Trump vs Musk: Epstein files, Tesla shares and Big Beautiful Bill destroy their bromance
Once inseparable allies, Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s year-long bromance has unravelled spectacularly - marked by spending bill fights, cancelled mandates, and a public Epstein allegation.
The two most powerful men in the West are fighting.
Elon Musk, who once dubbed himself the “First Buddy” and declared he loved Donald Trump “as much as a straight man can love another man,” is now out of the federal government, throwing a very public tantrum over the president’s prized legislation — and linking him to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for good measure.
Here’s how today’s blow-up unfolded … all on social media.
The blow-up
After months of simmering tensions and increasing criticism from Elon Musk over his legislative centrepiece, the Big Beautiful Bill, Donald Trump finally snapped in the Oval Office — or, as it increasingly resembles, the Big Brother confessional booth.
During a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump was asked about Elon Musk’s criticism of the congressional spending bill.
“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump told reporters. “He knew every aspect of this bill. He knew it better than almost anybody, and he never had a problem until right after he left.” He added that he was “very disappointed” in Musk and that he had “helped [him] a lot.”
Almost immediately, Musk took to X called the allegation “false.”
“This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” he wrote.
False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it! https://t.co/V4ztekqd4g
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
In separate posts, he continued his sulk, writing, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.” He added: “Such ingratitude.”
Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
Later that day, Musk escalated the feud further. “Time to drop the really big bomb,” he posted. “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.” He ended the post with: “Have a nice day, DJT!”
He didn’t offer any evidence, but soon added, “The truth will come out.”
Time to drop the really big bomb:@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
Have a nice day, DJT!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
Trump replied from his Truth Social account, writing that Musk had been “wearing thin,” and that he had asked him to step away from his advisory role.
He claimed Musk “went CRAZY” after losing influence and suggested eliminating government subsidies and contracts with Musk’s companies as a cost-saving measure.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” he added in a different post, “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Last year, Musk’s companies were promised US$3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts with 17 federal agencies. Most of the contracts were for SpaceX.
In response to Trump’s threat to cut off federal contracts to his companies, Musk said on social media that SpaceX “will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”
In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately pic.twitter.com/NG9sijjkgW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
NASA depends on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Since 2008, SpaceX has received more than $20bn in government contracts, primarily from NASA and the Department of Defence.
Musk has since appeared to backtrack on his threat to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. Responding to a user on X who urged him to reconsider, the tech mogul replied, “Good advice,” adding, “Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”
In another snarky post, Musk wrote: Some food for thought... Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years.”
He has posted 80 times on X today — a frenzied dispatch rate by normal standards, but by his, practically monastic (he often posts hundreds of times a day).
Most of the posts target his ongoing feud with Trump, with only a smattering devoted to his companies. The result? Chaos in Congress, a crash in Tesla stock.
From foes to first buddies and back again
And here’s how the messy, baffling saga has played out over recent months.
November 2016: Elon Musk made his thoughts about Trump’s presidential candidacy known. “He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States,” Musk told CNBC, noting that Trump was “not the right guy.”
December 2016: Musk essentially negged his way into Trump’s heart. One month later, he was appointed to Trump’s economic advisory council. Hire your critics before they tweet more.
June 2017: After Trump announced the US would pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Musk exited the chat — or at least the presidential councils. “Climate change is real,” he declared. “Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”
January 2020 / 2022: The two began circling each other again, this time with flattery. Trump tried rekindling the bromance, describing Musk as one of the world’s “great geniuses”, likening him to Thomas Edison — presumably for his ability to self-promote and take credit for other people’s work. “He does good at rockets,” Trump marvelled.
July 2022: Mere months later, the compliments had curdled. At a rally, Trump called Musk “another bulls**t artist” and claimed he’d lied about voting Republican. Musk responded with a classic: “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.” Trump countered by suggesting Musk would have “dropped to his knees and begged.” Musk, with the eloquence of a man raised on the darkest corners of 4chan, replied: “Lmaooo.”
