 "Elon Musk greets U.S. President Donald Trump as they attend the NCAA men's wrestling championships in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on., March 22. Musk formally exited his role in the Trump administration on Wednesday. Reuters")
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has entered a public altercation with US President Donald Trump, days after he walked out of the doors of the White House, marking the end of his time as a government official. In what began as a disagreement over Trump’s tax bill, Musk’s remarks have now reached the president, who has started calling out the former Doge chief.
Late on Thursday, Trump and Musk took to Truth Social and X, respectively, to engage in a war of words that has now turned into a full-blown bashing of each other. Both individuals claimed things that could become controversial. The president has floated the idea of ending government subsidies and contracts for the companies run by Elon Musk as a way of saving money.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Replying to Trump’s post, Musk said on X, “This just gets better and better. Go ahead, make my day…” adding that the move could affect the International Space Station’s work. He also announced that his company, SpaceX, will start decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.
The trouble between the two started brewing days ago, when Musk denounced Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill. The president initially held his tongue while Musk campaigned to torpedo the bill, saying it would add too much to the nation’s $36.2 trillion in debt.
Impact Shorts
View AllTrump broke his silence on Thursday, telling reporters in the Oval Office he was “very disappointed” in Musk.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said.
Musk wants to form his own party
While Trump floats his plan to minimise spending, Musk has put forth the idea of creating his own political party following his formal exit from the White House.
He began an online poll on X, asking, “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?"
The feud was not entirely unexpected. Trump and Musk are both political pugilists with sizable egos and a penchant for using social media to punch back against their perceived enemies, and many observers had predicted an eventual falling out.
Speaker Johnson hits back
Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson also became part of the public altercation between Trump and Musk when the latter posted on X asking, “Where is the Mike Johnson of 2023!?” referring to one of the Speaker’s older tweets where he rails against the climbing national debt.
“The Mike Johnson of 2023 is the SAME Mike Johnson who has always been a lifelong fiscal hawk - who now serves as Speaker and is implementing a multi-stage plan to get our country back to fiscal responsibility and extraordinary economic growth,” Johnson replied.
A prolonged feud between Trump and Musk could make it more difficult for Republicans to keep control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. In addition to his campaign spending, Musk has a huge online following and helped connect Trump to parts of Silicon Valley and wealthy donors.
With inputs from agencies