President Donald Trump publicly chastised Elon Musk — his onetime adviser and a major political benefactor — on Thursday, amid the Tesla CEO’s continued attempts to take down the cornerstone of Republicans’ legislative agenda.
Responding to a question about Musk’s posts during a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House, Trump said he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by Musk’s attacks.
“Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump told reporters. “I don’t know if we will anymore.” He later said he was “very disappointed in Elon” and that “I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
The comments are Trump’s first public response to Musk’s attempts to take down his marquee legislation — and the biggest crack yet in a growing feud between the president and the world’s wealthiest man. After shattering fundraising records to sweep Trump into the White House, Musk was tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency and given broad authority — with little oversight — to slash his way through the federal bureaucracy.
On Friday, the day Musk’s “special government employee” status was set to expire, Musk and Trump appeared in the Oval Office together, thanking each other for their work over the course of a friendly, nearly hourlong news conference.
Less than a week later, that relationship appears to have soured.
“He hasn’t said [anything] bad about me personally, but I’m sure that will be next,” the president said on Thursday.
Sure enough, minutes later, Musk said on X: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”
“Such ingratitude,” Musk added. He donated nearly $300 million in the 2024 election.
Musk has been on a three-day rampage against Republicans’ reconciliation package in Congress. Earlier on Thursday, he needled Trump directly for the first time — resurfacing old social media posts in which Trump said he was “embarrassed” by Republican efforts to extend the debt limit.
Musk shared the posts on X, which he owns, adding his own facetious approval.
“I cannot believe the Republicans are extending the debt ceiling—I am a Republican & I am embarrassed!,” Trump wrote in the January 2013 post.
“Wise words,” Musk replied in a post on Thursday.
Musk also replied to a Trump post from 2012 in which he said members of Congress should not be eligible for reelection if the U.S. doesn’t have a balanced budget.
“I couldn’t agree more!,” Musk wrote.
Trump in the Oval Office claimed Musk had known “the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody” and “he had no problem with it.” That changed, Trump said, once Musk left the government last week. He lumped Musk into a cadre of other former White House aides who have gone on to sharply criticize him, calling it an example of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Trump said Musk had been “disturbed” by a part of the over-1,000-page legislation that would cut subsidies for electric vehicles, which would undermine Musk’s company, Tesla. He also suggested Musk had been disappointed when Trump last week pulled the nomination for Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Musk had recommended Isaacman for the role, but Trump said he had decided to select someone else because Isaacman “happened to be a Democrat, like totally Democrat.”
“Suddenly he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out we’re going to cut the EV mandate that’s billions and billions of dollars,” Trump said.
Musk quickly brushed aside Trump’s comments at the White House and urged Republicans to scale down the bill’s scope. He also denied Trump’s claim that he knew the “inner workings” of the bill, writing in yet another post that the bill “was never shown to me even once.”
“Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,” Musk wrote.
Musk’s attacks began on Tuesday when he called the bill a “disgusting abomination” in a post on X. Since then, he’s posted dozens of times chastising the bill for increasing spending and for raising the debt ceiling. In multiple posts, he’s suggested the bill would push the U.S. into “debt slavery.”
But the post on Thursday using Trump’s own words to accentuate his argument escalates the growing tension between the president and the world’s richest man, who was a staunch Trump ally up until this week. Musk shattered records helping Trump and congressional Republicans get elected in 2024, and had spent big in an ultimately unsuccessful effort in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race earlier this year.
But last month, Musk said he would step back from political spending. This week, he suggested he may no longer contribute to politicians who support the bill.
Musk’s attacks come as Senate Republicans work to corral enough support in their ranks to approve the bill.
On Wednesday, Trump called for the debt ceiling to be “entirely scrapped” to prevent an economic “catastrophe,” and praised Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for floating a similar proposal.
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