So yesterday we got to watch the most expensive friendship in American politics implode in spectacular fashion across dueling social media platforms. Donald Trump and Elon Musk – the world’s most powerful man and its richest – spent Thursday lobbing increasingly personal attacks at each other on Truth Social and Twitter like two billionaire teenagers having a public breakup.
The whole mess started when Musk called Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” – his sweeping tax and spending package – a “disgusting abomination” because it would balloon the deficit. This from the guy who just spent months supposedly cutting government waste via DOGE. The irony wasn’t lost on anyone.
Trump, clearly fed up with Musk’s very public criticism, told reporters in the Oval Office that he was “very disappointed” in Musk and that “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.” Notice the past tense there – always a bad sign when someone starts talking about your friendship like it’s already dead.
But Musk wasn’t about to let Trump get the last word. He fired back on Twitter claiming “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.” Which, let’s be honest, is true given that Musk spent close to $300 million backing Trump and other Republicans in 2024. Not to mention those pesky election numbers anomalies!
Anyway, then things got really ugly. Trump threatened to “terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts” – which amounts to billions of dollars for Tesla and SpaceX. I don’t think he realized that he just proved that his admin runs on feelings.
Musk’s response was to go nuclear. He posted that Trump appears in the Jeffrey Epstein files and that’s why they haven’t been released, adding “Have a nice day, DJT!” While it was wild to watch him drop that bomb, it wasn’t exactly new information.
The pettiness reached peak levels when Musk started digging up Trump’s old tweets from 2013 criticizing Republicans for extending the debt ceiling and reposting them with comments like “Wise words” and “Where is this guy today?” Then he doubled down and reposted video of Trump and Epstein partying together.
The market reaction was swift and brutal – Tesla shares closed down 14.3%, losing about $150 billion in value. But the market has no morality and it’s already heading back north this morning.
The whole spectacle perfectly captures our current political moment. Two men with massive egos and social media addictions couldn’t handle a policy disagreement without turning it into a public knife fight. As one observer noted, it was “the most interesting day on X in years” – which says something about how boring the platform has become under Musk’s ownership.
What makes this particularly rich is that just last week, Trump and Musk were standing together in the Oval Office exchanging praise as Musk wrapped up his government efficiency role. Trump even said “Elon’s really not leaving. He’s going to be back and forth.” That aged well.
The truth is, this breakup was probably inevitable. Trump and Musk are both “political pugilists with sizable egos and a penchant for using social media to punch back against their perceived enemies.” Two people that used to having their own way were bound to clash eventually.
Musk came into government promising to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget but only managed to save an estimated $175 billion – a massive failure by his own standards. Meanwhile, Trump needs to pass his signature legislation and is worried his former ally is going to torpedo it.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Republicans. Musk has threatened to spend money to oust GOP lawmakers who vote for the bill, with one adviser noting “He does not give a f— about Republicans or the RNC, or House seats, or whatever.” Musk said last week that he was going to cut his political spending, unless there was something worth spending it on. I guess he might have already found something. Nothing like having the party’s biggest donor actively working against you. Oh, how the tables have turned.
By the end of the day, Musk had escalated to supporting calls for Trump’s impeachment – a remarkable turn for someone who was supposedly one of Trump’s closest advisers just days earlier.
The whole episode perfectly illustrates the sunk cost fallacy in action. Both men had invested so much in this relationship – Trump got Musk’s money and influence, Musk got access and a government position – that walking away should have been unthinkable. But regular rules don’t apply to narcissists.
Now Republicans are running around claiming this proves the left is hypocritical because they used to hate Musk and now they’re cheering him on. Uh, no. The left isn’t suddenly in love with Elon Musk because he’s fighting with Trump – they’re just enjoying watching two egomaniacs tear each other apart. There’s a difference between appreciating someone’s enemy-of-my-enemy moment and actually embracing them. Musk is still the guy who bought Twitter to turn it into a right-wing echo chamber, still promotes conspiracy theories, and still thinks he’s some kind of free speech savior while selectively enforcing his platform’s rules. Just because he’s currently dunking on Trump doesn’t mean anyone forgot about his track record. Sometimes your worst enemy says something correct, and you can acknowledge that without suddenly becoming best friends.
The real winners here are – well, nobody really. I doubt anyone in power really gives AF what Elon Musk thinks and this temper tantrum will probably have little effect in the outcome of the big terrible bill being passed or not. It already has considerable pushback in the Senate. And even if certain provisions do get removed, like the limit on AI regulation, it still has plenty of trash in it that will have significant impact, such as:
• Closure of the U.S. Department of Education
• 25% expansion of logging in national forests, bypassing environmental reviews and fast-tracking timber production
• Rollbacks on clean energy incentives, cutting tax credits for EVs and renewables, gutting key climate provisions
• More public lands opened up for drilling, mining, and logging, with royalty breaks for fossil fuel companies
• Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, ending U.S. participation in global climate efforts
• Executive Order 14215, forcing independent federal agencies to follow White House legal interpretations and centralizing authority under the presidency
• Pension changes for federal workers hired before 2014, cutting take-home pay by raising required contributions, reducing future payouts, and eliminating early retirement supplements
• REINS Act-style regulation repeal, where major federal rules expire unless Congress re-approves them every 5 years allowing Trump to quietly erase protections without rewriting laws
• Expanded executive control over agency budgets, allowing the White House to move federal funds internally without explicit congressional approval
• Restoration of impoundment powers, giving Trump the ability to block or delay spending already passed by Congress reviving powers stripped after Watergate
• Creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), placing White House–aligned teams inside every federal agency with access to internal systems and influence over hiring and daily operations
• Sharp cuts in regulatory enforcement, with agencies like the EPA, CFPB, and Labor and Transportation Departments halting enforcement of key safety, environmental, and anti-discrimination rules
• Trump’s personal control over economic policy, strengthening his power to direct tariffs, pressure private companies, and dictate pricing with little resistance treating the U.S. economy like his own business
So, unless Americans get their shit together and make a plan (https://generalstrikeus.com/) – no one, not even the richest man in the planet, can save us.
Thanks for reading Rachelandthecity! This post is public so feel free to share it.