Trump-Musk Tensions Reach Breaking Point
BBC News
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Trump-Musk Tensions Reach Breaking Point
BBC News
Tensions between US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have reached breaking point, and the bromance is over between the world's most powerful leader and richest man
For more than a week, Musk has been trashing Trump's signature piece of legislation – a spending bill – actively lobbying against it
On Thursday, while meeting the German leader in the Oval Office, Trump spoke candidly about his disappointment with Musk
In response, Musk launched a series of extraordinary attacks on X, suggesting without evidence that Trump appears in unreleased files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
Trump shot back several times, saying that Musk "went CRAZY" and was asked to leave the administration. He also threatened to cut government contracts with Musk's companies
Amid the fighting, Tesla's stock price dropped a significant 14%, lowering Musk's EV giant below the $1 trillion threshold
But Musk has walked back from an earlier threat to decommission a crucial SpaceX spacecraft used by US astronauts
The public feud comes after Musk last week officially left his government post, where he was tasked with rooting out excessive spending through Doge
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Watch: How Trump and Musk’s fall out played out in real time
Edited by Stuart Lau
One of Washington's most significant alliances – between US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the world's richest man – has broken up in a very public spat.
In no equivocal terms, Trump told the media that he was "very disappointed" in the man whom he once authorised to slash federal funding.
They have now turned on each other, as a disagreement has ballooned into a war of words, writes our North America Correspondent Anthony Zurcher.
And that comes with serious policy and business implications: Musk initially threatened to decommission a crucial spacecraft owned by his SpaceX company, only to walk back from it hours later. Meanwhile, his other company, Tesla, saw share prices drop by 14%.
We will be pausing our live coverage shortly, but you can stay across this story on BBC News: Trump and Musk trade insults as row explodes in public view.
From friendship to feud: Let's take a look back at some of the most important moments in the relationship between the two men making the news today.
Elon Musk's first appearance at a Trump rally in October 2024, as Trump was campaigning for president
All smiles as Musk spoke with Vice President JD Vance and Trump at the Army-Navy football game in December 2024. It shows just how close of an ally Musk had become to the president
Musk also showed up at a rally just a day before Trump's second inauguration in January this year
And here's Musk attending Trump's second inauguration, next to other tech CEOs
Musk took questions about the new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) from the Oval Office in February this year
In March, Musk wore a Trump Was Right About Everything! hat while attending a cabinet meeting at the White House
Trump said he would buy a Tesla car, the brand owned by Musk, after calls for boycotts of the company
Last week, Trump gifted Musk a golden key as the Tesla CEO announced plans to leave Washington
It's just past 6am BST. For those of you just joining us, here is what has been unfolding in Washington:
Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent
Elon Musk and Donald Trump had forged a powerful but unlikely alliance, culminating in the tech billionaire holding a key position of budget-slashing authority in the Trump administration.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, became one of the biggest stories of Trump’s first 100 days, as it shuttered entire agencies and sacked thousands of government workers.
It wasn’t long, however, before speculation began over when – and how – the two outsized personalities would ultimately fall out.
For a while, it seemed like those predictions were off the mark. Trump stood by Musk even as the latter’s popularity dropped, feuded with administration officials and became a liability in several key elections earlier this year.
Every time it appeared there would be a break, Musk would pop up in the Oval Office, or the Cabinet room, or on the president’s Air Force One flight to Mar-a-Lago.
When Musk’s 130 days as a "special government employee" ended last week, the two had a chummy Oval Office send-off, with hints that Musk might someday return.
It’s safe to say that any invitation has been rescinded.
"Elon and I had a great relationship," Trump said on Thursday – a comment notable for its use of the past tense.
Peter Hoskins
BBC News
Whatever you think about the feud that's broken out between Trump and Musk, one winner has been engagement on the Tesla tycoon's social media platform X.
Musk quote posted a meme alluding to it boosting X active user numbers with laughing and bullseye emojis.
And the multibillionaire is doing his bit to boost traffic as he posts multiple times about the row.
