President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have quickly turned on each other in a very public and bitter feud. Their split isn’t just personal, but has major implications for the rest of the country, with Musk now strongly opposing Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” It is the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda, which includes tax cuts, Medicaid reductions, and increased border spending. The proposal would also significantly raise the national debt.
Musk took aim at the bill as “massive, outrageous, pork-filled…a disgusting abomination” that would “massively increase” the budget deficit. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
In response, Trump threatened Musk’s federal contracts. Then Musk threatened to start a new political party and accused Trump of covering up “the Epstein files.”
Follow along here for updates and explainers to understand the deeper implications of this battle.
The big reason why Republicans should worry about an angry Elon Musk
How the Musk-Trump blowup ends, nobody knows.
Most commentary gives President Donald Trump the advantage. But Elon Musk’s willingness to spend his fortune on elections gives him one distinct advantage — the ability to drive a brittle party system into chaos and loosen Trump’s hold on it.
Why Trump probably can’t cut Musk loose
Breaking up is hard to do — especially when one party is a billionaire with near-unassailable dominance of the nation’s ability to launch things into space, and the other is a president who has staked a significant portion of his legacy on wildly ambitious space-based projects.
As President Donald Trump and his erstwhile financial backer and former DOGE boss Elon Musk traded blows on social media Thursday, the president at one point posted, “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!”
Jeffrey Epstein’s friendship with Donald Trump, explained
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Editor’s note, June 5, 2025, 4:25 pm ET: On Thursday, amid an apparent feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the tech billionaire posted on X that Trump was “in the Epstein files,” saying, “That is the real reason they have not been made public.” The story below was originally published on November 5, 2024.
The real reasons Musk is feuding with Trump
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It was just last week that Elon Musk played buddy-buddy with President Donald Trump in a friendly Oval Office event that marked the end of his White House service.
The Trump-Musk breakup, briefly explained
This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
Welcome to The Logoff: Is the Trump-Musk partnership over? It’s complicated — but after today, it’s looking more like yes.
