The Boys Are Fighting

How the biggest bromance broke up in spectacular fashion

Blown up good, blown up real good (Photo Credit: ABC News)

It was always expected to happen since the bromance between now-US President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk began last year. Still, the blowup was much more dramatic and entertaining than many of their critics have imagined.

Quoting what the AP wrote in its lede: Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s alliance took off like one of SpaceX’s rockets. It was supercharged and soared high. And then it blew up.

In case you missed the entire saga, all the chaos kicked off on Tuesday. As the “big, beautiful bill” goes up to the Senate, there is big dissent among the Republican ranks. Most notably, Elon Musk harshly criticized the legislation, calling it a “disgusting abomination” and a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.” The tech mogul further threatened lawmakers by warning, “You know you did wrong.” In follow-up posts, Musk added that “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit” and “Congress is making America bankrupt.” The White House and House Speaker Mike Johnson have dismissed Musk’s concerns, but one person who regretted the vote is far-right Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said of a certain provision that strips states from regulating or making laws about AI, "I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there."

On Wednesday, Musk waged an online campaign advocating for voters to vote out Republicans who support Trump’s budget bill, even tweeting “Kill the Bill” with a reference to the movie Kill Bill. Behind the scenes, ABC News reported that Elon Musk had been privately expressing frustration on a range of recent policy moves by the Trump administration, while Politico reported that “The West Wing is perplexed, unenthused, and disappointed" at Musk’s opposition against the “big, beautiful bill.” This comes as the CBO reported Trump’s big bill will cut taxes by $3.7 trillion, but increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade and throw 10.9 million people without health insurance.

Then on Thursday, all hell broke loose. Trump first said he was “very surprised” by Elon Musk’s harsh criticism, saying Musk got “Trump derangement syndrome,” before publicly humilitating the tech mogul by saying he was “very disappointed in Elon” and that “I've helped Elon a lot” when answering questions next to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Elon Musk then hit back on social media, first suggesting “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” then floated the idea of a third party “that actually represents the 80% in the middle.” Trump then wrote on Truth Social that Musk went “CRAZY” and “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!” Musk quickly replied, “Go ahead, make my day.” Upping the ante, Musk tweeted, “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.” It is a pretty big deal given that the Dragon is the only US vehicle transporting American astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

After that, Musk openly called for the impeachment of Trump and for him to be replaced by JD Vance, said the president’s tariffs would cause a recession, and wrote on Twitter (X): “Time to drop the really big bomb. [Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.” While all of that chaos was going on, Tesla stocks tanked by 14% as Trump threatened to pull government contracts for Musk’s companies, while former Trump advisor Steve Bannon suggested “he should be deported from the country immediately.” By evening, Musk seemed to cool down by taking an X user's advice and not decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft. Meanwhile, Trump told Politico, “It’s okay,” and White House aides have scheduled a call on Friday to broker peace with Musk.

On Friday morning, reports by CNN and ABC News’s Jonathan Karl tell the same story: Trump believes Elon is the one losing his mind, he isn’t bothered by the feud, and he is “not particularly” interested in talking with Musk while claiming the billionaire wants to talk with him. Over the weekend, Trump told NBC News that he has "no reason to" nor any desire to repair the relationship, adding a threat that "he'll have to pay the consequences" if he chooses to fund Democratic candidates. Meanwhile, the media discovered that Musk had deleted some of his anti-Trump posts published on Thursday.

Elon Musk got what he wanted as the head of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency): Access to public data that he could use to feed his AI company, getting information about his competitors that was supposedly confidential, and firing government employees who were supposedly in charge of overseeing Musk’s companies.

However, as the two of the world’s most powerful men head into a political war, it is evident that Musk is the one who wants to make peace.

Let’s be clear, Musk can create substantial damage to Trump’s political life through his companies and power. As the 2026 midterms and primaries start coming in, Musk could fund Republican primary challengers against Trump’s preferred candidates in prominent House and Senate races.