In one reply, he responded to a post by far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, external saying: "Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years …"
On the other hand, Musk has also signalled that he may be ready to bury the hatchet with Trump.
In response to a post by billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, external calling for them to "make peace", Musk wrote: "You’re not wrong".
Americans have been reacting to the souring relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Have a watch:
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'It's like a bad break-up,' one American says of the latest political developments
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Washington
Earlier today, Musk suggested without evidence on X that Trump had appeared in unreleased files held by the government related to late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In response, a source familiar with the matter has dismissed Musk's allegations about Trump and Epstein as nothing new, as the administration already released the Epstein files with Trump's name included.
The source has also questioned why Musk had aligned himself so closely with the US president if he truly believed that he was deeply involved with Epstein.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking and died by suicide while awaiting trial. Trump was president at the time and said he "knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him" but had a "falling out with him a long time ago".
James Chater
Live reporter
Musk leaving a Beijing restaurant during a visit to the Chinese capital in 2023
As we have reported, Musk’s businesses have faced challenges in China over recent months.
But Musk’s deep footprint in China has caused anxiety in Washington for much longer, including among those who are now top officials in the Trump administration.
Senior Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, held meetings with Musk over his years as Tesla's chief executive.
Tesla’s electric car factory near Shanghai is its biggest outside the US, and has generated billions in revenue for the company in recent years.
All that – as well as Musk repeating Beijing’s position on sensitive issues like Taiwan – prompted concerns in the US around conflict of interest.
In 2022, Marco Rubio, now US Secretary of State, said Tesla was “helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up genocide” in Xinjiang, after reports emerged the company had opened a new dealership in the region facing allegations of widespread human rights abuses.
The New York Times reported last year that the US Air Force had denied Musk high-level security access.
Elon Musk has just contradicted an earlier post about decommissioning a crucial spacecraft owned by his company, SpaceX.
Musk has now said that he “won’t decommission” the Dragon spacecraft, used by NASA to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.
Musk made the comment on his social media account on X, sent to his 220 million followers, in a reply to an account with just over 250 followers.
Adam Hancock
BBC News
Markets are open in Asia and a number of the big Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers have opened lower.
Shares in the world's biggest EV marker, BYD, dropped at the open in Hong Kong and are currently trading almost 2% down.
Elsewhere and big names like Nio and Li Auto are all seeing a drop in their share price.
Earlier, Tesla's shares plunged following the escalating row between chief executive Elon Musk and Donald Trump, the US president. They closed down over 14% in US trading.
Elsewhere and markets in Asia are broadly higher following the phone call between Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
Benchmark indices in Australia and Japan are higher – although Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index is slightly down.
Given the huge amount of focus on Musk and Trump, you may have missed the news that the US president held a phone call with his Chinese counterpart on Thursday.
Trump said he had a "very good talk" with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and now plans to visit China, adding that he had reciprocated with an invite to Xi for a White House visit.
The phone call was the first between the leaders of the world's two biggest economies since Trump launched a trade war with Beijing in February.
Ahead of the call, both sides had accused each other of breaching a trade agreement that was arranged in Geneva just a few weeks ago.
You can read more about their phone call here.
Let's take a look at Elon Musk's headaches on the other side of the world – China.
This spat with Donald Trump comes at a challenging time for the Tesla chief executive, as his company is struggling in China, the world's biggest electric vehicle market.
Tesla sales in China have declined for the eighth straight month. Sales of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were down 15% in May from a year ago, according to the latest data from the China Passenger Car Association.
Chinese rival BYD also reported annual revenue for 2024 that leapfrogged Tesla.James Chater
Live reporter
A lot is at risk for Elon Musk if Donald Trump decides, in his words, to "terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts".
Of Musk's two major companies, SpaceX and Tesla, the former receives the vast majority of direct government grants.
Just a moment ago, long-time Trump ally Steve Bannon called on the White House to "seize SpaceX tonight". Musk, for his part, announced he would "begin decommissioning" SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which NASA has used to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
Many of SpaceX's contracts are for classified projects, so it is difficult to determine the exact total value. But it is estimated to be in the tens of billions.
