Well.. who could have predicted that. The richest man in the world who financed arguably the greatest politician in the world (not a compliment) are now going at each other. It might all seem like political theater but up to now they have both tried to avoid criticizing each other, but today that all seems to have changed. In the last few hours they have been hammering each other on Twitter / Truthsocial and it is making for great entertainment, but it could have large economic repercussions.
It all seemed to start when Musk began saying this "Big Beautiful Bill" as Trump calls it, which increases spending drastically, was a "disgusting abomination", "shame on those who voted for it" and "we [will] fire all the politicians who betrayed the American people" in next year's midterm elections.", which escalated the next day to "KILL the BILL".
This put him at direct odds with Trump who has channeled all his political might into this project and it is his first major attempt at actually utilizing the actual democratic process of passing a bill through Congress and then the Senate where elected representatives from both parties can vote on it. It has squeezed through Congress which lines it up for the Senate next, which may be even harder to arrange now Elon is threatening to counter it with pressure on Senators, who are facing mid term elections at the end of next year. Money talks and if Elon backs opposing candidates like he backed Trump (running a $1 million dollar daily voter lottery in a key state), then he could hand power back to the Democrats.
It's hard to keep track of the latest flurry of messages coming out from them, but it signals a major departure from their alliance:
Some recent (in the last 24 hours) comments from Elon:
Musk said Trump's global tariffs will "cause a recession in the second half of this year".
Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as president, but I will be around for 40+ years…
"Such ingratitude" and "Without me, Trump would have lost the election"
Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!
And comments by Trump:
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!
"Elon and I had a great relationship," Trump said during his Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. "I don't know if we will anymore."
Elon was wearing thin, 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!
Get the popcorn ready, this is going to be a rollercoaster over the next few weeks. The Tesla share price has already taken a 15% hit today and Elon has threatened to decommission Dragon 1 & 2, America's only working space craft for shuttling astronauts. How do you think this is going to play out next?
Honestly, this fallout between Musk and Trump feels like more than just two powerful egos clashing. To me, it looks like a major shift in how tech money and political power interact. They both played nice for years because it worked for them now that real policy and midterms are on the line, it is turning into a high stakes battle. Musk going after the bill really puts Trump’s legislative push in jeopardy, and Trump threatening to pull Musk’s contracts shows how personal it has gotten. Tesla’s stock already took a hit, but I think the bigger issue here is about who gets to shape the narrative and the future. If this keeps escalating, it could seriously change the game for U.S politics and the industries tied to it.