The bromance is over.
In a stunningly public back-and-forth that played out in real time, the relationship between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump met a swift end as both men cranked up their criticism of each other to levels previously unseen.
The Tesla CEO and formerly self-identified “First Buddy” let loose on Thursday, bashing Trump’s favored tax bill on X in a flurry of posts. By the afternoon, after Trump spoke about Musk in the Oval Office, their political love affair was imploding across television and social media, with the internet watching in real time.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday. “I don’t know if we will anymore.” He said that Musk didn’t like his proposed bill because it phases out electric vehicle tax credits, which could ding Tesla’s profits.
Musk wasted no time in firing back.
He slammed the “Big Beautiful Bill” for its hefty price tag, then demanded that Congress “ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK,” before essentially calling Trump a liar (the president said that Musk had seen drafts of the bill, which Musk denied).
He then began to escalate his attacks.
At 12:46 pm ET, Musk went so far as to take credit for Trump’s second term.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” he wrote.
“Such ingratitude,” he wrote in another post.
By mid-afternoon, Musk signaled he was open to creating a new political party.
The Tesla CEO posted a poll asking if it’s time to “create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?” (Trump critic and fellow billionaire Mark Cuban endorsed the idea).
People online watching the events unfold were quick to chime in with memes and reactions.
Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children, offered Trump “breakup advice” in a post on X.
Tesla’s stock was down sharply on Thursday amid the very messy, very public fallout. By mid-afternoon, its market cap dipped below $1 trillion.
Trump, away from the television cameras, continued his criticisms of Musk on Truth Social.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
On the threat of canceled contracts, Musk said on X: “Go ahead, make my day.”
“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk said in a follow-up post.
He also wrote “Yes” when re-sharing an X user’s post that said, “President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.”
Musk also brought into the mix a flash point among many Republicans: convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” Musk wrote. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” In a separate post, Musk advised followers to “mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
Trump’s past ties to Epstein, who died by suicide in a prison cell in 2019, are publicly known.
The two men have appeared in footage together and Trump appeared in the flight logs for Epstein’s plane. In early 2024, a federal judge unsealed the names of almost 200 anonymous “Does” associated with Epstein, and a BI analysis found that Trump was one of them.
When asked about Epstein in 2019, Trump said the two had had a “falling out a long time ago.”
“I haven’t spoken to him in probably 15 years or more,” Trump said in 2019. “I wasn’t a big fan of Jeffrey Epstein, that I can tell you.”
The fallout between Musk and Trump is a remarkable coda to a whirlwind bromance.
Musk spent more than $277 million backing Trump and Republicans in 2024. He paraded his young son around the White House. He was the public face of the White House DOGE Office. Just last week, Trump gifted Musk a gigantic golden key during a near-saccharine press conference.
“I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,” Trump said on Thursday afternoon in a post defending his spending bill.
Cracks in their relationship, which many have predicted would eventually fall apart, were beginning to show before Thursday. Musk has been sowing doubt about the tax bill for some time, and he recently said he’d be doing a “lot less” political spending going forward.
The White House directed BI to Trump’s comments from the Oval Office and Musk did not immediately respond to BI’s request for comment, but his X feed left little to the imagination.
At one point, Musk shared a dizzying collage of old Trump posts about balancing the budget.
“Where is this guy today??” Musk asked. Clearly no longer by his No. 1 buddy’s side.
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