What is Musk and Trump’s verbal war against the century? Is it affecting the crypto market?

Deng Tong, Golden Finance

In November 2024, Musk was listed on Time magazine. On the road to the treacherous election, Musk once called the wind and rain in the American political arena - presided over the rallies, guided the government's appointments, and formulated the agenda of the next US president. Time once commented on Musk: " Standing next to him, even Trump seems almost full of awe. Rather than saying he is a boss, he is a companion, because the planet and its challenges are not big enough for him."

For details, please see the Golden Finance article: "Time Magazine: How did Musk become the "kingmaker" step by step? 》

However, the two of them only spent more than 100 days of honeymoon period, and shortly after Musk left DOGE, they suddenly turned against each other.

For details, please check out the Golden Finance article: "Musk is about to leave his unfulfilled DOGE"

What made the two turn against each other? How did the verbal battle between the two influential figures escalate? How does the outside world view this century-old verbal war? Will Musk return to the White House? Is Tesla facing a major crisis? What impact will it have on the crypto market?

**1. The timeline of the world 's richest man and the super-understanding

king's verbal battle escalates**

The dispute began last week, originating from Trump's "Big and Beauty" bill, which began to heat up on Wednesday local time and reached a white-hot spot in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon. The following content is a timeline review of the escalating quarrel between Musk and Trump by Golden Finance.

Wednesday, May 28: Musk criticized Trump's new bill plan on taxes and spending in an interview with CBS News, saying the plan's legislation "disappointed" him. Trump then admitted to reporters that he was "unsatisfied with some aspects" of the bill, but was "excited" about some aspects such as tax cuts. Trump did not directly comment on Musk's remarks at the time.

Thursday, May 29: Musk announced that he will leave the Trump administration after the end of his term as a special government employee. At this time, the relationship between the two was still very harmonious, and Trump even publicly stated: "He will always be with us, Elon is great!"

Friday, May 30: Musk appears at a White House press conference, and Trump praises Musk very much. Trump said Musk "had not really left" and would continue to "travel" to and from the White House.

Monday, June 2: Trump defended his “great and beautiful bill” in an article on the Truth Social website, claiming “many false statements” existed against his landmark economic policy.

Tuesday, June 3: Musk re-slams Trump’s planned bill in a post on X, calling it “sized, outrageous” and “disgusting and ugly behavior.”

This marked the sudden escalation of the two's verbal battle.

Wednesday, June 4: Musk calls for a new spending bill that “the bill will not significantly increase the (US government budget) deficit and raise the debt ceiling.” Musk urged his followers to call on their representatives to oppose Trump's bill.

Thursday, June 5: Musk cites a series of old posts Trump made on X in 2012 and 2013, in which Trump criticized administration spending.

Speaking at the Oval Office with German Chancellor Friedrich Meltz, Trump said he and Musk had a good relationship "once" but "I don't know if we will maintain this relationship again." He also said Musk was "displeased" with the cuts in the bill he planned to make electric vehicle subsidies because it would affect the billionaire's Tesla and SpaceX businesses.

Musk responded in real time in the Oval Office, refuting Trump's remarks.

Thursday, June 5 12:24: After returning to the White House, Trump told reporters that Musk knew "all aspects of the bill" and said he was "very disappointed with Musk."

12:25: "Fake," Musk replied on X. "This bill hasn't been shown to me once, and it was passed quickly late at night, and almost no one in Congress has read it!"

12:44: Musk reposted Trump’s old post on X, highlighting those moments when the president criticized the U.S. budget deficit. "Where is this guy today??"

12:46: Musk said in response to another user on X: "If it weren't for me, Trump would have lost the election." He continued: "It's so ungrateful."

13:44: Musk continues to claim on X that “the big ugly bill will increase the deficit to $2.5 trillion.”

13:49: Musk quotes Trump's old post on government spending on X. He asked, "Where is the person who wrote these words? Has he been replaced by a substitute?!"

13:57: Musk asked in a poll on X: “Is it time to create a new party in the United States that truly represents 80% of the middle group?”

14:37: Trump began posting on his “truth social” platform, saying Musk was “exhausted”, so he asked him to leave the White House and claimed Musk was “crazy.”

Musk responded: This is an "obvious lie."

Trump continued in another article: "The easiest way to save money in our budget is to terminate Musk's government subsidies and contracts."

15:10: Musk claims Trump appears in the "Epstein Archives" without providing evidence. "It's time to detonate a real bombshell, President Trump is in the documents in the Epstein case. That's the real reason why the documents are not released."

16:06: Trump posted that he doesn't mind "Elon betrayed me" and will continue to defend his bill.

16:09: In response to Trump's proposal to terminate the government contract with Musk, Musk said he would "immediately" retire the Dragon spacecraft - a ship that can travel to the International Space Station.

16:11: Musk appears to support the impeachment of Trump, while citing a conspiracy theorist who shared Epstein’s archives about the president.

