Elon Musk and Donald Trump feud: A breakdown of how they went from bromance to breakup

Hamilton Spectator

21 hours ago

It has been exactly one week since
Elon Musk
last stood in the Oval Office. Clad in a shirt that read 'The Dogefather,' Musk gratefully accepted a golden key to the White House from
Donald Trump
— a parting gift the president said he gave only to 'very special people.'
The tech mogul was stepping away from his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), officially ending his 130-day tenure at the Trump administration.
'Elon's service to America has been without comparison in modern history,' Trump said at the time. Musk, sporting a black eye he said came from one of his 14 children, returned the praises: 'The Oval Office finally has the majesty that it deserves, thanks to the president.'
Days later, both men would tear into the other across social media and live TV. In a salvo of posts on his social media outlet X, Musk claimed Trump is 'in the Epstein files' and that he only won the 2024 presidency through Musk's influence. 'Such ingratitude,' he wrote.
Time to drop the really big bomb:
@realDonaldTrump
is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
Have a nice day, DJT!
Trump responded by threatening to tear up Musk's government contracts, leading to a 14 per cent plunge in Tesla's stock price by market close Thursday.
The feud appeared to have been sparked over disagreements on what Trump has deemed his 'Big Beautiful Bill.' But cracks have been present throughout their decade-long relationship.
Musk wasn't always buddy-buddy with Trump. The tech titan backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her race against Trump in 2016, and was vocal in his criticisms of the president.
Days before the 2016 election,
Musk told CNBC
: 'He's not the right guy. He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.'
Regardless,
Trump would appoint Musk to his Strategic and Policy Forum
alongside other Silicon Valley CEOs a month later.
The bitter feud between the U.S. president and tech billionaire has spilled into another day.
The bitter feud between the U.S. president and tech billionaire has spilled into another day.
The appointment wouldn't stick; Musk departed from his roles within the administration in 2017, after Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords: 'Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world,'
Musk wrote
.
Three years later, Musk would vote for Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 elections, he said.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, U.S. musician Kid Rock and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pose for a photo as they attend UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York, on Nov. 16, 2024.
Musk first signalled his shift to the right in May 2022, after what he said were years of voting Democrat. '(The Democrats) have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican,'
he tweeted
. 'Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold.'
Then, in November — days after purchasing Twitter for $44 billion (U.S.) —
Musk used his platform
to encourage 'independent-minded voters' to vote for 'a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic.'
Musk, who had donated to both Democrats and Republicans until that point, began to shift his funding toward right and far-right leaning candidates that year. But his feud with Trump continued,
with him suggesting Trump should
'hang up his hat & sail into the sunset' in July of 2022.
At a campaign rally,
Trump shot back
that Musk's companies would be 'worthless' without federal funding.
After some debate, Musk decided to support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential primaries over Trump; DeSantis even announced his campaign over a
glitch-riddled Twitter livecast
. But after the governor failed to gain traction among voters, Musk turned his eye to more promising prospects.
The legacy of Musk's slash and burn to government lives on.
The legacy of Musk's slash and burn to government lives on.
Musk and Trump's whirlwind bromance began minutes after a bullet from a would-be assassin grazed the presidential candidate's right ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Penn., on July 13, 2024.
'I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,'
Musk wrote
shortly after the incident was reported.
The tech titan wasted no time throwing his full support behind Trump and joining him on the campaign trail. The following weeks saw Musk spend a total $288 million to help elect Trump and other Republican candidates,
according to the Washington Post
.
The billionaire also announced he would give away $1 million each day to swing state voters who signed a petition from his political action committee (PAC).
U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speak to the press as they stand next to a Tesla vehicle on the South Portico of the White House on March 11.
After his election victory in November, Trump announced that DOGE — an initiative purportedly meant to maximize efficiency and cut wasteful spending — would be led by Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
The White House confirmed Ramaswamy would step away from the project soon after Trump's second inauguration, leaving Musk as its sole head — although the White House was never clear on Musk's exact role at DOGE. He dreamed of cutting $1 trillion in government spending.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with his son X Æ A-Xii join U.S. President Donald Trump as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 11.
The following weeks saw Musk and his team gut federal agencies and slash government staff.
DOGE would dismantle USAID
, tear up
billions of dollars worth of research funds
for cancer and other illnesses and lead to the
departures of tens of thousands of government staff
.
All the while, Musk would garner vast influence within the Trump administration, from flying on Air Force One and participating in Cabinet meetings to showing up at the Oval Office with his young son.
'I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man,'
Musk wrote on X
in February.
Musk's close association with Trump and his activities at DOGE resulted in public backlash against the billionaire and his companies.
Global protests against Tesla
led to attacks on dealerships and a plunge in its stock price.
Trump soon came to the defence of Musk's company, parading several Teslas at a White House press conference and telling reporters he even bought one of Musk's cars in March — although
experts predicted the public support would backfire
.
Musk's time in the Trump administration wasn't all smooth sailing. In April,
Musk got into a public spat over automotive tariffs
with Trump's top trade adviser Peter Navarro, calling him a 'moron' and 'dumber than a sack of bricks.'
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stayed out of the feud: 'Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue,' she said.
Later that month, Trump suggested at a cabinet meeting that
Musk's time in his administration may be coming to an end
. 'At some point, he wants to get back home to his cars,' he said, after praising Musk for his work.
The Ontario government won't revive its $100-million contract with Starlink that was cancelled in March in retaliation for Trump's tariffs.
The Ontario government won't revive its $100-million contract with Starlink that was cancelled in March in retaliation for Trump's tariffs.
That point came just a month later, on May 30, after reaching the maximum amount of days he could serve as a government employee. In that time, DOGE claims to have tallied $180 billion (U.S.) in savings — well short of its $1 trillion goal.
Days earlier,
Musk told CBS he was 'disappointed'
by the price of Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill,' continuing that the legislation would further inflate the U.S. deficit. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would add $3.8 trillion to the deficit by 2034.
'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both,' Musk said at the time. The disagreement would soon blossom into an all-out brawl between Musk and Trump.
Within 100 hours of his departure from DOGE, Musk fired his first volley at Trump's spending bill (without naming the president directly). 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,'
he wrote on X
Tuesday. 'Shame on those who voted for it.'
Trump shot back Thursday, telling reporters that Musk 'knew every aspect of this bill — better than almost anybody — and he never had a problem until right after he left.'
'False,'
Musk retorted mere minutes later
. 'This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!'
President Donald Trump, right, presents a 'key to the White House' to Elon Musk during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 2025.
The tech titan then broadened his attack. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,'
he wrote
. 'Such ingratitude.'
Trump then took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, writing: '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 (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!'
'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 in a followup post. 'I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!'
In response, Musk threatened to
'immediately' decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft
— used to ferry NASA astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station — 'In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts.' He would later pull back on the threat.
Musk also made another accusation. 'Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,' he said. 'Have a nice day, DJT!'
For his part, Trump defended his spending bill, writing on Truth Social: 'It's a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn't pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that. I didn't create this mess, I'm just here to FIX IT.'
But on Friday morning, Trump signalled he was no longer interested in speaking about his former ally: 'I'm not even thinking about Elon. He's got a problem, the poor guy's got a problem,' he told CNN.