The fallout began when Musk attacked the Trump administration’s flagship budget reconciliation proposal, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, branding it a “disgusting abomination” and urging lawmakers to vote it down.
Trump, never one to let a slight slide, responded on Truth Social: “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!”
If the President follows through, the consequences for Musk’s business empire could be enormous.
According to a Washington Post investigation, Musk-owned firms have received roughly $38 billion in federal support to date, including contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits. Of that, some $6.3 billion has been allocated in 2024 alone.
Among the most vulnerable sectors are satellites, where Musk’s SpaceX rockets bring operators' systems into orbit. A sudden cancellation of contracts would send shockwaves through the space industry.
Musk’s first response? An apparent threat to “begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately”, a vehicle used to ferry cargo and crew to the International Space Station. He later walked the comment back.
Musk was ‘wearing thin’
Things escalated rapidly. In an extraordinary exchange of posts and barbs, Musk attempted to implicate the President in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and suggested Trump would have lost the 2024 election without his support.
Trump fired back, saying Musk's role in his administration was “wearing thin,” and that he had asked the billionaire to leave his post.
Musk stepped down as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in May. As a “special government employee,” his role was limited to 130 working days per year.
The President claims, however, that he asked for Musk to depart after he took issue with the removal of tax credits for electric vehicles from the budget bill.
“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 said.
Musk countered that he’d been blindsided, claiming the bill “was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”
He went on to post: “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.
“Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.“
The President later said he didn’t mind Musk turning against him, but contended that he “should have done so months ago”.
“This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress,” the President said on Truth Social. “It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn’t pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that.
“I didn’t create this mess, I’m just here to FIX IT. This puts our Country on a Path of Greatness. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
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