CNN
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One of the most powerful alliances in American politics appears to be over.
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk explosively sparred on their respective social media platforms Thursday – with the president floating the idea of cutting the tech billionaire’s various government contracts and Musk going nuclear at one point and saying Trump’s name was in the so-called Epstein files.
Thursday’s drama started when Trump confirmed the deterioration of his relationship with Musk, saying he was “very disappointed” in the tech billionaire after he repeatedly blasted the president’s sweeping domestic agenda bill in recent days.
“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, less than one week after the two exchanged effusive praise on Musk’s last day as a special government employee.
Shortly after, Musk responded on his social media platform X that Trump could not have won the 2024 election without him – a jab that appeared to further irritate the president and significantly intensify the fight, which played out on dueling social media platforms owned by the two men.
“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. He added: “Such ingratitude.”
Musk had initially started the public feud Tuesday, calling a mammoth GOP bill on taxes, spending cuts, energy and the border a “disgusting abomination” due to projections it will greatly increase the deficit. The bill narrowly passed the House last month and is being considered by the Senate, and the tech billionaire has made it clear he’s aiming to sink it or prompt Republican lawmakers to rewrite it significantly. Trump and Musk have not spoken since Musk’s initial outburst, multiple sources told CNN.
The back-and-forth between Trump and his megadonor, former “first buddy” and surrogate-turned-special-government-employee marked a very public breakup of a former center of power for the second Trump administration. The president had fully empowered Musk to take dramatic steps through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency to transform the size and scope of the federal government, which Musk carried out with varying levels of success. But the friendship quickly soured upon his departure as Musk railed against Trump’s most critical agenda item.
The situation further devolved through the afternoon. Trump threatened to “terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” a move that could have devastating impacts on his businesses, and even major implications for the International Space Station.
Musk, in turn, announced without evidence that Trump “is in the Epstein files,” and that is the “real reason” more records regarding the disgraced financier and pedophile have not been publicly released, without providing any explanation on where he would’ve seen files that have not been released to the public. CNN has reached out to the White House for a response. The inclusion of a person’s name in files related to the case does not by itself indicate they have been accused of any wrongdoing.
On Thursday evening, after the Epstein accusation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
A source familiar with the matter noted that the administration had released files related to Epstein with Trump’s name included, and questioned Musk’s raising the allegation. Trump was friends with Epstein decades ago and has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with him; his attorney general has said Trump directed her to review files in the investigation and provide transparency.
“If Elon truly thought the President was more deeply involved with Epstein, why did he hangout with him for 6 months and say he loves him ‘as much as a straight man can love a straight man?’” the source said, quoting a February post on X from Musk.
The tech billionaire also went after the president’s signature tariff policy, posting that it “will cause a recession in the second half of this year.”
And at one point, Musk even endorsed the possibility of impeaching the president and removing him from office, installing Vice President JD Vance in his stead.
Trump offered a relatively muted response, saying he didn’t “mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.” Shortly after, he declined to field any questions from reporters during an afternoon event with the Fraternal Order of Police.
The pair’s stunning statements Thursday significantly escalated that fight – and called into question the future of Musk’s businesses and as well as what he would do with his expansive wealth in future elections.
Musk, who was the largest publicly disclosed donor in last year’s federal elections, had vowed to give millions to Republican candidates in 2026, then later indicated that he planned to scale back his political spending. Tesla stock also tumbled on Thursday as the Musk-Trump relationship imploded, and the company had already taken a significant hit following Musk’s myriad controversial political moves. Trump’s threat to terminate Musk’s government contracts could be devastating to his companies.
The immediate fallout underscores the huge stakes of an ugly divorce for both men and the Republican Party.
And the break-up comparisons weren’t just implicit. Conservative writer Ashley St. Clair, who has asserted that Musk is the father of her child, asked Trump on X to let her know if he needed “any breakup advice.”
During Thursday’s Oval Office appearance alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump repeatedly claimed that Musk’s concerns with the bill were centered on the repeal of electric vehicle subsidies that benefitted Tesla. Trump also said Musk “never had a problem” with the bill “until right after he left.”
Still, Trump appeared to indicate that the fracture occurred before Musk’s departure.
“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!” the president wrote on Truth Social. Musk fired back that the remark was an “obvious lie.”
In more posts on X, Musk denied Trump’s claim that the Tesla CEO knew the inner workings of the bill ahead of time and countered that the elimination of EV tax incentives has nothing to do with his opposition to the massive domestic policy bill.
“Whatever. 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,” Musk in a separate post. “In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.”
One Republican strategist who has worked closely with the tech billionaire downplayed the idea that Musk’s opposition is only about the EV subsidies, telling CNN that Musk was genuinely troubled by projections of how much the bill would add to the deficit – the reasoning Musk has publicly cited on multiple occasions. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the legislation passed by the House would increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion due to the expansive tax cuts.
More than an hour later, Musk appeared to be open to reconciliation, reposting posts that expressed hopes the spat didn’t damage their relationship.
From the Oval Office, Trump reminisced about his campaign bromance with Musk, who contributed at least a quarter-billion dollars to efforts supporting Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.
“Elon endorsed me very strongly. He actually went up and campaigned for me. I think I would have won – Susie would say I would have won Pennsylvania easily anyway,” Trump said, referring to his chief of staff Susie Wiles, appearing to hint at tensions between Wiles and Musk.
As Musk intensified his attacks on Trump’s spending bill this week, White House officials described Trump as being largely surprised, disappointed and “completely taken aback” by the vitriolic rhetoric his former close friend has used.
Trump was visibly somber while he spoke about their fraying relationship in the Oval Office.
“This has all been on the president’s mind for the last few days. He hasn’t been angry, but more so shocked and disappointed in Elon,” one of the White House officials told CNN.
Trump has been asking his advisers how Musk’s comments have been playing in the media, another official said, including whether they could have an impact on how Republicans ultimately vote on what he calls the “big, beautiful bill.”
“The president respects Musk and genuinely likes him. He hasn’t wanted to attack him publicly, in turn, because of that relationship,” the second official said.
However, the officials said that Trump’s attitude and lack of anger toward Musk is now shifting after the Tesla founder’s series of X posts hitting back at Trump, specifically the one where he stated: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election.”
Trump appeared to moderate his tone at times during his meeting with Merz, saying he “always liked Elon” – before implicitly accusing him of so-called “Trump derangement syndrome.”
“He’s not the first – people leave my administration, and they love us, and then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it, and some of them actually become hostile. I don’t know what it is. It’s sort of ‘Trump derangement syndrome,’ I guess they call it, but we have it with others too,” he said.
“They leave, and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour is gone,” he continued. “The whole world is different, and they become hostile. I don’t know what it is.”
Despite the hostilities, a symbol of the friendship remained at the White House: the red Tesla sedan Trump purchased at an event aimed at boosting Musk’s business was still parked on the driveway Thursday evening.
This story has been updated with additional developments and reporting.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed to this report.