November 2022: Having now acquired Twitter, and annoyingly renamed it X, Musk reinstated Trump’s account after conducting a poll. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk wrote.
The people have spoken.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2022
Trump will be reinstated.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei. https://t.co/jmkhFuyfkv
September 2023: South African-born Musk, who had spent the better part of a decade professing a desire to “save humanity”, pivoted to something more achievable: building a wall. In September, he began publicly backing Trump’s hard line immigration policies, voicing support for a US-Mexico border wall. “We actually do need a wall,” he posted on X, “and we need to require people to have some shred of evidence to claim asylum … It’s a hack that you can literally Google to know exactly what to say!”
The following day, 29 September, he turned up in Eagle Pass, Texas, to meet with local politicians and law enforcement — ostensibly to gain an “unfiltered” view of the immigration crisis.
March 2024: One day after meeting Trump in Florida, Musk declared he would not be donating money to either the Republican or Democratic campaign. “Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US president,” he wrote on X.
Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2024
On 18 March, Musk told former CNN journalist Don Lemon he was “leaning away” from Biden, but didn’t want to “put a thumb on the scale monetarily that is significant.” He might endorse someone “in the final stretch”, he added, but only after a suitably “considered” process.
July 2024: Moments after Trump was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and bundled off stage by the Secret Service, Musk leapt in with an endorsement. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” he posted on X, before adding, “Last time America had a candidate this tough was Theodore Roosevelt.”
I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery pic.twitter.com/ZdxkF63EqF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2024
Last time America had a candidate this tough was Theodore Roosevelt
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2024
According to The Washington Post, Musk’s support wasn’t just rhetorical. He had reportedly poured at least $US288 million (around $446 million) into electing Trump and other Republican candidates.
12 August 2024: After days of hyping it with “Entertainment guaranteed!”, Musk hosted a livestream interview with Trump on X. Technical difficulties caused X to crash shortly before the event, delaying the start by 40 minutes. When it finally began, the conversation stretched to two hours.
“I haven’t really been active in politics before,” Musk said, noting he had supported Democratic candidates in the past. Then, plainly, he told listeners, “I think you should support Donald Trump for president.”
The discussion meandered, but amid it all Musk proposed that if Trump were elected, he should establish a “government efficiency” commission — with Musk appointed to lead it.
“I am willing to serve,” Musk posted later on X.
I am willing to serve pic.twitter.com/BJhGbcA2e0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 20, 2024
October 2024: Returning to the scene of Trump’s recent assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Musk took the stage alongside the ex-president, wearing a black “Make America Great Again” cap.
“As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m dark MAGA,” Musk said. Has anyone in history ever wanted to be cool so desperately and failed in every conceivable way?
Weeks later, Musk pledged a million dollars a day to a lottery for swing-state voters who signed his America PAC petition — a campaign championing the First and Second Amendments; in other words, free speech and the right to bear arms.
November 2024: Right after Musk spent election night sucking up to Trump and the usual MAGA crowd at Mar-a-Lago, Trump announced Musk and the 39-year-old wunderkind billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy would co-lead the “Department of Government Efficiency” — a new office with the acronym DOGE, named after Musk’s favourite meme.
December 2024: Musk and Trump’s duo tried and failed to sink a stopgap government spending bill. Exhaustion set in on both sides of the aisle as Musk’s political muscle grew. Rumours of a “President Musk” circulated, but Trump quickly squashed them: “No, he’s not taking the presidency … That’s not happening.”
Meanwhile, Musk was renting a $US2000-a-night cottage on Mar-a-Lago grounds. Before the new year, insiders told Mediaite Trump was “annoyed” with his “first buddy” after Musk’s public spat with other MAGA figures over H1B visas. “There’s a Chinese saying: ‘Two tigers cannot live on one mountaintop,’” said a campaign source.
20 January 2025: Musk stood next to Trump at the inauguration, offering a salute that drew comparisons to Nazis. “It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured,” he said.
