They were meant for each other, but Trump and Musk were always going to blow up like a SpaceX rocket

Elon Musk exploded like a SpaceX rocket. The debris rained down across Washington.

Everyone has been awaiting the breakup of the most public bromance between the most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world.

Too much power. Too much ego.Credit: AP

What could go wrong? Too much power and too much ego. President Donald Trump has exerted executive authority to rule by command. And no one has seen anything like Musk’s wealth. Will Musk become the world’s first trillionaire – before any landing on Mars? What he gave to Trump’s campaign was obscene, over $US230 million ($353 million) – more than enough to help Trump finance winning a second term.

Trump is cunning as hell. He had his blueprint for what he would do from the moment he was inaugurated president to dominate and control the executive branch of the government: Project 2025. As Carlos Lozada wrote, what is so compelling is “how far the authors are willing to go in pursuit of that agenda and how reckless their assumptions are about law, power and public service”.

Cabinet secretaries and senior officials were to march into their departments and ensure that all the woke culture values of the radical left extremist Marxist monsters were eradicated. Anything having to do with promoting women and people of colour was suspect. Anything honoured in historical reference – such as Black soldiers and airmen who were heroes in World War II – was to be expunged. Anything trans was to be exterminated. The Department of Education and US foreign aid programs were cancelled. Everyone coming into the country was to be scrutinised, down to their social media history. There would be a slashing of programs and government employees.

The shocker was bringing in Musk to turbocharge Project 2025. What was unprecedented was the ability of a private citizen to seize control and decapitate the leadership of government agencies, scrub spending and cancel contracts, all while ordering the remaining employees to tell Musk, if they wanted to keep their jobs, what they had done over the past five days.

By bringing in one of the most formidable wielders of digital technology in the universe, Musk and the “department of government efficiency” had access to the databases of virtually all the government – even the most sensitive servers in the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration. DOGE was looking for “waste, fraud and abuse”, but they were also able to see the personal e-files of tens of millions of users and recipients in the systems.

Why did it have to end this badly? In his formal farewell to Musk, Trump consistently praised Musk for his dedication to the task, notwithstanding the risk to his businesses from his enforced absences. Musk was “tirelessly helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations”.

Trump gave Musk a gold key to the White House. Musk lavished his gratitude and goodwill. “I expect to remain a friend and an adviser, and certainly, if there’s anything the president wants me to do, I’m at the president’s service.”

Musk supported Trump, until he didn’t.Credit: Ercegovac/Fowler

Musk was the epitome of the new oligarchs, the tech bros, including the heads of Amazon, Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Nvidia, OpenAI, PayPal. All men of course. Why are they supporting Trump, when so many supported Biden in 2020 and Democrats years before?

CEOs at the very pinnacle of business make raw, clinical calculations in dealing with the political world. They are weighing power, opportunity and fear. Trump won in 2024. He has all-consuming power. It is best to get what you want by being not just an ally, but going all-in with the president. They all grew up with Bob Dylan. “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

They trouped to Mar-a-Lago, intent on currying favour. They gave big bucks to the inauguration. The First Lady was paid $US40 million to make a documentary on her life. The bros ensured their social media platforms had no speed bumps to slow down the expression of Trumpism.

But the oligarchs are not consistently winning with Trump. There will not be any weakening of the US Postal Service and its delivery systems – a blow to Amazon. Meta still faces a forced spinoff of Instagram in a major antitrust case that the government has not dropped. Trump’s Department of Justice is still arguing in court that Google has a monopoly grip on search and may need to be broken up. Apple’s phone business may be ravaged by Trump edicts on where its products can be assembled to avoid US tariffs.

At the height of his power, Musk visibly wielded more power and authority than Vice President J.D. Vance. Musk attended cabinet meetings and spoke more often than most cabinet secretaries.

But Musk was never, and never could be, No.1. The break was inevitable. Musk’s apogee was when he gave a shocking $US20 million (really!) to tilt an election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to the anti-abortion candidate. He failed miserably. Musk became toxic politically. He lowered his DOGE profile.

By saying the work on Trump’s mega bill was “outrageous … a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” Musk turned not only on Trump, but also on those Republicans in Congress who have supported Trump just like Musk did – until he didn’t. Musk was the man who fell to earth.

Bruce Wolpe is a senior fellow at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre. He has served on the Democratic staff in the US Congress and as chief of staff to former prime minister Julia Gillard.