Daily Voice
By Joe Lombardi From Daily Voice
The former bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has now escalated into a full-fledged feud.
After the two traded barbs over the so-called "big, beautiful" tax-and-spending bill Trump and Republican lawmakers are pushing, and which Musk opposes, things quickly got personal.
A post by Musk on his X platform that Trump would have lost the 2024 election had he not provided hundreds of millions of dollars to his campaign appeared to be what set the president off.
“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ " Trump fired back Thursday afternoon, June 5 on Truth Social. "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!”
Trump also claimed Musk's issues with the bill are because of electric vehicle tax credit cuts, affecting Tesla, owned by the billionaire entrepreneur and world's richest man. Tesla stock dropped 15 percent for the day.
That drew this accusation without evidence from Musk: “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files," he wrote on his X platform. "That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
Musk was referring to the Justice Department withholding further release of info on the late financier and convicted child sex offender who Trump had been videotaped socializing with in the past. The first phase of declassified documents were released by Attorney General Pamela Bondi in February.
For his part, Trump hinted he may try to kill about $20 billion in government contracts with Musk's SpaceX company, posting: “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 [former President Joe] Biden didn’t do it!”
The war of words would not have been thought possible less than a week ago. In his last day as adviser overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the 78-year-old Trump presented Musk, age 53, with a gold key to the White House at a press conference in the Oval Office on Friday, May 30.
In a unexpected twist, Musk appeared at the event with a black eye he claimed was caused when told his 5-year-old son to punch him.
President Donald Trump presents departing DOGE adviser Elon Musk with a golden key to the White House on Friday, May 30, 2025, in the Oval Office.
On Sunday, June 1, a CBS interview with Musk aired in which he said he was "disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, doesn't decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing. I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don't know if it could be both. My personal opinion."
Two days later, Musk was much less diplomatic.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk wrote on his X platform. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.”
Musk added in his post: “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it."
Check back to Daily Voice for updates.
Winnipeg Free Press World