Trump, Musk FALL OUT At Last - Now What?

Jun 11, 2025

Musk went from bromance to impeachment in a heartbeat. Just days ago, they were political soulmates. Now it’s all-out war — and the world’s watching. The headlines won’t stop. BBC called it “frightening, fascinating, shocking.” The commentary is coming like a tsunami: some true, some totally made up. Time to cut through the noise.

We called this months ago — this Trump–Musk fallout was never a matter of if, only when. The drama’s still unfolding. We were going to talk about Harvard this week — that'll have to wait.

Trump may be erratic, but his endings are always predictable. He burns through alliances like fuel. This week alone: he’s turning on Musk, ordering probes into the Biden White House for “deceiving the public,” and quietly backing off sanctions on Putin. All of it? Called it. So we’re not here to rage or vent — just break it down: what this means now, and what comes next.

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Video: Trump, Musk FALL OUT At Last - Now What?

So. Why did Trump and Musk suddenly blow up? What did they say? And where is this going?

The Fallout

It all blew up Thursday. Trump told the press, “I used to have a great relationship with Elon. Not anymore. That’s done.”

Musk fired back on X: called Trump “ungrateful” and said flat-out, “Without me, he would’ve lost.”

Trump clapped back harder: "Elon was wearing thin, I asked him to leave, I took away his [electric vehicle] 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!"

He added that the "easiest way to save money" in his signature tax bill is to "terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts".

Musk then publicly torched Trump’s tariff war, warning it’ll trigger a recession. He even nodded at the “impeach Trump” trend on X, hinting at the so-called Epstein files: “It’s time to drop the real bomb — Trump is in the Epstein files. That’s why he backed off releasing them.”

He didn’t stop there — he threatened to go full Democrat, talked about launching a third party, and racked up over 80% approval in a poll he posted.

Trump didn’t flinch: claimed he won the election all on his own, and called Musk “crazy.”

Inside the GOP? Dead silence — no one wants to touch this mess. Just one exception: Steve Bannon, Trump’s ex-strategist.

So what did Bannon have to say?

Bannon Roars

Bannon came out swinging. He called on Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act — not for war, but to seize SpaceX. Called Musk an “illegal alien” and said he should be deported.

Musk didn’t hold back. Fired off a post calling Bannon a “criminal,” accusing him of hijacking the MAGA movement just to feed his own ego and thirst for revenge. Said Bannon’s entire brand runs on “paranoid hate.”

So what’s the real difference between these two?

Bannon was kicked out of the White House. Musk? Did he walked out on his own — then came back and blew the place up？

Let’s not forget what Musk used to say about Trump:

“He was right about everything.”

“I love Trump as much as a straight man can love another man.”

Trump once called Musk the ultimate American success story — “I love Elon Musk and everything he’s doing.”

Back in 2024, during Trump’s comeback run, Musk wasn’t just a donor — he was a full-blown consigliere: nearly $300 million in donations, unlimited platform boosts, rallies, media blitzes, and policy help. He was dubbed “The Kingmaker.” But here's what people forget — he didn’t back Trump until after Biden dropped out.

Unlike the left and the liberal press, Musk never underestimated Biden’s incumbency advantage. And he didn’t see anyone stronger in the Democratic field. So when the Dems fell into disarray, Musk saw an opening — classic strategy: wait until the board settles, then make your bet. He bet big — and won massive clout when Trump returned to power.

But let’s be clear — this guy isn’t a political operator. In 2016, he backed Hillary. In early 2017, he briefly joined Trump’s advisory board — but quit in protest after Trump pulled out of the Paris climate deal. Musk’s strength is timing, not governing.

In Trump 2.0, Musk basically ran a shadow cabinet. He led the charge to dismantle parts of the federal bureaucracy. Trump let him tower over actual cabinet members — the press dubbed him “the Shadow President” or “His Majesty.” Even when Musk opposed Trump’s tariff war, Trump held his tongue.

So why did it all fall apart?

Sleeping Next to a Tiger

Musk rode Trump’s coattails straight into the White House — officially, he was a “special government employee,” a title that capped him at 130 workdays per year.

He wanted to stay. Trump didn’t. Time to move on, Trump said. Whether Musk liked it or not, the door was closing.

Why the breakup? Three reasons: the demolition job flopped, they couldn’t see eye to eye, and Musk’s own house caught fire.

First, the demolition plan. Musk had promised to help Trump slash $2 trillion in spending by tearing down federal agencies. In reality? Barely scratched the surface. The savings wouldn’t even cover window dressing, let alone real reform. Even worse, Musk recommended a close friend to run NASA — Trump killed the nomination, calling the guy a dirty Democrat.

Second, tariffs. Musk’s a businessman — he knows tariffs don’t bring factories back; they just hurt companies and consumers. And he felt the pain firsthand.

Tariffs made it impossible to build or sell Teslas profitably. The public backlash forced Tesla showrooms to shut down. Sales tanked. The stock plummeted. Shareholders revolted. He was given the ultimatum: “Come back to work or get replaced.” The third reason.

Trump literally put a Tesla on display on the White House ground to show him some love. But after the fallout, Trump reportedly told aides he wanted to sell the damn car just to spite him.

Still, Musk got a sendoff worthy of a royal. Trump himself hosted a farewell in the Oval Office, showered him with praise, and gifted him a gold-plated White House key. They hugged it out.

So how did it go from bromance to all-out war?

“Big Beautiful”

Just four days after leaving the White House, Musk dropped the hammer.

He trashed Trump’s signature legislation — the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” — calling it a “disgusting abomination.”

