Accusations and Threats Exchanged: Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Journey from Friendship to Enmity

 

Accusations and Threats Exchanged: Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Journey from Friendship to Enmity

What happens when the richest man in the world and the most powerful politician in the world clash or fight?

The world is now trying to find out the answer and it is not a good situation. The world pays attention to the voices of both US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the owner of the American technology company Tesla, and now the two have come against each other and the difference between them has now taken the form of accusations.

Trump has threatened Elon Musk regarding his big business dealings with the federal government. He is the backbone of Elon Musk’s SpaceX program.

Trump wrote in a threatening post on his social media website that ‘the easiest way to save money in our budget, which is billions of dollars, is to end the government subsidies and contracts that Elon Musk receives from the federal government.’

If President Trump starts using the government machinery against Elon Musk, billionaire Elon Musk will definitely suffer. The share price of Elon Musk's company Tesla saw a 14% drop on Thursday.

Elon Musk has almost unlimited resources to respond to Trump, including funding candidates running against Republicans in next year’s election.

On Thursday, he said he was going to “make a really big splash” and claimed, without any evidence, that “Trump’s name is included in the unreleased files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”

While the US president’s press secretary, Carolyn Lovett, issued only a cursory statement on Musk’s allegations.

She said, “This is a very bad move by Elon Musk, he’s just unhappy with a great bill because it doesn’t include the policies he wanted.”

 

Musk may not win this battle against the entire Trump administration, but he could deal a major blow to Trump and the Republican Party.

President Trump is probably aware of this, as he tried to cool the heat in the midst of all this verbal barrage yesterday by refraining from publicly commenting on Musk at a White House police appreciation event and posting a message on Truth Social saying he had “no problem with Musk being against him” but wished he had left government service months ago.

He then went on to talk about his “big and wonderful” tax and spending legislation.

However, after a heated exchange of words, accusations and accusations between the two on Thursday, things seem to be getting a little tougher.

Accusations and threats against each other

The feud began last week and escalated on Wednesday and reached its peak on Thursday. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was a guest in the Oval Office that day, but he sat in silence with a stranger because of the tension, because Trump looked like an angry lover that day.

He expressed surprise at Musk’s criticism of his legislation. He also rejected the idea that he would have lost the presidential election if he had not had Musk’s support during the presidential election campaign last year.

He said that Musk’s attitude had changed because Republican pressure would hurt his car company Tesla by eliminating the tax credit for electric vehicles.

In response, Musk wrote on his X account, responding to his more than 20 million followers, that ‘whatever,’ he was not worried about subsidies for cars, he wanted to reduce the national debt, which he said had become a serious threat to the nation.

He responded to Trump by saying that if he had not supported or helped him, the Democrats would have won the presidential election last year. He wrote to Trump, “Very ungrateful.”

He then launched further attacks on Trump, and the feud escalated.

Musk and Trump had formed a powerful but unlikely alliance.

Musk was then named head of the National Spending Reduction Authority in the Trump administration.

Musk’s Office of Government Efficiency became one of the most important initiatives of Trump’s first 100 days in office, as it completely shut down many government agencies in the United States and laid off thousands of government employees.

And it wasn’t long before speculation began that the friendship between the two important and powerful figures would soon end.

It seemed that these predictions would prove to be wrong. Trump stood by Musk despite his declining popularity, as Musk clashed with administration officials and became a liability in several key elections earlier this year.

He would pop into Trump’s Oval Office or cabinet meetings whenever he felt like it was a break, and even boarded President Trump’s official plane, Air Force One, during his trip to Mars.

When Musk’s 130 days as a “special civil servant” ended last week, the two were seen off with a cordial farewell in the Oval Office, with hints that Musk might return someday.

But now it would be fair to say that the doors of the White House are closed to him.

“Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump said in a comment on Thursday.

It was also believed that Trump’s surprise announcement of a new travel ban on Wednesday night, additional restrictions on Harvard and the investigation into former President Joe Biden’s collusion with the administration were all attempts by Musk to change the subject of criticism.

The White House and his allies in Congress seemed careful not to oppose Musk further after his initial comments.

And then Trump himself spoke out, and that was enough.

Will anyone benefit?

The question now is what will be the outcome of this fight. It is becoming difficult for Republicans in Congress to support Trump’s bill because Musk is funding him.

Trump has already threatened to end Musk’s government contracts, but he could drag Musk’s allies into the fray in the department to cut government spending or launch an investigation into his business dealings during the Biden era.

All options are being considered.

Meanwhile, Democrats are wondering how and when to respond to the whole situation. Some Democrats seem ready to welcome Musk, to bring back a funder for their party. But here the old adage also applies: the enemy of an enemy is a friend.

“No one benefits from this game, and whatever steps Musk takes and if he moves towards the Democrats, it will hurt the Republicans,” Democratic strategist Liam Kerr told Politico.

For now, Democrats seem happy to sit back and watch the two fight it out. And until they give up on this fight, everything else in American politics is likely to end.

But don’t expect this feud to end anytime soon.

“Trump has 3.5 years left as president, but I’ll be here for 40-plus years,” Musk wrote on X.