The political alliance has shattered, and Trump and Musk have escalated their public feud.

Author: Li Dan, Wall Street Journal

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly publicly criticized the Trump administration's large-scale spending bills, and now it seems that his "brotherly bond" with President Trump can't even be pretended anymore.

On Thursday, June 5, Eastern time, the two "good brothers" openly broke out in a war of words over the Republican Party's tax cuts and spending bills. First, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was "disappointed" in Musk because Musk knew better than anyone else what the bill was about, but "suddenly" turned around and opposed it. Then Musk quickly posted a "counterattack", saying that Trump lied, that he had not read the bill before, and that there was only one way to cut spending.

According to CCTV News, Trump stated that he would rather be criticized by Musk than have his tax reform plan criticized. Trump mentioned that Musk was very unhappy about the Trump administration's repeal of the electric vehicle "mandate." He understood the internal workings of the bill and had no objections to it until he realized the problem when the electric vehicle "mandate" was to be repealed.

Trump said:

"I'm disappointed in Elon [Musk]. I helped him a lot. He knows better than anyone in this room the inner workings of this bill. He had no problem with that. All of a sudden, he had an opinion, and it was only when he found out that we were going to cut the EV mandate that he started to think about it. ”

Afterwards, Trump posted on social media that it was he who suggested that Musk leave the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE), and that Musk went "crazy" just because he revoked the so-called mandate to purchase electric vehicles. The post stated:

"Elon has become 'hard to accept', I asked him to leave, I revoked his electric car mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that others didn't want (he knew I would do this months ago!), he went crazy!"

Trump also posted a hint that the U.S. government may suspend contracts signed with Musk's companies. He said in the post:

"The easiest way to save billions in our budget is to terminate Musk's government subsidies and contracts. I've always been surprised that Biden hasn't done this!"

Musk does not back down, directly revealing on social media that Trump is implicated in the Epstein sex crime case, and this is the real reason why the U.S. government has not released the Epstein files.

Master @Trump's social media account posted:

"It's time to drop the bombshell: @realDonaldTrump in Epstein's file. This is the real reason why these archives have not been made public. Have a great day, DJT! ”

Musk then posted that this post will be marked, and the truth will be revealed in the future.

Musk then posted that, due to Trump's claim to cancel his government contract, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will immediately begin to disengage from government missions. He also posted that Trump's tariffs will lead to a recession in the US economy in the second half of this year.

According to CCTV, Musk later publicly stated on social media that he believes Trump should be impeached, responding "yes" to a post supporting Trump's impeachment.

Trump: Musk is angry because we are targeting electric vehicles. Without Musk, we will also win Pennsylvania in the election.

According to Trump’s statement to reporters, Musk’s "backstabbing" is because he believes that the spending bill called the "Big Beautiful Bill" harms the interests of the electric vehicle industry where Tesla is located.

Trump said that he was right in supporting the bill, and that he would rather Musk condemn him than criticize the draft bill he supports. Musk's reaction to the draft surprised him. He can understand Musk's anger because the Trump administration wants to revoke the electric vehicle tax credit introduced by former President Joe Biden.

"Elon is angry because we secured the electric vehicle mandate, which is a huge amount of money for electric vehicles. They are struggling with electric vehicles now and still want us to pay billions in subsidies. Elon has known this from the beginning."

Trump said that his relationship with Musk used to be very good. Musk had given him strong support during last year's U.S. election, "but I will win regardless."

According to CCTV, Trump stated that he could win the votes in Pennsylvania even without Musk. Trump also mentioned that Musk has not said anything bad about him personally yet, but he believes he will soon.

The CCTV report mentioned that the Trump administration has withdrawn the nomination of Isaacman, recommended by Musk, to serve as the head of NASA.

Media reports on Wednesday revealed that the White House rejected Isaacman's nomination, escalating tensions between Musk and Trump. After Musk criticized the Build Back Better Act, Trump lost patience with him, and Musk was upset about Trump's decision to withdraw Isaacman's nomination. Musk is a close ally of Isaacman and had previously supported his bid for the position.

The media cited a senior White House official as saying that Trump was unhappy with Musk's criticism. He did not understand why Musk decided to intensify his criticism after working closely with him for four months. Trump's senior advisors were caught off guard by Musk's latest offensive.

Musk: The bill has not been shown to me. Even if the reduction of electric vehicle incentives is unfair, it should be 'slim and beautiful'. Without my support, Trump will not win the election.

Trump's statement just came out, and Musk quickly responded with a series of posts on his social media.

Regarding Trump's claim that Musk was angry about the bill due to the interests involved in electric vehicles, Musk simply responded at the beginning of the post: "Whatever (you do)."

He then stated in the post:

"The bill retains provisions to reduce tax incentives for electric vehicles and photovoltaic systems. Even if no action is taken against subsidies for oil and gas (which is extremely unfair!!), the disgusting private interests in that bill should be discarded."

Throughout the history of civilization, there has never been a piece of legislation that is both grand and beautiful. This is well known to everyone! You will either get a 'large and ugly' bill, or you will get a 'slim and beautiful' bill. Slim and beautiful is the way forward.

Then Musk responded to Trump's statement that he was previously aware of the bill and had no objections to it, posting:

"No, this bill has never been shown to me even once, and it was passed quickly in the middle of the night, and almost no member of Congress can read it!"

Elon Musk retweeted a post from Senator Rand Paul, who was previously warned by Trump for opposing the bill.

Paul posted that Musk hit the nail on the head, as his report released last year revealed that in just one year, 2024, interest for Americans will reach $892 billion, which is equivalent to consuming 10% of the federal budget. When Musk retweeted this post, he wrote that the large and ugly bill would make the situation worse.

Musk also retweeted a comment agreeing with Trump's view that he wouldn't win the election without his support.

The comment states that Musk said, "Without me, Trump would have lost the election, the Democrats would control the Senate, and the Republicans would have a 51 to 49 seat count in the Senate," which is indeed true.

Musk retweeted a post paraphrased his remarks in the interview, reiterating that the Big Pretty Act would expand the U.S. federal government's deficit to $2.5 trillion. According to the interview, Musk said that the United States has a deficit of $2 trillion and is growing, and that the United States has exceeded the budget of the Department of Defense on interest payments. Wall Street has mentioned that in a public break posted by Musk on Tuesday, he mentioned that the bill would swell the already huge budget deficit to $2.5 trillion.

On Wednesday, Musk posted urging the American public to contact their congressional representatives to "veto" the bill, and attached a still from the movie "Kill Bill" to the post. On Thursday, he posted again urging: "Kill the bill."