Ramaswamy bailed. Musk took over. Lay-offs followed. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk tweeted. Fights reportedly broke out between Musk and cabinet members, including Scott Bessent and Marco Rubio.
We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
Could gone to some great parties.
Did that instead. https://t.co/0V35nacICW
“We do need to delete entire agencies,” Musk tells attenders at a World Governments Summit in Dubai on February 13. “If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”
February 2025: Appearing at CPAC in full MAGA regalia, Musk declared he’d gone from political “neutrality” to siding with Trump because he felt he had “no choice”. Musk took the stage waving what he referred to as “the chainsaw for democracy”, a gift from Argentinian president Javier Milei, who had previously wielded it as a kind of libertarian leaf blower for government spending.
“Legalise comedy … It seems like we should have a good time, you know,” Musk told the crowd, while flogging DOGE cuts that he swore would save Medicare and Social Security. Nothing says safeguarding public health like a bedazzled blade waved by a man with a personal net worth larger than most countries’ GDP.
March 2025: “DOGE, perhaps you’ve heard of it,” Trump told Congress, before gesturing to Elon Musk in the third row of the Republican gallery, who saluted in return. “Thank you, Elon. You’re working very hard,” Trump said. “He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. We appreciate it.”
He then turned toward the Democrats’ gallery. “Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it, I believe. They just don’t want to admit that.”
Seven weeks into the Trump presidency, Musk had a 50 per cent disapproval rating, per NPR/Marist polling. DOGE had halved the Department of Education’s staff, suspended USAID, and promised further cuts to what Trump called “appalling waste.”
“My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy,” Trump said, “and we will restore true democracy to America again.”
He described Musk, unelected and officially without decision-making power, as the “head” of DOGE — despite the administration’s argument in court just days earlier that Musk held no formal leadership role. Amy Gleason had been quietly appointed DOGE administrator the week prior.
Behind the scenes, reports surfaced of a screaming match between Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in which Musk allegedly accused Rubio of being useful only for television appearances. Trump reportedly stepped in to defend Rubio. A similar confrontation between Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had taken place weeks earlier.
Later that month, Musk took a public swipe at Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, on X.
*Peter Retarrdo
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2025
Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2025
April 2025: After Tesla’s financial nosedive, Musk announced he’d be stepping back from DOGE. Trump stopped mentioning him entirely by month’s end.
May 2025: Musk’s official DOGE send-off came with the White House giving him “a little special something” in the form of a golden key to the White House.
“My time as a special government employee necessarily had to end. It was a limited-time thing. It was 134 days, I believe, which ends in a few days. So that, you know, it comes with a time limit. But the DOGE team will only grow stronger over time. The DOGE influence will only grow stronger,” Musk said.
“I liken it to a sort of Buddhism. It’s like a way of life. So it is permeating throughout the government, and I’m confident that over time we’ll see $1 trillion of savings and a reduction in $1 trillion of waste and fraud.”
Late May 2025: Then came the Trump’s tax and domestic policy bill, which he nicknamed the “Big, Beautiful, Bill”.
Musk hated it. On June 3, he took to X, writing “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.
In a press conference on June 4, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he had spoken with the president about Musk’s comments. “He’s not delighted that Elon did a 180 on that,” Johnson told reporters. “But I don’t know what happened in 24 hours. Everybody can draw their own conclusions about that, okay, but I look forward to talking to my friend about it again.”
Musk returned to X to talk more smack about the bill. In a series of posts, he wrote that America is in “the fast lane to debt slavery” and implored his followers to call their representatives. “KILL the BILL,” he wrote. He followed that up with a promotional image for Kill Bill. Ha ha.
More Coverage
Call your Senator,
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2025
Call your Congressman,
Bankrupting America is NOT ok!
KILL the BILL
This spending bill contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2025
It is the Debt Slavery Bill. https://t.co/7EEyUEha1q
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2025
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