Donald Trump and Elon Musk‘s previously blooming bromance continues to fall apart. Following last month’s very public blow-up, the US president and the Tesla boss briefly decided to strike a truce after the latter confessed that he regretted some of his social media rants about the Republican leader. That short-lived respite didn’t even last a month and the two are back at each other’s throat, with Trump even pitching in threats that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that Musk once led should “go back and eat Elon.”
Donald Trump unloads on Elon Musk
Before the United States Senate passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” and even prior to his visit to Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ President Trump chatted up with reporters at the White House. Weighing on questions like whether he was planning to deport Musk, he said, “We’ll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? The monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.”
With his comments on late Monday and Tuesday local time, Trump suggested that his administration may kick off an investigation into the massive government contracts associated with Musk’s companies. At the time, the Republican leader further fanned the fire by making big claims about how the Tesla founder will be losing his EV mandate, but that possibly won’t be the end of his ruin. “But you know, he could lose a lot more than that, I can tell you, right?” Trump said. “Elon can lose a lot more than that”
Addressing “big money to be saved” in a Truth Social post, the POTUS noted, “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.”
Adding, “No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE,” he charged, “Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this?”
Ahead of these major admissions, Elon Musk continued to vehemently push back against Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” vowing to launch a new political party if it was passed. “If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” he wrote in a post on X. “Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.” In yet another social media rant, he added that those voting for the bill “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
How the Trump vs Musk feud will affect the Tesla boss
In a note to investors Tuesday, Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said, “This BFF situation has now turned into a soap opera that remains an overhang on Tesla’s stock with investors fearing that the Trump Administration will be more hawkish and show scrutiny around Musk-related US government spending. Tesla investors want Musk to focus on driving Tesla and stop this political angle.”
Ives doubled down on how “Trump’s bad side will not turn out well” for Musk in the end. According to JPMorgan, losing the EV tax credit could cost the tech titan’s Tesla $1.2 billion a year in addition to the regulatory credit sales loss of another $2 billion. While Tesla is still relatively less reliant on government contracts, Musk’s SpaceX majorly makes its money from the government. Even his other companies, including X, artificial intelligence company xAI and Neuralink are under the federal government’s regulation.