16:26: Musk posted a post to attack Trump's other iconic policy, trade tariffs, saying that these policies "will lead to an economic recession in the second half of this year."

21:27: Musk's attitude seems to soften, responding to another Trump supporter billionaire Bill Ackerman on X, "You're not wrong," who called on the two to "realize peace for the good of our great nation."

Friday, June 6: Trump described Musk as "a man who lost his mind" in an interview with ABC News and said he was "not particularly interested in talking to Musk.

Earlier reports that Trump and the tech billionaire will be on the phone later, but the White House told the BBC that Trump does not intend to talk to him today.

BBC's U.S. partner CBS also reported that Trump is considering selling his Tesla car — a car he bought to help Musk promote the company.

Saturday, June 7: Musk posted a tweet on X, citing another tweet before: The people have made a voice and the United States needs a new political party to represent 80% of the middle class. It happens that 80% of people agree that this is fate.

According to official data, the probability of "Musk creating a new party this year" is predicted on Polymarket to be 16%, and the probability of "Musk creating a new party before the end of June" is predicted to be 5%.

2. How does the outside world view this century-old verbal war?

Musk's father Errol Musk admitted in an interview with Russian media that his son Elon's public quarrel with Trump was a mistake. Errol said, "This is just a small thing that will end tomorrow." He explained: "The two sides have been under high pressure for five months and need to take a breath. They are extremely tired and under great pressure in matters such as eliminating opposition forces and working to restore national order, so it is expected that such a thing will happen." In addition, Errol also made a clear statement: " Trump will definitely win, he is elected president, so I think Elon made a mistake."

Navarro, trade adviser to US President Trump, believes that Trump's open disagreement with Musk is irrelevant, saying Musk is just "a special government employee who leaves when it expires." "People in the White House are coming and leaving," Navarro said. Navarro also criticized Musk's long- standing opposition to tariff policies, which are at the heart of Trump's trade policy. “Musk doesn’t like tariffs, that’s all,” he said, who has “clearly made” this since Trump’s first term. "We can have differences on this issue, but I just want to say that in my first term, everyone who said tariffs would cause recession and inflation was obviously a big mistake," Navarro said.

After Musk's public quarrel with Trump, Dmitry Novikov, the first vice president of the Russian State Duma in charge of international affairs, said Russia may provide political asylum to Musk. "If he does (need asylum), of course, Russia can provide it." Kremlin spokesman Peskov said earlier in a call with reporters that the dispute was an internal U.S. matter and the Kremlin believed Trump “will handle the situation on his own.”

AFP reported on June 6 that an European Commission spokesman quipped that Elon Musk was "very popular" in Europe. Earlier, the billionaire unexpectedly had a public dispute with U.S. President Donald Trump. European Commission spokesman Paula Pinho was asked at a daily press conference whether Musk had contacted the EU to discuss relocating his company or setting up a new company. She replied with a smile: " He is very popular."

3. Will Musk return to the White House?

Judging from the current attitudes of both sides, it is unlikely that Musk will return to the White House during Trump's term.

Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Saturday that his relationship with Musk was over. “Yes, I think yes,” he replied “no” when asked if he wanted to fix the damaged relationship.

Vice President JD Vance said Musk was “completely crazy” and may never be welcomed again.

Vance pointed out that Tesla and SpaceX CEO attacking the president was a "big mistake".

Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Saturday that Musk “disrespectful to the presidency.” "I think it's a very bad thing because he's very disrespectful to people. You can't disrespect the presidential position."

Last year, Musk donated about $250 million to Trump's presidential campaign. However, he hinted in a social media verbal war that he could support some of Trump’s opponents in next year’s midterm elections — to challengers of lawmakers who support Trump’s tax bill.

When asked about the prospect of Musk's support for a Democratic candidate competing with the Republican Party, Trump said he would face "serious consequences."

"Trump has 3.5 years left for the presidency, but I have more than 40 years left," Musk wrote on X.

4. Is Tesla facing a major crisis?

As the two verbal wars escalated, Tesla's stock price plummeted 14% on June 5, and then rebounded slowly.

In April this year, Tesla announced that car sales in the first quarter fell by 20%, profits plummeted by more than 70%, and its stock price also fell. Aside from Tesla's unsatisfactory business status caused by the involvement of energy after joining the White House, Tesla may have other flaws.

First, it seems to be lagging behind in autonomous driving:

" Tesla is a great car company. They can compete in the self-driving taxi space, but they are far behind," said Kara Swisher, a senior tech journalist.

Tesla has long tried to catch up with rival Waymo, a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet, whose driverless taxis have been driving on the streets of San Francisco for years and are now operating in more cities.

Second, you cannot focus on car manufacturing:

"He was a very powerful man when he focused on something," said Ross Gerber, president and CEO of Wealth and Investment Management, Kawasaki. " In the past, he wanted to prove to the world that he could build electric cars—that was technology that others could not do. Now, he wanted to prove that he could build rockets. He had a lot to prove." "But he thought he had more power than the president of the United States, which was probably the stupidest thing to do."

