The Trump-Musk Alliance Has Shattered

Last week, President Trump gave Elon Musk the keys to the White House. Today, however, I have a feeling that Trump might be changing the locks.

Ever since the alliance between the twice-elected Republican president and the billionaire Wall Street tech mogul formed, the corporate press has been praying on its downfall. Rarely is an individual with as much money and sway as Elon Musk in support of the conservative movement. Yet these two men found much in common with each other: both were very rich ex-Democrats who discovered themselves to be in a bullseye placed on them by their former party; both had lost billions of dollars and sacrificed much to stay true to their beliefs and convictions; and both shared a common desire to save the country they loved so much. Their interactions began in July 2024, very soon after the first attempt by a left-wing radical to take Trump’s life, and it evolved into a close relationship as Musk was invited on to head the Department of Government Efficiency under the newly-elected POTUS. This position was well-deserved as Musk had poured much of his heart, soul, and wallet into helping Trump get elected, from kickstarting the America PAC to speaking at numerous campaign rallies and events. For almost an entire year, the two were a formidable force; wherever Trump was in White House, Elon Musk was not far behind. This relationship wasn’t one-sided. Musk’s companies (namely SpaceX, Tesla, and Starlink) were offered multiple government contracts due to their roles as the leading tech companies in their respective fields. Trump also rectified several politicized penalties that Biden had levied against Musk, who had already situated himself as opposition to the Democrat administration a few years prior. Trump even showed a great deal of personal support for Tesla, going as far as purchasing a red Model S for himself back in March. This was all in addition to being appointed to an SGE (Special Government Employee) position as the leader of one of the most consequential and important government agencies in recent US history.

Understandably, the liberal media industrial complex felt threatened by this union and quickly fabricated rumours of conflated egos and power struggles very early on into the new administration’s inception. Both men did their best to dispel these rumours, with Trump outright denying them and Musk even posting on his social media platform X in February: “I love @realdonaldtrump as much as a straight man can love another man.” When Musk departed from his role in Trump’s administration one week ago (keeping his word that his term would only extend to 130 days), Trump held a tribute ceremony where he awarded Musk the key to the White House, giving the appearance of a parting of ways on good terms.

But two days ago, this all changed, and America’s favourite “bromance” was nearing its death knell.

The catalyst for this explosive ending was Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a Congressional act that would encapsulate all of his key campaign promises. This bill would make his massive tax cuts permanent, saving Americans crucial amounts of money, right down to eliminating taxes on overtime pay and tips. The BBB also allocates $46.5 billion for border security and expands on Trump’s energy-related promises to reopen drilling and make America energy dominant on the world stage once again.

But the bill isn’t perfect, and Congressmen like Rand Paul have highlighted their major issues with it: the bill will result in raising the debt ceiling and driving up the federal deficit, an unfortunate side effect that accompanies federal tax cuts and increased national security. Paul decided to make this a dealbreaker issue, announcing plans to vote against the bill when it gets to the Senate within the next 30 days. (Contrary to Musk’s claim yesterday about the bill never being shown to him and indications that it was thrust upon Congress without any deep-dive, the BBB has been in development and negotiations since late February and received some positive revisions before passing the House of Representatives on May 22nd. It also has potential to receive more revisions if the Senate elects to send it back to the House.) In response to Paul’s staunch opposition, Trump slammed Paul, posting on Truth Social that “Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not. The BBB is a big WINNER!!!” What Paul neglects to understand, as Trump points out, is that this bill is the cumulation of almost all the actions Trump was overwhelmingly elected to take, with the deficit impact being a somewhat unavoidable ramification. (Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent even claims that, when factoring tariff revenue, the bill is actually in surplus, but this will remain to be seen.) Furthermore, as the clock runs out to the midterms and a potential loss of the House and Senate for Republicans, it becomes more and more imperative that this bill pass both chambers at a rapid pace. Unfortunately for Trump, some Republicans have failed to properly comprehend this, and matters are becoming tense between members of the Party.

On Wednesday, to his own inevitable demise, Musk took a cue from Rand Paul and mimicked his hardline approach on X: “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.” Musk doubled down on this stance by persistently posting his criticisms and sharing related ones concerning Trump’s bill, even calling it the “Debt Slavery Bill.” Yesterday morning, after a flurry of posts hammering the BBB, Musk continued on to extricate old tweets from Trump and twist them against him. At 12:19pm, Musk accidentally let some of his true motives slip out: “Whatever. 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. In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that [sic] both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.” Musk accurately states that the bill removes Biden-era solar energy and electric vehicle tax credits, which would have incentivized consumers to purchase those products at a lower price. This move would obviously directly impact Tesla in a negative way. Although he denies this to be the case here, one can’t help but wonder if this is an underlying motive considering he brought it up to be “very unfair.”

