Musk and Trump break completely

Author: Ji Zhenyu; Source: Tencent News "Vision"

As many people expected, Musk's relationship with US President Trump has completely broken. On June 5, the conflict between the two was completely public. They shouted from a distance on social platforms, and both sides launched personal attacks without reservation. Musk said, "If it weren't for him, Trump wouldn't be president at all and the other party would have no gratitude"; while Trump said, "Musk was crazy" and threatened to stop the government's contract project with Tesla.

The fuse of this ugly mutual attack was Musk's public dissatisfaction with the "Big and US Act" proposed by the Trump administration. Under this bill, the U.S. government will continue to take fiscal expansion measures to further expand the fiscal deficit. But in the eyes of many people, the conflict between the two sides has accumulated for a while. June 5 was just a concentrated and public outbreak. The core is that Musk believes that his efforts have not received the reward he deserves.

While the conflict between the two was public, Tesla's stock became the most direct victim. Investors chose to sell because they were worried about Tesla's company's prospects, causing the company's stock price to fall by more than 17% during the session, closed down by more than 14% on the same day, and its market value evaporated by more than 150 billion US dollars.

The Musk-Trump alliance may be the most special and influential relationship in modern American politics. One is the world's richest man and the other is elected US president twice. The alliance formed by two strong figures both benefited in the US election last year. Trump was successfully elected president. Musk also won both fame and fortune and held a government position. It was once called a great "bet" by the outside world. However, such an alliance only lasted less than half a year before collapsed, and the political and business landscape of the United States will face new dramatic changes.

The political and business farce is coming to its peak

Just less than a week after leaving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk publicly expressed his disappointment with the Trump administration's "big and U.S. bill."

Trump then changed his attitude towards legislation after accusing Musk of resigning as a senior White House adviser on June 5.

"I'm very disappointed because he (Musk) knows better about the operation of the bill than almost anyone in the room," Trump said.

Trump believes that the reason for Musk's dissatisfaction is the cancellation of the electric vehicle tax credit in the bill, which is extremely unfavorable to Musk's Tesla.

“The reason he suddenly had an objection is because we have to cut subsidies for electric vehicles,” Trump said.

He also said Musk was dissatisfied with his revocation of his allies' nomination to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Although Trump admitted that Musk supported him in the campaign, he also added: "I feel like I can win Pennsylvania even without him."

Musk was not showing any weakness and turned against Trump completely. He almost kept posting tweets directly attacking Trump on that day.

"Without me, Trump will lose the election, Democrats will control the House, and Republicans will only have a slight advantage in the Senate by 51:49."

"I'm really ungrateful," Musk said in a tweet.

He also said Trump speculated that his reason for opposing the bill was a complete "lie." He then released another "blockbuster" and "Trump is also on Epstein's list, which is why he doesn't make the list public."

After Trump threatened to cut off the government's subsidies and contracts to Musk, Musk immediately stated that he would immediately retire SpaceX's Dragon Spacecraft project.

Musk also directly criticized Trump's tariff policy, saying that the policy would cause the US economy to enter a recession directly in the second half of this year.

He also launched a vote directly on the X platform to establish a new party that truly represents 80% of the middle class in the United States, which received more than 1.8 million responses, of which more than 82% agreed to his proposal to establish a new party.

While this political and business farce continues to reach its climax, Tesla has become the hardest hit area in the US capital market that day. The conflict between the two sides continued to escalate and the quarrel became increasingly fierce. At the same time, Tesla's stock price was ruthlessly sold out by investors. Tesla fell by more than 17% on the same day. As of the closing of the day, Tesla's stock price fell by more than 14%.

The fierce quarrel between Trump and Musk on the same day became the only focus of the market, and the incident continued until the close of the US stock market that day.

From close allies to rebel into enemies

The relationship between Trump and Musk may be the most important and influential political and business relationship in the United States in modern times.

The relationship between the two has undergone multiple rounds of changes during Trump's two presidency. After Trump was elected president for the first time in 2016, Musk once entered his advisory circle and was invited to join Trump's "Economic Advisory Council" and "Manufacturing Employment Initiative Group". He has met with Trump many times to make suggestions on issues such as infrastructure, manufacturing and technological development. Musk's attitude at that time was "to the things, not the people". He emphasized that cooperation with the president was to "promote sustainable energy and technology development" and not out of political support.

