President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, worked together closely during the 2024 presidential campaign. After their success, Musk got to work right after President Trump was inaugurated in January 2025, with his newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), looking for ways to cut government spending.
Then, the two would often talk to the press side by side, even chuckling at the left’s attempt to drive the two of them apart.
However, those days are sadly gone.
In one of his recent tweets, Musk even accuses Trump of being involved with late sex trafficker and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. That post got over 1 million likes. What got us to this point?
Musk officially left the Trump administration and the helm of DOGE on 31 May. However, back then, the two played it off as the Tesla boss’ 130-day stint as ‘a special government employee’ coming to an end. President Trump even presented him with a symbolic golden key to the White House and thanked him for ‘incredible service’.
However, even by then, the focal point in their relationship had already reared its ugly head. President Trump and the House GOP’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill did not include any of the DOGE cuts.
In an initial effort to mitigate the issue, the White House sent an official request to Congress to include $9.4 billion of cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid, two areas targeted by DOGE. That took place on 3 June, by the time Musk had come out to publicly criticize the bill.
In the next few days, things really went off the rail.
President Trump threatened to terminate the government contracts of Musk’s companies in response to the criticism of the bill, sending the Tesla stock into a nosedive. In turn, the eccentric billionaire made his aforementioned accusations about connection to Epstein; and replied in the affirmative to a post that suggested President Trump should be impeached and Vice President JD Vance should take office.
What Are Donald Trump and Elon Musk Fighting About?
Their main disagreement is whether or not the new spending bill reduced or increases the deficit.
President Trump, in his recent post on Truth Social, claims: ‘It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars.’ Musk, on the other hand, claims that it is the polar opposite. He has retweeted Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky’s statement, which describes the bill as ‘the largest debt increase in US history—$5T.’
We had the chance to talk to Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio at CPAC Hungary 2025 about the issue. He has described it as such, which may shed some light on the major discrepancy in the bill’s interpretation:
‘The big danger is that it [the spending bill] promises that it’s going to save money in the future. But this Congress, the one that we’re in control of, actually spends more. So, even in the most optimistic models, it eventually gets around to saving money, but that’s only if everyone else in the future sticks to the plan. So I think that’s the problem that it’s going to have in the Senate is: Can we make sure that in this Congress, it actually reduces deficits?… I think they [the Republican voter base] do want Donald Trump to spend less money.’
Related articles:
