Public Feud Erupts Between Trump and Elon Musk Over Key US Spending Bill
The conflict between US President Donald Trump and former adviser Elon Musk has become public after Musk criticised one of Trump’s major domestic policies.
The two billionaires exchanged sharp comments all day on their social media platforms, showing their partnership may be over.
The disagreement started when Trump expressed he was “disappointed” by Musk’s negative remarks about the government’s big tax and spending bill. Trump hinted their “great relationship” might be ending.
Musk fired back, accusing Trump of “ingratitude” and claiming, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election.”
Their split grew after weeks of Musk opposing the spending bill, which the US House passed last month and is now waiting for a Senate vote.
Soon after Musk left the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) — a job he held for 129 days — he posted on X calling the bill a “disgusting abomination” and shaming those who supported it.
Musk said the bill would irresponsibly increase the US national debt and urged his followers to call their representatives to oppose it.
At a news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump defended the bill, saying:
“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the bill better than almost anyone here. Suddenly, he has a problem.”
Trump suggested Musk was upset because the bill cut subsidies for electric vehicles, which would hurt Tesla.
Musk denied this, saying:
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“Keep the EV and solar incentives, even though oil and gas get no subsidy cuts (which is unfair), but remove the huge wasteful spending in the bill.”
In US politics, “pork” means wasteful spending meant to benefit specific groups or areas.
Their partnership began last July when Musk backed Trump after an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. Musk reportedly invested $290 million to help Trump win again.
After the news conference, Musk claimed credit for the Republicans’ big win in last year’s election, writing: “Without me, Trump would have lost, Democrats would control the House, and Republicans would have a narrow Senate majority.”
He called Trump “ungrateful” and asked his followers if America should form a new political party to represent the middle 80% of people.
Throughout the day, Musk shared posts calling for Trump to resign, warning his trade plans could cause a recession, and made unproven claims linking Trump to files on the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender.
The White House condemned Musk’s claims. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “This is unfortunate from Elon, who is upset because the One Big Beautiful Bill doesn’t include what he wanted.”
On Trump’s Truth Social, he said Musk “just went CRAZY” and suggested cutting Musk’s government subsidies could save “billions of dollars.”
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Musk’s companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink work closely with the US government and benefit from subsidies and tax breaks.
In response, Musk announced SpaceX would start retiring its Dragon spacecraft, used to ferry cargo to the International Space Station.
Tesla’s stock price fell 14% soon after the dispute became public.
The Congressional Budget Office says the spending bill could add $2.4 trillion to the US debt over 10 years and leave nearly 11 million people without government health insurance.
The White House disagrees, saying those numbers don’t consider the extra revenue from new tariffs.
While leading Doge, Musk cut government spending by firing many employees and closing agencies like USAID.
Doge claims to have saved $180 billion, but this figure is disputed and much less than Musk’s original goal of cutting $2 trillion.
Public Feud Erupts Between Trump and Elon Musk Over Key US Spending Bill
