Trump and Musk go from hugs to insults

US President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who just months ago celebrated the Republican candidate’s election victory together, have exchanged insults, accusations and threats.

Their relationship has followed a familiar trajectory: over the years, many of Trump’s associates have gone from working closely with him to a public falling out.

This is how the tech entrepreneur threw his wealth and clout behind Trump’s re-election campaign, took a proverbial chainsaw to perceived excesses in government spending, and later turned against the president and his signature spending bill.

Musk used to wish Trump would ‘sail into the sunset’

Musk first unequivocally endorsed Trump for a second term in July 2024, after a shooter almost killed the GOP contender during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. In the months leading up to the election, he spent an estimated $200 million securing the candidate’s victory through a political action committee he created for the purpose. But their relationship stretches back years.

During Trump’s first term in office, which began in January 2017, Musk sat on a White House business advisory group, but quit later that year after the administration decided to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.

In 2022, Musk said it was time for Trump “to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset” and blamed the Democrats for targeting him, arguing they had pushed him to seek office in order to insulate himself from legal problems. The remark reflected the tech entrepreneur’s broader dissatisfaction with what he called “the party of division & hate.”

Rightwing champion

That same year, Musk purchased Twitter, a social media platform that at the time was the de facto public square for US national politics, whose management he accused of stifling conservative voices.

The new owner reinstated Trump’s account, which had been suspended in January 2021 for allegedly posing a risk of incitement of violence in the wake of the Capitol Hill riot, and otherwise changed moderation rules. Critics claim Musk saturated the platform with “misinformation” and hate speech.

Musk also blasted then-President Joe Biden’s immigration policy, which he said amounted to keeping the southern border “open” and decried failing to repatriate illegals as a ploy to increase the Democratic Party electoral base. Trump made the promise of mass deportation of such immigrants a key part of his campaign.

Chainsaw man

In January 2025, Musk was appointed to lead the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration, with a mandate to review federal spending and cut exuberant or suspicious projects.

Critics called Musk’s approach reckless and damaging, while Trump declared DOGE a “very big success” and an example of his administration’s no-nonsense treatment of red tape.

In February, Musk gladly brandished a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which had been given to him by Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a similarly-minded politician, as a symbol of the efforts.

Mr. Controversy

Musk got embroiled in several controversies while working for the government. Claims that he threw a Nazi salute during an inauguration event were largely written off by the president’s supporters as partisan attacks. Musk’s criticisms of senior officials in countries which were traditional US allies, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Germany’s now-former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, were downplayed by officials.

Behind closed doors, however, he reportedly clashed with senior cabinet members. In March, the New York Times claimed that the DOGE chief had criticized US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for not firing enough staff members in their departments. Trump dismissed the report as “fake news.”

Nevertheless, signs of the growing rift mounted. Days before his seemingly amicable departure from DOGE, Musk told CBS News he was “disappointed” with the “big, beautiful bill” – the centerpiece of Trump’s second term agenda currently pending approval by the Senate. This week, Musk derided the spending proposal as a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled … disgusting abomination.”

Musk ‘went crazy’

The Trump-Musk “bromance” seemingly imploded over several hours on Thursday, after the president accused the Tesla CEO of going after the legislation out of personal spite. “He only developed the problem when he found out we’re gonna have to cut the EV mandate,” Trump told journalists in the Oval Office.

The billionaire pushed back on X, accusing Trump of lying about the bill and lacking gratitude for his backing on the campaign trail, which Musk asserted secured the victory. Trump doubled down on his Truth Social platform, declaring that Musk “just went CRAZY” and threatening to withdraw government contracts from his businesses.

In response, Musk accused Trump in an X post on Thursday of covering up his alleged complicity in the sex offences of late financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting the president could be impeached for it. He also threatened to jeopardize NASA’s manned space program by decommissioning the Dracon family of spacecraft operated by his company SpaceX. Musk has since indicated that he would be taking a couple of days to cool off, while White House insiders reportedly suggested a possible truce was being arranged.

Some Democratic officials have suggested that Musk could switch sides, while others expressed a sense of satisfaction at his downfall. Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez claimed “these two huge egos were not longed for being together in this world as friends,” and the breakup was long overdue.