With SpaceX, Musk’s rockets getting pulled out (Not a euphemism) could affect NASA’s ambitions of going back to the Moon and eventually to Mars, and the Dragon decommission threat has shown how far the billionaire wants to go in and of itself.

Given Musk also owns Twitter (X), the tech mogul has his thumb on the scale on what and how content is spread. For most of the election, the Twitter algorithm has been successful in spreading posts and misinformation that benefit Trump, and the social media site has been a gathering spot for MAGA supporters since Elon bought the site. It could be possible that Musk can tweak the algorithm that boosts support for anti-Trump posts and accounts to flood the website’s feeds, as a retaliation for Trump’s attack.

However, Trump has much much better cards in his hands that he can deploy to attack Musk. First of all, Trump can fulfill his promise and cancel all government contracts and subsidies given to Musk’s companies, most prominently SpaceX and Tesla. As reported by the Washington Post earlier this year, Musk’s business empire is built on $38 billion in government funding.

Over the years, Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, often at critical moments, a Washington Post analysis has found, helping seed the growth that has made him the world’s richest person.

The payments stretch back more than 20 years. Shortly after becoming CEO of a cash-strapped Tesla in 2008, Musk fought hard to secure a low-interest loan from the Energy Department, according to two people directly involved with the process, holding daily briefings with company executives about the paperwork and spending hours with a government loan officer.

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Nearly two-thirds of the $38 billion in funds have been promised to Musk’s businesses in the past five years.

In 2024 alone, federal and local governments committed at least $6.3 billion to Musk’s companies, the highest total to date.

If Trump wants to go further in wrecking Musk’s businesses, which are already vulnerable from the threat of cancelled contracts and incentives, he could seek to nationalize SpaceX. Given Starlink’s influence in the Russo-Ukrainian war, and NASA’s overreliance on SpaceX for its manned and unmanned space missions, Trump could cite national security reasons and nationalize SpaceX for the benefit of the country.

Secondly, Trump could simply deport Elon Musk. Born in South Africa, Elon Musk has become a naturalized US citizen for more than two decades. Elon’s brother, Kimbal Musk, has repeatedly said that early investors in their company soon learned they were “illegal immigrants,” but Elon Musk has disputed his brother's characterization. In a 2013 event, Musk said “I'd say it was a gray area.” As noted before, Steve Bannon said in his show that “Elon Musk is illegal. He’s got to go too.” Trump could have “surprisingly” discovered problems with Musk’s immigration status, and then deport him to El Salvador or back to South Africa. It’s not like the Trump administration hasn’t been tough on immigration or deportations in the past few months!

Thirdly, as the New York Times pointed out, even if Trump doesn’t pull the US government out of Musk’s businesses, he can do a lot to mess with the billionaire’s work.

Mr. Trump’s most accessible weapon to punish Mr. Musk is the ability to instruct federal regulators to intensify oversight of his business operations, reversing a slowdown in regulatory actions that benefited Mr. Musk’s businesses after Mr. Trump was elected.

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With a decree, Mr. Trump could suspend Mr. Musk’s security clearance, a step that the Trump administration has also taken against some of its Biden-era critics. That move would make it harder for Mr. Musk to continue in his role as the chief executive at SpaceX, given its billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts.

Pentagon investigators had already been examining if Mr. Musk has violated federal security clearance requirements for disclosing contacts with foreign government leaders, The New York Times reported last year.

The Trump administration could also slow down new contracts going to SpaceX in the years to come, perhaps by looking for ways to drive more work to its rivals, such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin or the Boeing and Lockheed partnership called United Launch Alliance.

It is hard to predict how the breakup will continue. Elon Musk and Donald Trump are famous for their unpredictability and ability to lodge outrageous threats and ultimatums, which they don’t follow through on. One thing is for certain: the drama will only get better in the next few weeks.