Trump himself had posited this theory when he was forced to respond to Musk’s barrage of comments during a meeting with the German chancellor at around 12:30pm. “I’ve always liked Elon…I was very surprised.” He went on to tout the bill, adding, “Elon’s upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles…Elon knew this from the beginning. He knew it for a long time ago…that’s been [in the bill] right from the beginning.” He also highlighted a recent incident with his nomination for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman: “He [Elon] wanted — and rightfully, you know — he recommended somebody from — that he, I guess, knew very well. I’m sure he respected him — but — to run NASA, but I didn’t think it was appropriate. And he happened to be a Democrat, like totally Democrat.” (Trump had pulled this nomination last week.) Going on to speak about Musk, he said, “I kind of understand why he was upset. Remember, he was here for a long time. You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk…he wants to be who he is, so you could make that statement too, I guess. Look, Elon and I had a great relationship; I don’t know if we will anymore. I was surprised, because…we had a wonderful send off. He said wonderful things about me; he couldn’t have nicer said the best things.” Continuing on: “We’ve done a great job. Elon knew that — Elon endorsed me very strongly. He actually went up and campaigned for me. I think I would’ve won — Susie [Wiles] said I would’ve won Pennsylvania easily anyway, even if the real governor [Josh Shapiro] ran…I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here…he knew everything about it. He had no problem with it — all of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that were gonna have to cut the EV mandate because that’s billions and billions of dollars…when Congress wanted to cut. it, he became a little bit different, and I can understand that…and he hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I’m sure that will be next. But I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”

Musk fired back, saying Trump’s claim about him knowing all the inner workings of the bill were “false.” He proceeded to pull more of Trump’s old tweets, quoting them with, “Where is this guy today??” and asking if Trump was “replaced by a body double.” Things became more personal as Musk stated that “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude.” Trump responded in a Truth post, saying, “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Musk called this “an obvious lie” and “so sad.” Trump followed up with, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

But then the sharp knives came out, and Musk escalated the situation to a severely-damaging and defamatory level. In a post that he will likely never be able to recover from, at 3:10pm he said, “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!…Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

This egregious allegation, which incurs a massive burden of proof facing several discussion-ending obstacles (such as Trump kicking Epstein out of his club for making advances on the underage daughter of another member in 2008, Epstein’s own personal lawyer declaring “authoritatively, unequivocally, and definitively” that Trump committed no wrongdoing with Epstein, and the fact that were Trump to have ever been on the island, the Democrats would have already exposed it). Needless to say, this was a cheap and low blow that served as a jaded knife twisted in Trump’s back.

Not being able to let that go unanswered, Trump responded in a tamer fashion at a less personal tone than the barb Musk had traded: “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn’t pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that. I didn’t create this mess, I’m just here to FIX IT. This puts our Country on a Path of Greatness. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump is allotted some credit as a harsher answer would have been well deserved since Musk didn’t stop there. He continued to repost comments expanding on the baseless and slanderous accusation he had levied, including a post from a right-wing-coated leftist in Malaysia, Ian Miles Cheong, stating “Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.” Clearly, Musk showed no signs of backing down.

As things came to a head late last night, news started leaking that a “peace call” was scheduled by the White House between Elon Musk and the president for Friday morning. However, according to CNN, Trump allegedly said this morning that “I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem…I won’t be speaking to him for a while I guess, but I wish him well.” Trump confirmed that no call has taken place yet. He commented again in a much classier way than his counterpart this afternoon: “I’ve been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran, working on so many things, I’m not thinking of Elon. I just wish him well.”

Interestingly enough, as it relates to public sentiment, there seems to be an emerging divide between the conservative movement. Till this point, the MAGA base (born from Trump) and the centrist/disaffected liberal base (born from Musk) were united by common goals. But as the two men split paths, so do their bases, no longer sharing a common goal. Musk is seen as the anti-MAGA avatar, and Trump is seen as the pro-spending avatar. Right-wingers who have admired and respected everything Musk has done to this point are hesitant to criticize him. While it is self-aggrandizing to say Trump never would have won without him, it is true that Musk provided some great beneficial advantages to the campaign. A billionaire using their status and wealth to help the right wing is a rare occurrence. For these reasons, conservatives are slow to admonish this former ally.

This isn’t meant to be an opinion piece, although I do not lack a strong view on this polarizing issue. For the sake of not burdening any readers with an extensive rant, I’ll relegate that view to my personal social media feed. But there are a few major things left to be pondered in the wake of this drama.

For the last decade, we have witnessed dishonest and malicious left-wingers disguise themselves as conservatives to gain privileged positions in places like the Trump administration. Is it becoming evident that Musk may have been one of them? If this is in fact the case, Trump is right to hold off on a reconciliation discussion. The conservative base must decide whether or not Musk has burned the final bridge and if his intentions are purely malevolent at this point. At the very least, Musk has shown a void understanding of politics through his bipolar outburst this week. His most recent posts about creating a third party that “represents the 80% in the middle” is an indicator that he is only seeking to divide the country even more and turn it into the far-left socialist nightmare that Canada is becoming. So the final question arises: did Elon Musk do us a favour by showing his true colours, or will the right-wing be irreparably divided for the foreseeable future?

Cover Image Generated by GrokAI