In June 2017, Trump announced that the United States withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, and Musk immediately announced his resignation as an adviser to the White House. He publicly stated: "Climate change is real", "I have tried my best to persuade the president, but it failed." Since then, Musk has gradually kept his distance from the Trump administration, especially in terms of environmental protection, immigration and science and technology policies.

Later in the late stages of Trump's first presidency, Musk had little public interaction with him, but occasionally commented on his policies on social media.

In 2020, Musk strongly opposed California's lockdown policy, calling it "fascist". Although Trump also advocates opening up the economy, the relationship between the two has not been further closer.

In 2021, after Biden took office as US president, he often mentioned the development of electric vehicles of GM and Ford, but avoided talking about Tesla, which angered Musk. Musk has repeatedly mocked Biden on X (formerly Twitter), even saying that he is "controlled by the teleprompter." During this period, he began to be more friendly to the Republican Party and publicly stated that he used to be a Democratic supporter, but now he is more Republican. In 2022, he also tweeted that he "planned to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in 2024."

In 2024, the new US presidential election kicked off. Many media broke the news in 2024 that Trump had tried to win over Musk's support, and even discussed potential roles such as "Treasury Secretary" and "Technology Advisor". Musk did not confirm the details at the time, but admitted to meeting with Trump in private. Musk stressed that he would not directly fund a candidate, but called for "restore freedom of speech, reduce tax burdens, and curb supervision", which was interpreted by the outside world as support for the Republican stance. Musk supports remarks such as restricting illegal immigration and criticizing the big government, forming a consistent position with Trump.

When the presidential election was in a state of anxiety in 2024, Musk repeatedly stated that he would not return to the Democratic Party and was also strongly dissatisfied with Biden. Trump praised Musk as a "smart businessman" at multiple rallies. Musk's interest in political influence has increased significantly, pushing conservative candidates in multiple constituencies.

Subsequently, Musk's support for Trump became public, and he became one of the most solid allies in the Trump campaign, giving speeches at rallies many times, and the relationship between the two became closer and closer.

After Trump finally won the US presidential election for the second time, Musk was generally regarded as the "big winner", and Tesla also ushered in a wave of "election market", with stock prices rising by more than 130% from August last year to the end of last year. Musk then served as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), responsible for cutting government spending.

During his tenure, Musk and Trump still publicly showed close relationships. Musk often appeared in the White House, but the Republican Party’s opinions on Musk are getting bigger and bigger, and Musk’s position in the administration is becoming more and more embarrassing.

After 130 days of office, Musk announced his resignation from the government, but there were internal reports that Musk originally wanted to continue the position, but was rejected by Trump.

The relationship between the two then began to take a sharp turn for the worse. On June 5, the conflict broke out in a concentrated manner and became public. The fuse for the breakdown of the relationship between the two was Musk's strong criticism of Trump's "Big and U.S. bill, which expands tax cuts while increasing border law enforcement and military spending, but cuts Medicaid, food aid and clean energy tax credits. Musk's core view is that the bill further expands the deficit and increases the debt burden of the United States.

The House of Representatives passed the trillion-dollar Republican bill last month by one vote, and Musk hopes to use the power of similar opposition members in Congress to push for a major amendment.

The Senate is currently considering the case, with the goal of delivering it to the president's desk by July 4. The Republican Party has a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and there are currently two Republican senators who explicitly oppose the bill: Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida were reserved, while Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Josh Hawley of Missouri were doubtful about the rest of the bill. As long as two more of them turn against each other, the bill may die in the Senate.

Johnson said Musk's statements have strengthened the opposition's confidence:

"I think it does work - at least for me, it reinforces the position that we have to deal with it. I didn't want to be that 'sand', but I have to be that irritating pearl now."

The bill will increase the $2.4 trillion deficit over the next decade, an estimate released by the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday showed.

The win or loss of this round of dispute between Musk and Trump has been closely linked to whether the bill can be finally passed, which also highlights the tension between business interests and political decision- making in the process of US policymaking. But there is no doubt that after this once seemed extremely powerful alliance collapses, it will cause greater shocks in the American political and business world for a longer time in the future.