Musk, who left his role as a Trump administration “special government employee” in May, has since attacked the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” backed by the president and the House GOP. The billionaire previously described himself as Trump’s “first buddy,” but eventually directed his ire directly at the president by sharing older clips of Trump bashing Republicans for raising the debt ceiling.
The feud escalated after the president accused Musk of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a phrase he often uses to target his critics. This launched a social media war between them, during which Trump threatened to scrap Musk’s government contracts. The billionaire retorted with a now-deleted tweet alleging without evidence that Trump’s name was in the Epstein files. Both individuals appeared to have reached a detente until Monday, with Musk even tweeting he regretted some of his “posts about President Donald Trump,” which he said “went too far.”
In a post on X, Musk responded to a tweet criticizing the president’s Truth Social post bashing him and threatening to scrap federal subsidies received by his companies, writing that remarks were: “Just plain wrong…So disappointing.”
The billionaire also made a post urging people to follow a meme account posting screenshots of old tweets by GOP lawmakers criticizing the national debt alongside posts made on Tuesday hailing the passage of the Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Musk’s late night posts were not all critical of Trump, however, as the billionaire reshared the president’s Truth Social post about Israel agreeing to a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and wrote: “Credit where credit is due…[Trump] has successfully resolved several serious conflicts around the world.”
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Trump was asked if he’ll deport the South African-born billionaire, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and said: “I don’t know. We’ll have to take a look.”
According to the Daily Mail’s Emily Goodin, Trump said he might have to “put DOGE on Elon…DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” referring to the cost-cutting agency that was the brainchild of Musk.
“I don’t think he should be playing that game with me,” Trump warned Musk in late morning comments to reporters, confirming he’ll order DOGE to “look at Musk.”
Replying to a video of the Trump deportation threat, Musk wrote “so tempting to escalate this,” but he would “refrain for now,” though he ominously added, “Physics sees through all lies perfectly.”
Musk attacked the spending bill in a series of posts on X on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, saying: “Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending,” and backed the mega bill “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.” Musk later said anyone who votes for the legislation after campaigning “on the PROMISE of REDUCING SPENDING” will see their face on a poster of Pinocchio with the caption “LIAR” followed by the text “Voted to increase America’s Debt by $5,000,000,000,000.”
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT MUSK’S VOW TO FORM A THIRD PARTY?
On Monday, the billionaire tweeted, “If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” as he bashed what he described as the “Democrat-Republican uniparty.” The X owner later reshared the results of an unscientific poll he conducted on the platform last month during his public blow-up with the president and wrote “VOX POPULI VOX DEI 80% voted for a new party.” On Tuesday, Musk reshared a post made by the betting market Kalshi, which showed that bookmakers believe there’s a 41% chance of Musk forming a new political party in 2025.
