Analysis: The ugliest things Trump and Musk just said about one another

CNN

3 days ago

About 10 minutes into his bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday, President Donald Trump was finally asked about the domestic elephant in the room: Elon Musk and his sharp criticisms this week of Trump's agenda bill.
'He hasn't said anything about me that's bad,' Trump said. 'I'd rather have him criticize me than the bill.'
Trump certainly got his wish. By the end of the meeting, he and Musk had quickly moved from what had been a legislative difference of opinion into the realm of personal attacks. Musk effectively live-tweeted his responses to Trump's comments on his social media platform X, getting progressively more personal. And Trump ultimately hit back hard on his own platform, Truth Social.
It was the kind of clash many predicted would eventually arrive when the two powerful, outspoken and unwieldy billionaires formed their alliance of convenience last year. And it's now arrived in a big way.
Late Thursday afternoon, Musk responded to an X user who chose Musk over Trump and called for the president's impeachment by simply saying, 'Yes.'
It's increasingly hard to see how this spat gets resolved without getting even uglier given what's being said.
Shortly before the Oval Office event, Musk specifically invoked Trump's flip-flops on the national debt, citing years-old tweets from when Trump was much more of a professed spending hawk. ('Where is the man who wrote these words?' Musk asked. 'Was he replaced by a body double!?')
But Trump has never been particularly sensitive about his rhetorical consistency or fiscal conservatism.
And as the minutes wore on, things got much more personal.
Here are the comments (so far) that really stick out – and will seemingly be hard to move past.
Musk really went there, accusing the Trump administration of withholding information about disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein because it invokes Trump himself.
'Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,' Musk wrote on X. 'Have a nice day, DJT!'
He later added: 'Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.'
Musk did not detail how he would have gained access to unreleased files. And the inclusion of a person's name in files related to the case does not by itself indicate they have been accused of any wrongdoing.
CNN has reached out to the White House for a response.
Trump's proximity to Epstein in the past is not exactly news; he's been photographed with Epstein. But Musk's allegation – made without providing any evidence of where it came from – feeds into concern in some right-wing circles about the lack of transparency about Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
After Trump talked during the campaign about potentially releasing more government files about Epstein, Attorney General Pam Bondi released an initial tranche of files in February that largely duplicated information that had already been made public.
Exactly what Musk is getting at isn't clear or substantiated. But it's really going nuclear, given the subject matter.
The most sacred of topics in Trump's eyes: his election wins.
Trump claimed he would have won the crucial state of Pennsylvania even without Musk's help. But Musk, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars and campaigned for Trump, shot back that he was in fact the reason Trump won the presidency.
'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk said.
Musk then added in another post: 'Such ingratitude.'
There are few topics Trump takes as seriously as his reputation as a winner. He often talks about how his endorsements help Republicans and has endlessly exaggerated the size of his electoral victories and mandate.
It's clearly a point of emphasis, and Musk just went there.
Trump, like other Republicans in recent days, suggested Musk's criticism of his 'Big Beautiful Bill' wasn't really about excessive spending – as Musk has said it is – but instead about one of his personal businesses, Tesla.
'Elon's upset because we took the [electric vehicle] mandate and – you know, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles,' Trump said in the Oval Office.
'He only developed a problem when he found out I would cut the EV mandate,' Trump added.
Trump later posted on Truth Social that Musk 'went CRAZY' over the EV changes.
Musk sought to call Trump's bluff, encouraging lawmakers to keep the EV subsidies cuts but trim spending.
'Whatever,' Musk said. 'Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill.'
Musk pointed to past comments in which he actually discouraged lawmakers from enacting EV tax credits. He also pointed to a clip in which Trump himself said that Musk had 'never asked me for a thing.'
But perhaps most strikingly, Musk promoted a post from the chief GOP critic of the bill in the House, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
'Some politicians get into politics to enrich themselves,' Massie said. 'Maybe that's why they can't imagine someone would judge a bill based on what's good for the country instead of what's good for their wallet.'
That seems a pretty sharp dig at Trump, who has intermingled his personal business with his role as president plenty in his second term.
Trump's comments have, to this point, been largely suggestive about Musk's motives. But Musk has clearly taken offense.
Despite the White House claiming this week that it had been previously aware of Musk's opposition to the package, Trump on Thursday claimed that he was in fact surprised.
'I'm very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people,' Trump said in the Oval Office. 'He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem.'
'But he knew every aspect of this bill. He knew it better than almost anybody, and he never had a problem until right after he left.'
Musk responded that Trump's version of events was 'false.'
He wrote that '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!'
Musk seemed to put to rest any illusions that this somehow isn't devolving into a power struggle.
Responding to an X user who noted lawmakers are feeling pressured to pick a side, Musk made a case for them picking him.
'Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years,' Musk wrote.
In other words: Tread carefully. I have lots of money – and time.
Trump later posted on Truth Social that, if lawmakers wanted to really save money, they should 'terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.'
When a user claimed Trump's idea would mean effectively abandoning the International Space Station, Musk promoted the post and dared Trump. 'Go ahead, make my day,' he wrote on X.
Musk later said he would 'begin decommissioning' a key spacecraft.
It remains to be seen where things go from here. Trump often reconciles with allies, even after ugly things are said.
But rarely is the other figure someone as powerful and outspoken as Musk. The power dynamics are usually such that the other party feels pressured to cave to Trump.
Musks suggests he's ready for that power struggle. If he is, buckle up.