Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Tex. shortly after Trump’s election victory.
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Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s very public bromance is going through a very public breakup.
On Thursday, their disagreements over the Republican mega-bill advancing most of Trump’s biggest domestic policy priorities erupted into personal attacks, with the two men using their respective social media platforms to hurl insults.
After Trump threatened on Truth Social to cut off billions of dollars in federal subsidies and contracts to Musk’s companies, which include Tesla and SpaceX, Musk claimed — without evidence — that Trump appears in government documents about convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. “That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk claimed.
The White House declined to comment on Musk’s accusation.
Trump, Musk and now-Vice President JD Vance attend the 125th Army-Navy football game on Dec. 14, 2024 in Landover, Maryland. After the election and in the first months of the administration, Musk was often spotted at Trump’s side.
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The blow up marks the end of an alliance between the president and the billionaire that lasted far longer than many observers expected.
After donating to Democrats for years, Musk emerged in 2024 as the biggest Republican political donor, pouring nearly $300 million into backing Trump. He quickly became one of the most visible members of the president’s inner circle, appearing with Trump in the Oval Office, at Cabinet meetings, and leading the Department of Government Efficiency.
In February, Musk posted on X: “I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man.”
Here’s a quick history of the Trump-Musk relationship:
Pre-2024
Musk has said he voted for Democrats, including Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. He was critical of Trump in his first term and resigned from two advisory councils after the Trump administration pulled out of the Paris climate accord.
In 2022, Trump called Musk a “b******* artist” and claimed the billionaire had told him he voted for him. Musk hit back that Trump was too told to run for office. “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” he wrote.
July 2024
Musk endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt in Butler, Penn. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote on X minutes after the shooting.
Later in the month, Musk revealed he had created and was funding a super PAC “to promote the principles that made America great in the first place.” He had previously said he wouldn’t donate to either presidential candidate. He would go on to donate around $277 million in the election cycle.
August 2024
Musk hosted an interview with Trump on X. After lengthy technical delays, the conversation largely followed the contours of Trump’s campaign speeches, and the two men both praised and talked past one another.
Musk also took the opportunity to pitch Trump on a “government efficiency commission,” which the billionaire said he would join.
Musk jumps on stage to join Trump during a campaign rally at site of Trump’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pa. on Oct. 5, 2024.
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Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
October 2024
Musk hit the campaign trail with Trump. Wearing a custom black “Make America Great Again” hat, the billionaire addressed a rally in Butler, Penn., where he hopped around on stage, described himself as “dark MAGA,” and predicted “this will be the last election” if Trump were not to win.
Musk also took the stage at another Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, and held a series of $1 million giveaways to voters in swing states.
November 2024
Musk spent election night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Florida. The morning after, he celebrated by posting an apparently AI-generated image of himself saluting the American flag, captioned, “It is morning in America again.”
Trump thanked Musk in his victory speech, declaring: “A star is born — Elon!”
Late 2024
Trump announced Musk and former Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would co-lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” focused on curbing federal spending. At the time it was not clear whether the entity would exist inside or outside the government.
Musk and Ramaswamy took their pitch to Capitol Hill, proposing a 75% reduction in the federal workforce, a $2 trillion cut to federal spending and the elimination of entire agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Ramaswamy left the project before Trump took office.
January 2025
Musk was one of several tech billionaires who attended Trump’s inauguration. At another event that day, he sparked outrage when he performed a salute most prominently affiliated with Nazis.
Musk gestures as he speaks during an inaugural event in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025.
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After the inauguration, Musk joined the White House as an unpaid presidential advisor. His “special government employee” status meant he had a 130-working day clock. He quickly became the most visible face of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — which, despite its name, is not an official congressionally-created federal department. Musk was the de facto leader of DOGE, even though the Trump administration repeatedly tried to argue in court that he was not.
Musk and Trump, along with Musk’s son, X, speaks during an event in the Oval Office on Feb. 11, 2025.
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February 2025
Trump and Musk appeared together in the Oval Office, accompanied by Musk’s young son, to defend the work of DOGE, which has cut a swath through federal agencies.
“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what people are going to get,” Musk told reporters. “They’re going to get what they voted for.”
They also addressed concerns that Musk’s many companies, which have business with and are regulated by some of the agencies DOGE has targeted, created conflicts of interest.
Trump said he would bar Musk from any government work he believed might create a conflict. “If we thought that, we would not let him do that segment or look in that area, if we thought there was a lack of transparency or a conflict of interest,” Trump said.
Later in the month, Musk joined Trump’s first Cabinet meeting. Trump introduced Musk by saying the billionaire was “sacrificing a lot” through his government work.
Musk delivers remarks during a Cabinet meeting on Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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Asked by a journalist about reports that some agency heads were unhappy with Musk’s slash-and-burn approach, Trump asked, “Is anybody unhappy?” His question was met with laughter.
A week later, Trump took the rare step of publicly reining in Musk. On March 6 he told Cabinet members that they are in charge of job cuts at their agencies, not Musk.
Trump and Musk sit in a Tesla car on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025 . Trump spoke out against calls for a boycott of Elon Musk’s companies and said he would purchase a Tesla vehicle in what he calls a ‘show of confidence and support’ for Elon Musk.
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March 2025
Trump and Musk took the unprecedented step of turning the White House lawn into a temporary Tesla showroom. Trump sat inside a red Model S with Musk and announced his intention to buy a Tesla, in a show of support amid a global backlash against Tesla over Musk’s controversial involvement in politics in both the U.S. and Europe, where he has thrown his support behind far-right parties.
May 2025
Musk announced he was leaving the government, citing the end of his “scheduled time” as a special government employee. At a final Oval Office press conference, Trump praised Musk as “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced.”
Trump presents a “key to the White House” to Musk on his last day with the administration on May 30, 2025. Musk.
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Days later, Musk began railing against the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” saying it would drive up the federal budget deficit and undo the cost-cutting work of DOGE.
June 5, 2025
Sniping escalated into all-out war between the billionaire and the president.
Trump posted on his Truth Social site: “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 shot back in a torrent of posts on X. “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote.
He also reposted a call for Trump to be impeached, writing, simply, “Yes.”
