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The Trump-Elon Meltdown: Best Buddies Broadcast Their Breakup
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June 5, 2025
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6:06Now PlayingBloomberg's Ed Ludlow reacts to social media fighting between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, including threats by the president to take away Musk's government contracts and subsidies.
From the moment Donald Trump and Elon Musk joined forces, betting in Washington held that the president’s bond with the First Buddy who bankrolled his comeback election win wouldn’t last.
The breakup finally arrived this week, an escalating tit-for-tat between the world’s richest man and the president of the US, who spent much of Thursday sniping at one another via social media posts and cameras in the Oval Office.
By mid-afternoon, swipes had given way to threats, with Trump proposing to end the subsidies and government contracts that undergird Musk’s two most important companies, Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — essentially taking aim at the heart of his fortune.
“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!” Trump posted on social media Thursday, after earlier telling reporters he was “very disappointed” in Musk over the billionaire’s harsh criticism of a Republican tax and spending bill.
Posting on X, his social media platform, Musk declared that Trump wouldn’t have won a second term without his help — “Such ingratitude,” Musk declared — and said Trump’s claim he had asked Musk to leave the government was “an obvious lie.”
It wasn’t clear how serious Trump was about cutting off Musk’s companies, particularly SpaceX, which is a critical defense contractor providing the Pentagon and National Aeronautics and Space Administration with much-needed access to orbit. But neither Trump nor Musk seemed concerned about limiting collateral damage as their conflict spirals.
When a journalist noted that cutting off SpaceX would end the International Space Station and also leave no mechanism for returning its equipment to earth, Musk posted in response: “Go ahead, make my day...”
The tone became increasingly personal as the day progressed. Musk alleged Trump’s name appeared in files related to disgraced, late New York financier Jeffrey Epstein. The White House declined to comment on the accusation.
For a rift that had seemed inevitable, the descent into public recrimination was startling, even by Trump’s volatile standard, which often sees former allies and underlings cast aside without fanfare.
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