It was always the most unlikely of alliances.
Last year, two mercurial billionaires formed a partnership and vowed to drive the country in a new direction. Donald Trump had the political power. Elon Musk had the money and social media might.
But on Thursday, their union dissolved in remarkably public and rapid fashion, with the two men attacking each other over matters both significant and petty.
Beyond the immediate drama, the breakup of the president and the world’s richest man upended one of the most powerful dynamics shaping Mr. Trump’s second term.
Their dispute began days ago over the president’s signature domestic policy bill, which Mr. Musk had panned as a “disgusting abomination.” But it escalated uncontrollably on Thursday into a fight over who deserved more credit for Mr. Trump’s election victory, why Mr. Musk had not covered up his black eye with makeup during an Oval Office appearance last week and why Mr. Trump had abruptly dropped his support for a Musk associate nominated to lead NASA.
The sparring swiftly devolved into threats on their respective social media platforms, as Mr. Trump threatened to cut the billions in dollars in federal government contracts with Mr. Musk’s companies. For his part, Mr. Musk unleashed a tirade of attacks on the man he had once lavishly praised. He suggested it might be time to create a new political party, claimed there were references to Mr. Trump in government documents about the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and indicated his support for a post calling for the president’s impeachment.
The public jousting became so ugly that at one point, Ashley St. Clair, a right-leaning writer who has a child with Mr. Musk but is estranged from him, jumped in. “Hey @realDonaldTrump lmk if u need any breakup advice,” she wrote on X.
Their sudden fallout ended a nearly yearlong partnership, during which Mr. Musk helped propel Mr. Trump to the White House and became one of the president’s top advisers, steering an effort to drastically cut government staffing and contracts that sent shock waves through the federal bureaucracy.
Both men now have a lot at risk. Mr. Musk, who spent about $275 million helping elect Mr. Trump in 2024, had promised to give $100 million to groups controlled by the president’s team before the 2026 midterms — funds that have yet to be delivered and are now very much in doubt. Mr. Trump not only must confront the choking-off of election support; he now must contend with the wrath of an ally-turned-foe who appears determined to undermine his standing on the right.
Mr. Musk’s companies have benefited from billions of dollars in government contracts and were positioned to receive billions more, a lucrative revenue source for his business empire that Mr. Trump is now threatening.
Mr. Trump’s political advisers are preparing for a possible drawn-out war against Mr. Musk in which allies of both men in tech and politics are forced to choose sides, according to one person close to the president who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
For their part, Mr. Musk’s friends and associates said they were in a state of disbelief over the acrimonious and abrupt break, and spent Thursday glued to their computers and phones as they watched their friend joust with Mr. Trump, unsure of his plan.
Some in Mr. Musk’s orbit professed confidence that the tech executive would outlast Mr. Trump in global influence. But there was still nervousness in Mr. Musk’s circle that he had picked an enormous fight, even by his standards, that could backfire on him and the world of the “tech right,” the ecosystem of Silicon Valley executives who have embraced the Trump administration.
Few of Mr. Musk’s associates had expected the relationship to last forever. But they said they were sad that it had come to such a bitter end.
In the early months of the administration, Mr. Musk had been a constant presence at Mr. Trump’s side, traveling with him to Mar-a-Lago on the weekends and sitting for a joint interview on Fox News while overseeing a government-wide effort to cut federal spending.
But his work with the Department of Government Efficiency led to clashes with top cabinet officials, who sparred with Mr. Musk about his cuts and tactics. Mr. Trump largely stood by Mr. Musk, although their relationship started to fray as complaints increased about Mr. Musk’s approach, according to people familiar with the dynamics.
For days, Mr. Trump appeared hesitant to feud with Mr. Musk, even as the tech mogul assailed the president’s signature legislation as a measure that would increase the deficit, lambasting it as “massive, outrageous, pork-filled.”
But Mr. Musk would not let up. He argued that the measure would undo all the work he did to cut government spending and hinted that he would target Republicans who backed the legislation in next year’s midterm elections.
On Thursday, when asked by reporters about Mr. Musk’s criticism, Mr. Trump fought back.
“I’m very disappointed in Elon,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office during a visit with Friedrich Merz, Germany’s new chancellor. “I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
He also downplayed his former ally’s financial support during the campaign, arguing that he would have won Pennsylvania without Mr. Musk, who poured much of his money and time into the critical battleground state.
Mr. Musk returned fire.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Mr. Musk wrote on X.
“Such ingratitude,” he replied a moment later, taking credit for Mr. Trump’s election in a way that he never had.
The attacks between the two men continued on their respective social media platforms.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
In response, Mr. Musk said SpaceX, his space technology company, would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft. NASA relies on the spacecraft to carry astronauts, food and other supplies to the International Space Station.
As he stepped away from his government work in recent weeks, Mr. Musk appeared to be in good spirits, telling friends that he wanted to stay active in some parts of his cost-cutting operation, including blocking funding for programs that he believed promoted illegal immigration, according to a person familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
But he discarded whatever caution he had on Thursday, ridiculing the president in a pattern familiar to the many previous Trump advisers who have fallen by the wayside.
By the afternoon, Mr. Musk floated leaving the Republican Party to form a new party, and openly speculated that Mr. Trump, who once opposed raising the deficit, had been replaced by a “body double.”
When their fighting broke out Thursday around noon, the stock of Tesla fell by 14 percent. The stock of Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, slid by 8 percent.
Just last week, Mr. Trump had given Mr. Musk a personal send-off in the Oval Office. He praised Mr. Musk as “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced,” and handed him a golden key emblazoned with the White House insignia. Mr. Musk promised to remain a “friend and adviser to the president.”
During that event, Mr. Musk sported a black eye, which he attributed to his young son punching him in the face. Mr. Trump on Thursday made fun of Mr. Musk’s unwillingness to wear makeup to cover up the bruise. He also suggested that the tech executive, like other former aides, was suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome” now that he had left the inner circle of the White House.
“They wake up in the morning, the glamour is gone, the whole world is different and they become hostile,” the president said.
Mr. Musk shot back, saying Mr. Trump’s tariffs would cause a recession by the end of the year and sharing old social media posts from Mr. Trump criticizing Republicans for not addressing the growing deficit.
Mr. Trump said Mr. Musk’s criticism of his domestic policy bill was self-interested, and that he only opposed the legislation after Republicans took out electric vehicle subsidies that would benefit Tesla, Mr. Musk’s company. (Mr. Musk had previously called for an end to those tax credits.)
“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,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Mr. Musk, writing on X, responded: “Such an obvious lie. So sad.”
Reporting was contributed by Kate Conger, Maggie Haberman, Ryan Mac, Michael C. Bender and Kenneth Chang.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
Theodore Schleifer is a Times reporter covering billionaires and their impact on the world.
The post Trump and Musk’s Unlikely Alliance Breaks Down in Rapid and Public Fashion appeared first on New York Times.
