June 5, 2025, marked the day US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk engaged in a war of words across social media platforms, culminating in a dramatic split that, in retrospect, had long been in the making.
Musk, once one of Trump’s staunchest allies, had played a pivotal role in securing Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. He poured more than $250 million into Trump’s campaign and leveraged his social media platform, X, to rally public opinion in Trump’s favor. In return, Trump appointed Musk as a special government employee to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with downsizing federal agencies and reducing excess spending.
During Musk’s 130-day tenure, his aggressive push for government streamlining disrupted the interests of numerous federal departments, drawing intense internal resistance. Eventually, Musk faded from the center of Trump’s administration. Though Musk clashed with senior cabinet members like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during the closing phase of his term and diverged with Trump on tariffs, he had never spoken ill of Trump himself.
The trigger for their falling-out was Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”. Musk criticized the bill for cutting electric vehicle incentives while leaving oil and gas subsidies intact, calling the move “very unfair”. He claimed it “was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it”.
Yet the rupture goes far deeper than a single bill. Their fundamental values diverged. Although Trump and Musk had formed a political alliance during the campaign, their visions for the US were at odds. Trump, as the leader of the “Make America Great Again” movement, and Musk, a representative of the tech right, were bound more by temporary mutual interests than genuine ideological alignment. Trump sought Musk’s capital and media reach, while Musk saw Trump as a vehicle to influence US political discourse. Their partnership, from the beginning, was fraught with fragility.
Trump’s policy moves in tax reform, digital currency and foreign diplomacy underscored his prioritization of personal gain. In contrast, Musk showed a willingness to sacrifice business interests in pursuit of his political ideals, pushing ahead with bold reforms despite fierce resistance. In essence, Trump entered politics out of self-interest; Musk to advance a vision.
This core difference ultimately shattered their alliance. Musk had made major sacrifices to cut federal spending, only to watch Trump champion a bill that increased the debt ceiling and reversed much of his work. To Musk, this felt like a betrayal, especially when Trump accused him of turning hostile merely because the EV subsidy cuts took a slice out of his pie.
Their online feud was not simply a matter of personal animosity, but a symptom of a broader structural fracture. In today’s US political landscape, the rise of a strongman like Trump and the deepening divide in US politics leave little room for someone like Musk to coexist with him. Despite having built a vast business empire, Musk naively believed that his success and wealth would enable him to navigate the political arena with ease, unaware that politics is far more complex than business.
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