After days of public discontent from Elon Musk aimed at Donald Trump‘s “big, beautiful bill,” the relationship between the president and his former Department of Government Efficiency chief unraveled before the world Thursday.
The feud saw Musk attack the president and Republican leadership on the tax legislation before escalating into claims of Trump’s alleged connections with the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and Musk decommissioning the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that supplies and crews the International Space Station.
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The pair was once considered tight-knit. Musk spent time with Trump’s family alongside the Tesla CEO’s son, X, and the president gave Musk wide control in his DOGE effort. The relationship was built as Musk gave tremendous support to Trump’s 2024 campaign following last summer’s assassination attempt on the president.
Now the relationship has soured. Here’s how it happened.
The feud’s ‘big, beautiful’ foundation
Musk began expressing strong pushback to Trump’s tax legislation on Tuesday, just a week after he departed his advisory role in the administration, calling the bill “pork-filled” and a “disgusting abomination.”
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted on X. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
He later posted, “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the same day that Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”
On Thursday, Musk kept up his opposition to the bill, openly showing suggestions for it and posting old Trump tweets when he was in favor of a balanced budget. “Slim Beautiful Bill for the win,” Musk posted, before later writing to 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.”
He added that in “the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this!”
Trump addresses Musk criticism in Oval Office
Musk’s tirade appeared to be sparked in part by an assertion from Trump that Musk, who was live-tweeting his reactions to Trump’s comments from the Oval Office after a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, knew about the ins and outs of the bill.
“False, 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 posted.
The president then turned to the 2024 election, insisting that he would’ve won Pennsylvania without Musk’s help: “Elon endorsed me very strongly. He actually went up and campaigned for me. … I think I would have won Pennsylvania easily anyways.”
“I’m very disappointed [in Elon] because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here,” Trump added. “All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed a problem when he found that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate because that’s billions and billions of dollars.”
???? NEW: Trump speaks on Elon coming out against the BBB
— Autism Capital ???? (@AutismCapital) June 5, 2025
“I would have won Pennsylvania regardless of Elon…I’m very disappointed with Elon. He knew this bill better than anyone and he only developed a problem when he found out I would cut the EV mandate…
When he left he said… pic.twitter.com/O0OfkqmOUd
Musk responded to his statement on X in strong terms: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”
“Such ingratitude,” he added. Musk later said Trump’s claim that he disagreed with the bill because of the electric vehicle mandate cut was “an obvious lie.”
Musk donated millions to Trump’s campaign in 2024 and upped the president’s ground game efforts with his own resources. The billionaire’s efforts played a role, if not a large one, in Trump’s victory.
Trump threatens Musk’s government contracts
The mudslinging took a turn when the president hinted at terminating billions in federal contracts for Musk’s businesses.
Trump suggested that funding in the “big, beautiful bill” could be cut via Musk’s government contracts, suggesting concrete action as a result of their feud. “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” he posted on Truth Social. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Musk responded that he is decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft, which could immediately hurt NASA’s ability to resupply or send astronauts to the space station given the agency’s increasing reliance on SpaceX. “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk posted on X.
Musk says Trump is in the Epstein files
The tech CEO then continued reinforcing his statement that Trump is named in the Epstein files, alleging that is why they have not been made public. Attorney General Pam Bondi promised that the files were to be released months ago, but the FBI said they are still redacting victims’ likenesses.
He then posted an emoji with eyebrows raised over two social media posts referencing Trump’s relationship with Epstein. One discussed Trump flying on Epstein’s plane, while the other is a video showing Trump partying with Epstein.
Musk appears to call for Trump’s impeachment
Musk concluded the evening’s barrage with what appeared to be a call for Trump to be removed as president, replying “Yes” to a post from social media influencer Ian Miles Cheong that said, “President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.” The post was in reply to Musk’s post about Trump and Epstein.
Trump has not responded to the statement specifically either but did say he didn’t mind Musk “turning against” him, though he added that Musk should’ve done so “months ago.”
In solidifying the breakup, Musk polled X users on whether it was “time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle” and predicted that the “Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year.”
Musk didn’t leave the war of words unscathed, however, as Tesla stock fell by as much as 17% before rebounding to around 14% in the following hours. The stock is down about 30% year-to-date, with Musk’s political affiliation with Trump weighing it down in previous months.