For one thing, it stripped out EV tax credits. Without them, Tesla’s business model collapses. Musk was cornered: support Trump and kill Tesla, or go to war and risk it all. He chose war. Tesla stock plunged 14% the same day.

The next day, Musk backpedaled hard — turns out nuking a president comes with a price tag. He deleted the worst posts. But the damage was done.

Trump doubled down, pushing to ram the bill through no matter the cost. Musk vowed to kill it with everything he had.

The bill’s official name? One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA. Very Trump. It crammed tax cuts, spending, border enforcement, and judicial overreach plus a lot more into a single mega-package. And it blew up instantly — not just with Democrats, but within the GOP.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated it would add $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade — including $600 billion in new debt next year alone.

Fiscal conservatives were furious. Paul Ryan — yes, the same guy who orchestrated the passage the 2017 tax cuts — slammed it as “fiscal suicide” and accused the GOP of abandoning its core beliefs.

Let’s be real: Tax cuts are not a GOP invention. In reality, tax cuts aren’t always good, and tax hikes aren’t always bad. Kennedy-Johnson cut taxes and jumpstarted the economy. Clinton raised taxes — and created a booming economy and impressive multiyear budget surplus. Both were Democrats.

Obama and Biden left behind healthy economies and stable budgets. So what exactly is Trump trying to stimulate with another round of reckless tax cuts?

Even Musk — a former Democrat turned MAGA megadonor — wasn’t buying it. He raged, calling it “all pork”.

He called the bill a scam, a monster, a national disaster. And he wasn’t the only one.

Because underneath all the tax cut noise, the bill had something darker hidden inside. What?

Authoritarian Dress Rehearsal

The most dangerous part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful” bill wasn’t the money. It was the power grab.

Buried deep in the fine print was a clause that would paralyze the courts:
Say a judge blocks a government action — say, halting a mass deportation — and the government ignores the ruling and is held in contempt? Too bad. The courts are barred from using public funds to enforce the ruling. Unless the plaintiff posts a massive financial bond.

Translation? The executive branch could blow off court orders — and the courts would be powerless to stop it. No money, no muscle. Separation of powers? Dead.

Even GOP senators balked. Chuck Grassley demanded the clause be removed. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy — all moderates — sounded the alarm.

Legal experts from left and right slammed the bill as “blatantly unconstitutional.” The conservative Federalist Society called it a “systemic assault on judicial independence.”

Democrats were blunter: This bill is an authoritarian dress rehearsal.

To be clear — this wasn’t about policy. This was a political stunt dressed up as a budget.
Tax cuts to buy support. Anti-immigrant red meat to fire up MAGA. Border security to sneak in executive overreach.

It was never meant to govern — it was designed to divide, distract, and dominate.

And it exposed a fatal split inside the GOP: fiscal conservatives vs. MAGA populists, rule-of-law Republicans vs. hardline nationalists. The party’s ideological fault lines cracked wide open.

Musk saw it clearly. He didn’t just call the bill a betrayal — he saw the entire Trump project as a sinking ship. From his view, he’d spent billions to back a regime that couldn’t govern and didn’t even pretend to.

The return on investment? Rage, chaos, and a 14% drop in Tesla’s market cap.
That’s not politics. That’s just bad business.

But here's the problem for the GOP: they’re no longer just afraid of Trump.
Now, they’ve got Musk to fear too.

TACO

Running a country isn’t all about ideology. Most of it is boring, grinding work — roads, schools, border control, tax forms. Stuff regular people actually notice. Americans have a phrase for that: motherhood and apple pie. Everyone agrees on it. No party, no theory, just make it work.

Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” was supposed to be the signature plan that made it all work. But it’s got a massive hole in it — trillions in red ink, furious backlash, and even his own allies jumping ship.

Speaker Johnson convened the House at an ungodly 11 PM on Wednesday, May 21. After an allnighter, the final vote was called at 6:54 am ET. 215-214. No one had time to read the 1000+ page bill. It was a classic “dump-and-vote”.

Several House GOP members publicly said they would not have backed the bill if they’d had time to read and digest it, citing concerns about the size, scope, and hidden provisions. Now the Senate.

Can it eventually pass without a total rewrite? Doubtful. And if it fails, it could drag the whole MAGA economy down with it.

And what about Trump, without Musk?

He’s still Trump: loud, defiant, everywhere. But strip away the hype, and he’s never as strong as he looks. The emperor’s new clothes — now in MAGA red.

Musk’s exit exposed the fragile stagecraft. “Trump 2.0” was always just a theater of convenience. Everyone had their own script: Trump wanted impunity from the law, plus revenge and power. Musk wanted one big, glorious deal. MAGA wanted revolutionary chaos. And the GOP just wanted to survive.

But here’s the rub. Trump doesn’t finish fights — he backs down.

Back in May, the Financial Times’ Robert Armstrong nailed it with a perfect acronym:
TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out.

Musk walked away. The tariffs, the chaos, the shadow-cabinet White House — all unraveling. But Trump still thinks he can sell the show.

Four days after Musk left, Tesla stock tanked. Then Musk dropped his mic:

“Trump’s got 3.5 years left. I’ll be around for another 40+ years.”
Translation? I’ll outlive this circus.

So now what?

Trump’s cracking. MAGA is splintering. The “Big Beautiful Bill” is collapsing under its own weight. And Musk — the guy who once said “I love Trump as much as a straight man can love another man” — is now the loudest voice against him.

TACO isn’t just a joke. It’s a warning. This isn’t about loyalty. It’s about power, money, survival. And it’s only the beginning.

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