliances in American politics.
This account of the crumbling ties between the president and Mr Musk is based on interviews with 13 people with direct knowledge of the events, all of whom asked for anonymity to describe private discussions.
While the relationship had been losing steam over the past several months as Mr Musk clashed with Trump officials, people close to both men said the disagreement over Mr Isaacman accelerated the breakup.
Mr Musk had been planning to exit the White House relatively quietly - before Mr Isaacman's ouster left him feeling humiliated.
Now the two men, who seemed inseparable at one point, are on opposite sides. Mr Musk suggested Mr Trump should be impeached. Mr Trump has threatened to cancel government contracts with Mr Musk's companies. And in recent days, Mr Trump has been telling people close to him that he believes Mr Musk is acting 'crazy' and must be doing drugs.
A tanked nomination
For Mr Musk, there were few positions across the thousands in the federal government that mattered more to him than the head of Nasa, because of its critical importance to SpaceX, his rocket business. So it was of great personal benefit to Mr Musk when Mr Trump chose Mr Isaacman, who has flown to space twice with SpaceX, to oversee the agency.
Mr Isaacman's donations to Democrats had not always been a problem.
While Mr Trump privately told advisers that he was surprised to learn of them, he and his team had been briefed about them during the presidential transition, before Mr Isaacman's nomination, according to two people with knowledge of the events. But by May 30, when Mr Trump went through the file containing details of the donations, he clearly had changed his mind.
Mr Musk barely mounted a defence of his friend. He was anxious about doing so with other people around, including Mr Sergio Gor, director of the presidential personnel office, who had clashed with Mr Musk over other staffing matters. Mr Musk believed that he would be able to talk to the president at some point after the gathering, privately.
But Mr Musk never got a chance to make his case.
In the hours after the Oval Office farewell, Mr Trump decided he would withdraw Mr Isaacman from consideration. Mr Musk was stunned by how fast it all happened.
Mr Musk's allies have argued privately that Mr Isaacman's recent donations to Democrats were nonideological and made at the encouragement of Senator Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former astronaut. A spokesperson for Mr Kelly declined to comment.
As Mr Musk dealt with the fallout from the tanked nomination, he spent part of the weekend outside Missoula, Montana, as a guest at 'Symposium', an event for tech executives, investors and startup founders thrown by Founders Fund, the venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel.
After spending a day in Montana, he turned his attention in earnest to assailing the top domestic priority of Mr Trump: the Republican Bill making its way through Congress that would slash taxes and steer more money to the military and immigration enforcement.
Privately and publicly, Mr Musk stewed over the Bill, believing that its spending would erase the supposed savings of his Department of Government Efficiency and add to the federal deficit.
Some Republican lawmakers had tried to assuage Mr Musk's fears. On June 2, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., walked the billionaire through the Bill and said that Congress would try to codify the work done by Doge. After the call, Mr Johnson told associates that he felt Mr Musk was uninformed about the legislation and the congressional process, but that he had been able to reason with the world's richest man, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
On June 2 evening, Mr Musk still had concerns. He hinted at them on his social platform X, reposting a chart apparently showing the yearly increase in the national debt.
'Scary,' Mr Musk wrote as a caption.
Mr Trump did not respond to Mr Musk's criticisms of the Bill and maintained a light public schedule.
Meltdown
The Trump-Musk alliance fully ruptured on June 5, six days after the two men put on the collegial display in the Oval Office.
Mr Musk, who had largely focused his attacks on Republicans in Congress, had started directing more ire at the president.
So when Mr Trump was asked about Mr Musk's comments during a meeting with Mr Friedrich Merz, the new German chancellor, the president finally let loose. He said he was 'disappointed' in Mr Musk, downplayed the billionaire's financial support for his presidential campaign and posited that Mr Musk developed 'Trump derangement syndrome' after leaving the White House.
Mr Musk fired back in real time. Using X, he unleashed a torrent of attacks. He claimed there were references to the president in government documents about Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender, and indicated his support for the president's impeachment. He also said Mr Trump's tariffs would cause a recession by the end of the year.
Later, Mr Trump, using his own social media platform, threatened to cut billions of dollars in federal contracts with Mr Musk's companies.
By June 5 evening, Mr Musk signalled he would be open to de-escalating the fight, while the president seemed to have little interest in an immediate reconciliation. White House officials said Mr Trump had no plans to call Mr Musk.
'President Trump is the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party, and the vast majority of the country approves of his job performance as president,' Ms Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. 'Inflation is down, consumer confidence and wages are up, the jobs report beat expectations for the third month in a row, the border is secure and America is hotter than ever before.'
A spokesperson for Mr Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
White House officials said on June 6 that Mr Trump was considering selling the bright red Tesla he got in March as a show of support for Mr Musk. NYTIMES
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.