Trump threatens Musk’s government deals as feud explodes over tax cut Bill
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A March 14 photo showing US President Donald Trump (left) speaking to Mr Elon Musk before departing the White House for his South Florida home in Mar-a-Lago.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump threatened on June 5 to cut off government contracts with billionaire Elon Musk’s companies, and Mr Musk suggested Mr Trump should be impeached, as the bromance between the president and his former adviser disintegrated into a bar-room brawl.
Mr Trump started the feud in remarks from the Oval Office. Mr Musk quickly responded with posts on his social media site X, and within hours both were trading barbs on their respective social media platforms.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social.
Wall Street traders dumped shares of Mr Musk’s electric-vehicle maker and Tesla closed down 14.3 per cent, losing about US$150 billion (S$193 billion) in value. It was Tesla’s largest single-day decline in value in its history.
Minutes after the closing bell, Mr Musk replied “yes” to a post on X saying Mr Trump should be impeached.
Mr Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress and are highly unlikely to impeach him.
The trouble between the two built up over the week.
On June 3, Mr Musk began denouncing Mr Trump’s sweeping tax cut and spending Bill.
The President held his tongue while Mr Musk campaigned to torpedo the Bill, saying it would add too much to the nation’s US$36.2 trillion in debt.
Mr Trump broke his silence on June 5, telling reporters in the Oval Office he was “very disappointed”
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more,” Mr Trump said.
As Mr Trump spoke, Mr Musk responded with increasingly acerbic posts on X.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” Mr Musk posted. “Such ingratitude.”
In another post, Mr Musk asserted that Mr Trump’s signature tariffs would push the US into a recession later in 2025.
Besides Tesla, Mr Musk’s businesses include rocket company and government contractor SpaceX and its satellite unit Starlink. The billionaire spent nearly US$300 million
Mr Musk, whose space business plays a critical role in the US government’s space programme, said that as a result of Mr Trump’s threats, he planned to begin decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX’s cheap, reusable Falcon 9 rockets have made it the world’s most active launch provider. Its vast Starlink network has disrupted the global satellite communications market.
Pugilistic pair
The feud was not entirely unexpected. Mr Trump and Mr Musk are both political pugilists with sizeable egos and a penchant for using social media to punch back against their perceived enemies, and many observers had predicted an eventual falling out.
Even before Mr Musk’s departure from the administration last week, his influence had waned following a series of clashes with Cabinet members over his cuts to their agencies.
For Mr Trump, the fight was the first major rift he has had with a top adviser since taking office for a second time, after his first term was marked by numerous blow-ups.
Mr Trump parted ways with multiple chiefs of staff, national security advisers and political strategists during his 2017 to 2021 White House tenure. A few, like Mr Steve Bannon, remained in his good graces, while many others, like former national security adviser John Bolton, became loud and vocal critics.
Ever-present ally
After serving as the biggest Republican donor in the 2024 campaign season, Mr Musk became one of Mr Trump’s most visible advisers as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, which mounted a sweeping effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending.
Mr Musk was frequently present at the White House and made multiple appearances on Capitol Hill, sometimes carrying his young son.
Only six days before the June 5 blow-up, Mr Trump and Mr Musk held a joint appearance in the Oval Office, where Mr Trump praised Mr Musk’s government service and both men promised to continue working together.
A prolonged feud between Mr Trump and Mr Musk could make it more difficult for Republicans to keep control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. In addition to his campaign spending, Mr Musk has a huge online following and helped connect Mr Trump to parts of Silicon Valley and wealthy donors.
Mr Musk had already said he planned to curtail his political spending
Soon after Mr Trump’s Oval Office comments, Mr Musk polled his 220 million followers on X: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80 per cent in the middle?”
‘Kill the Bill’
Mr Musk’s blistering attacks this week targeted what Mr Trump calls his “big, beautiful Bill”.
Mr Musk called it a “disgusting abomination” that would deepen the federal deficit, and his posts amplified a rift within the Republican Party that could threaten the Bill’s prospects in the Senate. Nonpartisan analysts say Mr Trump’s Bill could add US$2.4 trillion to US$5 trillion to the nation’s US$36.2 trillion debt.
Mr Trump asserted that Mr Musk really objected to the President’s elimination of consumer tax credits for electric vehicles.
Mr Trump also suggested that Mr Musk was upset because he missed working for Mr Trump.
“He’s not the first,” Mr Trump said on June 5. “People leave my administration... then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile.”
Mr Musk wrote on X, “KILL the BILL”, adding he was fine with Mr Trump’s planned cuts to electric vehicle credits as long as Republicans rid the Bill of a “mountain of disgusting pork” or wasteful spending.
He also pulled up past quotes from Mr Trump decrying the level of federal spending, adding: “Where is this guy today?“
Mr Trump, meanwhile, posted on Truth Social that Mr Musk “went crazy”.
Mr Musk came into government with brash plans to cut US$2 trillion from the federal budget. He left last week having cut only about half of 1 per cent of total spending.
Doge eliminated thousands of federal jobs and cut billions of dollars in foreign aid and other programmes, causing disruption across federal agencies and fueling a wave of legal challenges.
Mr Musk’s increasing focus on politics provoked widespread protests at Tesla sites in the US and Europe, driving down sales while investors fretted that Mr Musk’s attention was too divided.
Following Mr Trump’s remarks, a White House official, speaking on background, underscored the shift in the once-close dynamic between Mr Musk and Mr Trump.
“The President is making it clear: this White House is not beholden to Elon Musk on policy,” the official said.
“By attacking the Bill the way he did, Musk has clearly picked a side.” REUTERS
