Elon Musk vs.
Donald Trump: The once-symbiotic relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump is now unraveling in real time, playing out like a political soap opera where both protagonists are nursing bruised egos. With each passing day, their public exchanges grow sharper-and the implications for Tesla, politics, and the EV industry are hard to ignore.
President Trump recently lashed out, expressing deep disappointment in Musk. Trump believes Musk’s fury stems from the repeal of Biden-era EV mandates and a failed bid to preserve EV tax credits in the GOP’s newest fiscal package. According to Trump, Elon was once in the loop and onboard-but started throwing punches only after realizing his financial interests were compromised.
“He had no problem with the bill-until he did,” Trump told reporters. “He’s upset because we took away the EV mandate, and we said no to Musk’s NASA pick.”
That NASA pick? Jared Isaacman, a Musk ally, whose nomination was pulled, further deepening the rift. Meanwhile, Musk didn’t hold back either. He’s taken to X (formerly Twitter), calling Trump’s legislative efforts a “mountain of disgusting pork” while demanding cuts to corporate welfare programs.
Elon even claimed that Trump couldn’t have won in 2016 without his support-a bold declaration, to say the least. Trump’s alleged response? Musk has a case of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Sources suggest Musk had privately lobbied Speaker Johnson to retain the $7,500 EV credit-crucial for Tesla’s upcoming affordable model. But the lobbying failed. Musk’s retaliation came swiftly, dragging the bill and its supporters into the social media mud. His criticism has triggered a visible dip in Tesla’s stock-down more than 8% as of this writing, and 20% year-to-date.
Then there’s the elephant-or camera-in the room: Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) tech. Bloomberg recently revealed that a fatal crash tied to sunlight interference casts serious doubt on Tesla’s decision to rely solely on cameras. Musk rebuffed this, claiming Tesla’s photon-counting tech solves that-yet critics argue the CMOS sensors used simply can’t perform as advertised.
To make matters worse, Musk’s rising alignment with international players, particularly during a recent UAE visit where NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang got more spotlight, has reportedly added fuel to the fire.
At this point, some are calling this a master-class in distraction-billionaires bickering over who gets taxpayer-funded benefits while middle-class America watches from the sidelines.
Whether it’s about bruised pride, lost subsidies, or clashing empires, this Musk-Trump fallout signals a larger reckoning in how politics and corporate interests intersect-and who pays the price when things fall apart.