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President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s messy breakup could have long-term ramifications for the Republican Party’s congressional primaries — as well as the Trump administration’s ties to Musk’s companies and his allies.
Still, senior Republicans are confident it won’t disrupt the Republican Party’s central focus this summer: Trump’s tax and spending megabill.
“We’re a long ways down the trail and we know what we have to do,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Thursday afternoon. “We’ve got to get this done. We’ve got to deliver. There’s always a lot of noise out there around it. And we’ve just got to keep our heads down.”
After building from a simmer over the past week, Musk’s feud with Trump spilled out into the open on Thursday as Musk continued to tweak the president’s signature legislation for raising the deficit. When Trump said he’s “disappointed” with his onetime adviser’s public attack on his bill, Musk redoubled attacks on the legislation.
Then, the entire relationship collapsed in public Thursday afternoon.
It was a remarkably quick flip for the Musk-Trump bond, spurred on by Musk’s relentless multi-day public attack on Trump’s megabill. But the tension had been building, and some insiders say the groundwork for the breakup had been laid for quite some time.
Ultimately, Thursday’s combustion was a culmination of Musk’s frustration with how the US government operates combined with months of mini-rifts over how the billionaire businessman operated, according to conversations over the last several weeks with administration officials and people close to the White House.
“Anyone who paid close attention to the H1B controversy back in December could have seen this coming,” one person close to the White House told Semafor. “Elon’s implosion and the collapse of the relationship were entirely predictable.”
Musk, this person pointed out, has “pissed off a ton of people.” Internally, his “antics got really old” — coupled with the fact that Trump himself has privately mused about Musk’s failure to deliver on his promise to cut $1 trillion from the government. A person close to Trump, meanwhile, jokingly compared the spat to the movie classic “Clash of the Titans.” (Trump is Perseus, emerging victorious at the end.)
“Elon did great things for the government, super appreciative of the work he did,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, told Semafor. “I align myself with America and the leader of this country is President Trump. And to most people all of this is a distraction from the core message, which is: We have a really strong bill.”
After days of silence from Trump, designed intentionally by the White House, he was finally asked about Musk’s attacks during an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday.
By Trump standards, the response was relatively tame: Trump lamented the attacks, said Musk was annoyed that the administration had taken away electric vehicle tax credits which would have benefited Tesla, and that he wasn’t sure whether they would continue to have a good relationship.
Musk then fired off a flurry of posts on X pushing back, at one point declaring that without him, the president “would have lost the election” and he was ungrateful. Trump, on Truth Social, said Musk was “wearing thin” and that he’d been asked to leave the White House. He continued on to suggest an easy way to save money would be “to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”
If the eventual result was foreseen among people close to Trump, the speed and vitriol of the now-public spat still surprised some inside the administration. Many had hoped this would remain a one-sided argument and Trump would ignore Musk’s attacks.
Instead, aides were left scrambling when Musk began firing off tweets accusing the president of being involved with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And Trump allies like Steve Bannon, long a Musk adversary, called for the administration to investigate Musk’s immigration status and deport him from the country.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
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Trump was surprised when Musk began publicly tweeting his opposition to the “big, beautiful bill” earlier this week. But top officials were reluctant to give the attacks oxygen. And until Trump was asked directly about the growing drama on Thursday, he’d steered clear of engaging with his onetime close friend.
The White House took pains to send Musk off last month on a positive note, holding a press conference in the Oval Office with Trump on his last day and heaping praise on his efforts at DOGE. Part of that, multiple people inside and around the administration say, was because officials recognized Musk’s growing frustration with the bureaucracy he encountered while working as a special government employee.
Trump’s stature in the GOP is certainly not at risk; many Republicans only aligned themselves with Musk because he was part of the administration and had Trump’s favor. Trump is still the kingmaker in the party’s primaries and far more of an influence in the Capitol compared to Musk, whose influence peaked with his DOGE cuts — which had the backing of the president.
Musk’s attacks on Trump’s massive tax cuts, health care and spending bill had animated some concerns about the debt, but Republicans brushed off the idea it could derail the bill.
Thune and other GOP leaders declined to weigh into the feud when asked about the row. Thune said “I’ve got nothing for you on that one” and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she’d “just let them fight it out.” Notably, Musk swept up Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson in addition to Trump, needling them over their past debt concerns.
If there’s a political threat by the break-up, it could play out in Republican primaries if Musk is really serious about opposing Republicans who vote for the bill. He could spend money or create a super PAC and focus on competitive House and Senate primaries to topple incumbents, although that’s a long way away.
Still Trump’s ugly break has had implications for Capitol Hill. Musk ally Jared Isaacman was removed from his nomination to lead NASA, which several Republican aides said was more about his ties to Musk than past donations to Democrats. One person familiar with the nomination said the Democratic donations were litigated during the confirmation process, yet it was listed by the White House as a reason for Isaacman’s removal over the weekend.
Shelby and Burgess’ view
The administration tried to contain the fallout between Musk and Trump and preserve their alliance, to no avail. Perhaps only a mutual agreement to lock away their phones can end the row captivating the nation’s capital and Internet all at once.
It’s unlikely Musk’s push against Trump’s legislative agenda will derail it entirely. But it’s a distraction the administration tried to avoid.
Ultimately, Musk pushed Trump over the edge. The next things to look out for: How much this breakup impacts actual policy. Will the cost-cutting effort DOGE survive? Will Musk go through with his threat to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft? And will the two be at odds next spring when GOP congressional primaries take place?
Notable
- Tesla stock plunged as Trump and Musk’s feud broke into the open Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported.