‘Lies’, ‘crazy’: Musk, Trump trade barbs in full-on public spat
The political alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has blown up spectacularly in public view, with a war of words erupting in real time on Friday (AEST).
Trump and his former “first buddy” have traded barbs on social media, with Trump labelling Musk “crazy” and the tech billionaire accusing the President of “ingratitude”.
The simmering tensions escalated into a full-on row after Trump said he was “disappointed” by Musk’s public opposition to the big tax-cut and spending bill at the heart of the President’s agenda.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
“He said the most beautiful things about me, and he hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. But I’m, I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Trump also asserted that Musk’s blistering attacks on the bill, which escalated on Thursday (AEST), were motivated by the proposed elimination of consumer tax credits for electric vehicles.
Musk, CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla, fought in real time, posting retaliations on X while Trump was speaking and slamming the “big, ugly spending bill.”
“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.
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He added: “Such ingratitude.”
Trump fired back on Truth Social that the easiest way to save “billions” of dollars would be to “terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts”.
Musk retorted on X: “Go ahead, make my day.”
The spat turned personal when Trump posted that Musk had been “wearing thin” in Washington.
“I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
Musk fought back: “Such an obvious lie. So sad.”
In another sensational accusation, Musk posted that it was time for him to “drop the really big bomb”.
“Donald Trump is in the Epstein files,” he wrote.
“That is the real reason they have not been made public.”
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He finished his claim with: “Have a nice day, DJT!”
Musk also took aim at Trump’s chaotic global tariffs, saying they would cause a recession later in 2025.
The world’s richest man, who bankrolled Trump’s election campaign, pinned a survey to the top of his X account asking Americans: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80 per cent in the middle?”
Donald Trump lashed out on Truth Social.
Musk has been aggressively posting on X about his opposition to Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill”. This continued on Friday morning with a barrage of criticisms.
Musk came into the government with brash plans to cut $US2 trillion ($3.1 trillion) out of the US federal budget.
He left last week having achieved far less than that, having cut about 0.5 per cent of total spending.
Trump suggested that Musk, who got a praise-filled send-off last week, was upset because he missed working for him.
“He’s not the first,” he said.
“People leave my administration … then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile.”
Musk has been a powerful Trump ally, spending about $US250 million to boost Republicans in the 2024 presidential election and then overseeing Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
His work eliminating thousands of federal jobs and cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid and other programs caused disruption across federal agencies while prompting widespread protests at Tesla outlets in the US and Europe.
Shares in Tesla extended losses after Trump’s criticism of Musk, falling more than 8 per cent on a day otherwise devoid of news for the electric car maker.