SpaceX has now played a pivotal role in the U.S. space and national security agencies. After Trump and Musk's argument, representatives from NASA and the Pentagon called on SpaceX's competitors to speed up the development of alternative rockets and spacecraft. "Government officials contacted at least three commercial space companies: Rocket Lab, Stoke Space and Blue Origin to learn about their rocket status and when it can be used for government missions." Musk previously said it might stop flying the Dragon spacecraft. This will prevent NASA from getting astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Musk later gave up on the threat. However, his statements have raised concerns among NASA officials who handed the safety of astronauts to Space X, which is also heavily dependent on the company to launch its critical satellites.

Third, the anger from the people:

Since Trump took office, protests have erupted every weekend across the country, collectively known as #TeslaTakedown. “He shouldn’t decide the fate of our democracy by gradually dismantling our government. That’s wrong,” protester Linda Koistinen pointed out.

" He bought Twitter to strengthen his influence so he can reach hundreds of millions of people at any time," said Joan Donovan, co-organizer of the #TeslaTakedown protest.

5. What impact will it have on the crypto market?

On June 6, when the two were in a heated quarrel, DOGE, which Musk had strongly endorsed, plummeted 15% from its high on June 3.

Meme coins Trump cannot survive. On June 6, Trump plummeted 17.5% from his June 4 high. Trump endorses its official Memecoin (TRUMP) as an indicator of public political sentiment. Industry insiders pointed out that short-term price volatility of Memecoin is driven by speculation, but the long-term trend may reflect public expectations of Trump 's political outlook.

The fierce dispute between Musk and Trump has spawned a meme coin called KILL BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL, which has a market value of over $53 million as traders join the hype. Hours after Musk publicly slammed the bill, Pump.Fun traders seized the opportunity to launch a meme coin called KILL BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL (KBBB). KBBB's market value soared to $53.12 million in just nine hours, with traders pouring in, but as of press time, the token trading was basically silent.

In the future, if the differences between the two further escalate, the crypto market will not rule out the possibility of a black swan event.

Appendix: What does Trump’s “Big and Beautiful” bill say?

On May 22, 2025, the U.S. House Republicans passed a comprehensive tax and expenditure bill with a narrow margin. The bill includes extending the tax cut period, increasing federal welfare eligibility requirements, and raising the national debt ceiling.

The more than 1,000-page bill has been submitted to the Senate, which will have the opportunity to approve or modify its terms before it is served by Trump.

Here are some key things in the bill.

Social Security Tax-free

During the campaign, Trump proposed to cancel the Social Security Income Tax—that is, monthly benefits to people with disabilities and the elderly.

The House bill failed to deliver on that promise, but did temporarily increase the standard deduction for individuals aged 65 and older to $4,000. The deduction will be valid from 2025 to 2028.

For married taxpayers who filed jointly, the deduction starts to decrease after $150,000, and for individual filed, the deduction starts to decrease after $75,000.

More Medicaid Requirements

To help fund tax cuts in other regions, Republicans have added additional restrictions and requirements to Medicaid, the healthcare program that millions of elderly people, disabled people, and low-income Americans rely on.

Changes to Medicaid, one of the largest components of federal spending, are the main source of political conflict, leading to significant differences among lawmakers.

One of the changes is the provision of new job requirements for children and disabled adults. The bill stipulates that to qualify, they must work at least 80 hours a month from December 2026.

Another change to the program is that the requirement for re-registration is changed from once a year to once every six months. Registrants must also provide additional income and proof of residence.

Increase the salt tax ceiling

The bill raises the deduction limits for state and local taxes (salt taxes), which is a very important issue for a small number of Republican diehards in urban areas controlled by Democrats.

Currently, the maximum amount taxpayer can deduct from their federal taxes is $10,000. The cap will expire this year.

In the new bill, House Republicans raise the salt tax limit for married couples who earn no more than $500,000 to $40,000.

This is also a major point of debate.

A law passed by the last Trump administration in 2017 sets the cap to $10,000 to make room for the federal budget to cut taxes elsewhere.

Snap Benefits

The government program Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which is used by more than 40 million low-income Americans, has also been reformed.

The new bill requires states to invest more money into the program, which is also partly funded by the federal government.

It also adds job requirements for sound Snap registrants who have no dependents.

Overtime, tips and other fees are not taxable

The bill fulfills one of Trump’s iconic campaign promises—the tax on tips and overtime pay. Both commitments have been successfully incorporated into the bill.

The plan will also allow Americans to deduct only interest on car loans for cars made in the United States.

The child tax credit will also increase from $2,000 to $2,500 by 2028.

In addition, the bill proposes to increase the debt ceiling to $4 trillion (£2.9 trillion). The debt ceiling refers to the capital ceiling that the government can borrow to repay debts.

Raising debt ceilings allows the government to pay for projects that Congress has approved.

Source: Golden Finance, BBC, Jinshi Data, X, Sina Finance, Yahoo Finance, CoinGecko