Thursday, the bomb exploded between US President Donald Trump and his former partner Elon Musk. The simmering conflict between the most powerful man in the world and the richest has become a resounding argument. The accusations against each other are as spicy as they are risky.
A selection of Trump’s accusations, reproaches and figments of the imagination directed at Musk: The billionaire would have gotten “shaky knees” from his work at the American Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and was therefore sent away. Musk would be angry about the elimination of tax benefits for electric cars, including his Teslas. And perhaps Trump’s government should scrap Musk’s government contracts. That would result in billions in savings.
The billionaire himself countered almost immediately. Trump would not have been able to win the election without the support of the Tesla executive. The ‘ungrateful’ Trump would have spread lies. And as for withdrawing government contracts: Musk said that Trump should put his money where his mouth is.
The businessman himself wasted no time and said on X that his space company SpaceX will immediately stop manning and supplying the International Space Station ISS with space capsules. The company is also active for the US Department of Defense. For example, SpaceX helps Defense satellites into space.
As a final blow, Musk claimed that the president’s name is mentioned in the so-called secret Epstein documents. He provided no proof for this. The documents refer to the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of large-scale abuse of young girls and women.
Epstein had ties to many (famous) people. “The truth will come out,” Musk said in a message on X that was as cryptic as it was threatening.
The resounding quarrel is as intense as it is predictable, experts tell NU.nl. “Two powerful people with big egos and a volatile personality ultimately mainly do what is good for themselves,” says Andrew Gawthorpe, US historian at Leiden University and author of the newsletter America Explained.
“Such a collaboration stops when one of the two no longer benefits from it,” adds Jack Thompson. He is a US historian at the University of Amsterdam.
According to Gawthorpe, Musk has recently become acquainted with the harsh reality of politics in Washington. “He really believes in the usefulness and necessity of a small government. And he was convinced that shrinking that government through DOGE was possible to make a mess,” says Gawthorpe.
Trump, on the other hand, is a man with few political convictions, the expert continues. Except that he doesn’t like disappointing people. For example, his supporters, who feared the effect of DOGE on their benefits. But Trump also likes to keep rich supporters and business partners happy. Hence the tax cuts in Trump’s economic plan.
“That attitude must have felt like betrayal to Musk,” says Gawthorpe. The billionaire then criticized Trump’s plan, also known as the big beautiful bill. That’s going to go wrong, adds Thompson. “For Trump, loyalty comes above everything.”
The big question is how the quarrel will end. White House officials were reportedly in feverish consultation on Thursday evening to limit the damage from the conflict between Trump and Musk as much as possible, sources tell Reuters. Because the impact is potentially enormous.
“Trump has shown that he does not shy away from using the power of the presidency. And stretching it to the limit of what is possible,” says Thompson. “That can make Musk a target. The struggle of Russian President Vladimir Putin against the oligarchs in Russia shows that in such a case political power usually outweighs economic power.”
Thompson and Gawthorpe therefore state that Musk is vulnerable. For example, the experts suspect that the billionaire stopped at DOGE because the image of his car brand Tesla and therefore sales began to suffer.
And Musk now seems to be directly affected by the quarrel. Tesla ended Thursday more than 14 percent lower on the stock exchange in New York. The price drop corresponds to more than 100 billion dollars in evaporated stock market value.
On the other hand, Musk has deep pockets. Moreover, with his support for Trump, he has shown that he lets his money roll when necessary. “Politicians remain sensitive to this. Campaigning in the US is simply enormously expensive,” says Gawthorpe.
Yet Thompson expects that Musk will eventually have to sing a lower tune. “He has the means to fuel the fire, but that will ultimately prove to be a kamikaze action.” According to the historian, Trump is someone who also likes to extinguish such a fire again.