10 June 2025 - How Donald Trump and Elon Musk Became Enemies
Inside the battles that shattered Trump and Musk’s alliance
Cat Zakrzewski, Natalie Allison, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Jeff Stein and Emily Davies (Washington Post, 07/06/2025)
President Donald Trump was dejected, processing his very public split with the world’s richest man. Rattled in the wake of Elon Musk’s public attacks and apparent call for his impeachment, Trump worked the phones, debriefing close confidants and casual acquaintances alike. His former ally was “a big-time drug addict,” Trump said at one point as he tried to make sense of Musk’s behavior, according to a person with knowledge of the call, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Musk has acknowledged using ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, which he says was prescribed for him to treat depression. The New York Times recently reported that he was using so much ketamine on the campaign trail that he told people it was affecting his bladder, and he traveled with a pill box with medication with the marking of Adderall. White House officials said that Trump’s concern about Musk’s drug use, stemming in part from media reports, was one factor driving the two men apart.
Trump, Musk and the end of a bromance - podcast
Michael Safi and Andrew Roth (The Guardian, 10/06/2025)
Andrew Roth details the explosive falling-out between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, and what it tells us about the future of the US presidency It started with a tweet. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” wrote Elon Musk. Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill was a “disgusting abomination”. What followed was a remarkable – and remarkably public – feud between the world’s richest man and the US president: insults were traded, threats were made, shares in Musk’s publicly traded companies plummeted. It was quite the turnaround for the pair. Last year, Musk had given Trump’s re-election campaign more than $280m in donations. And only two weeks ago, when Musk stood down from his position in Trump’s administration, the two were still insistent that their relationship was good.
Trump says Elon Musk will face 'very serious consequences' if he funds Democratic candidates
Kristen Welker and Alexandra Marquez (NBC News, 07/06/2025)
President Donald Trump on Saturday said there would be “serious consequences” if tech mogul Elon Musk funds Democratic candidates to run against Republicans who vote in favor of the GOP’s sweeping budget bill. “If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview, but declined to share what those consequences would be. “He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” he added. The president also said he has no desire to repair his relationship with Musk after a feud between the two men erupted into public view earlier this week.
Musk and Trump are enemies made for each other – united in their ability to trash their own brands
Jonathan Freedland (The Guardian, 06/06/2025)
The scriptwriters of Trump: the Soap Opera are slipping. The latest plot development – the epic falling-out between the title character and his best buddy, Elon Musk – was so predictable, and indeed predicted, that it counts as the opposite of a twist. Still, surprise can be overrated. Watching the two men – one the richest in the world, the other the most powerful – turn on each other in a series of ever-more venomous posts on their respective social media platforms has been entertainment of the highest order. X v Truth: it could be a Marvel blockbuster. But this is more than mere popcorn fodder. Even if they eventually patch things up, the rift between the president and Musk has exposed a divide inside the contemporary right, in the US and beyond – and a fatal flaw of the Trump project.
Elon Musk. Wikipedia, Public domain.
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