Elon Musk Hits Back in Real Time as Trump Shreds Him in Budget Fight

President Trump told reporters Thursday that Elon Musk opposes his “big, beautiful bill” because it removes the electric vehicle mandate that subsidizes Tesla. Musk responded in real time, only adding more speculation as to just how amicable their political divorce really is.

Trump was asked about the status of his relationship with Musk while meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the White House. In recent days, as Trump and Musk have gone from being attached at the hip (and pocket) to publicly feuding over the most defining legislation of Trump’s second term.

“Elon’s upset because we took the E.V. mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles, and you know they’re having a hard time, the electric vehicles. And they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Elon knew this from the beginning, he knew it for a long time ago, that’s been.… I would say, JD, that hasn’t changed,” he said, as Vice President Vance voiced his agreement.

“Whatever. Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,” Musk replied rather bitterly on X, the platform he owns. “In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that[’s] both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.”

This is the most recent installment in a somewhat surprising spat, as Musk has spent months hailing Trump and his agenda as he carried out his slash-and-burn work as DOGE head. Now, right as Musk makes his exit from the administration, he has fallen on the side of the deficit hawks, the few true fiscal conservatives left in the Senate. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit.

Musk continued to rail against Trump and his bill online as Trump expressed disappointment with Musk in real life.

“Elon endorsed me very strongly, he actually campaigned for me.… I would’ve won Pennsylvania easily anyway, even if the governor ran, the real governor,” Trump said. “I’m very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of the bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people, he knew everything about it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re gonna have to cut the E.V. mandate.

“He knew every aspect of this bill, and he never had a problem until right after he left. And if you saw the statements he made about me, which I’m sure you can get very easily, it’s very fresh … he said the most beautiful things about me,” Trump continued. “And he hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”

“False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” Musk replied.

“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.”

It was easy to see a rift between these two extreme personalities happen, but perhaps not over this. It would seem that Musk, given his senior role on the campaign and within the administration, would have some sense that the budget bill that Trump had been hyping up for months would impact the deficit. Or is Musk really just now realizing that Republicans don’t actually care about decreasing the deficit and cutting spending unless it’s for social programs and “woke” stuff?

Now the X posts are flying and the beef seems real. This caps off a tumultuous week for Musk, who pulled up to his DOGE exit press conference last Friday with a black eye, telling reporters that his 5-year-old son punched him in the face. It was also reported last week that he has a ketamine dependency and was frequently high while on the campaign trail.

Politics aside, this is a man who was living at Mar-a-Lago for months, and seemed inseparable from the president. They can’t just have a meeting or a phone call instead of talking around each other on X or at press conferences?