In the 2024 fiscal year alone, SpaceX received $3.8bn (£2.8bn), according to government records.
Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, has said the company has about $22bn (£16bn) in government contracts, as the BBC has previously reported. At least $15bn (£11bn) of that is derived from NASA, according to the Reuters news agency.
One of the largest SpaceX agreements with the US Department of Defense is a $733m (£540m) National Security Space Launch contract, to help launch satellites into orbit.
The Washington Post has reported that Musk's ventures have received at least $38bn (£28bn) in contracts, loans and subsidies over many years.
Steve Bannon, a long-time ally of Donald Trump, has said the US president should "seize SpaceX tonight, before midnight".
SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, receives billions of dollars in US government contracts, including funding for multiple projects with NASA.
"He's a know-it-all. He knows some engineering, don't get me wrong," Bannon said on his own podcast, War Room, referring to Musk. "But he doesn't know anything about the real world."
Bannon's comments come as Trump and Musk traded threats over cutting government contracts to Musk's businesses.
Lily Jamali
North America Technology Correspondent
It has long intrigued me that President Donald Trump never fully re-embraced X, formerly Twitter, despite Elon Musk inviting him back onto his platform.
Recall that during the first Trump administration, Twitter was Trump’s favourite megaphone.
When the company (pre-Musk) removed him from the platform following the 6 January Capitol attacks, Trump started his own: Truth Social.
And today, years later, that’s the platform Trump is using, external to fire off his threats against Elon Musk.
Perhaps it was the possibility of a moment just like this one that kept Trump away.
“It’s about control," said Noah Smith, writer of the Noahpinion Substack, who spoke with me by phone after the spat erupted.
"Trump realized that if he was dependent on Elon’s platform, Elon could have that to hold over him, and then have power over him.”
Trump has an intimate understanding of how power works after years of dealings in New York real estate and finance, Smith notes.
After purchasing the platform in 2022 and taking it private, Musk arranged for his artificial intelligence startup xAI to purchase X earlier this year.
The White House has responded Musk's allegation that Trump appears in unreleased files held by the government related to late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Musk provided no evidence for the claim.
"This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted," said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
"The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.” 
Gary O'Donoghue
Chief North America correspondent
The disintegration of the relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk – that most people predicted – is now a reality.
Exactly a week ago, the two of them were side by side in the Oval Office in a show of unity at the end of Musk’s stint as a special government employee – a full-blown political love-in if ever I saw one.
But that apparent harmony lasted about 48 hours. Over the weekend, Musk launched a blistering attack on Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill, calling it an “abomination”.
Today we saw the president responding in person for the first time. Speaking here at the White House, he said he was “very disappointed” in Musk.
Trump claimed that once people leave his orbit, they often turn hostile and fall victim to “Trump derangement syndrome”.
Now, Musk has completely unloaded on the president on X – his own platform, accusing Trump of ingratitude and claiming the president wouldn’t have won the election without his support; pinning all this to the top of his timeline – and dredging up lots of Trump quotes to reinforce his point.
So, now we have the richest man in the world at war with the most powerful man in the world – hold tight.
Earlier today, we reached out to the FBI for a comment on Musk's allegation that Trump appears in unreleased files held by the government related to late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
For context, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the US's national investigative agency, which has handled information related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
"The FBI does not have a comment on the matter," it replied.
If you’re just joining us, the world's richest person and the most powerful politician are at loggerheads.
Just last week, tech billionaire Elon Musk got a warm send-off from US President Donald Trump as he stepped down from his role as a special employee for the US government.
But today, after the president said he was "disappointed" and "surprised" by Musk’s criticism of his tax and spending bill, Musk didn’t let it slide.
He took to X, calling the bill a “big, ugly spending bill,” and started a poll asking if it’s time to create a new political party “that actually represents the 80% in the middle.”
He’s pinned the poll to the top of his X account. At the time of writing, over 2.1 million have voted, with 81.9% saying “Yes”.
Trump responded, threatening to cancel Musk’s government contracts, saying Elon Musk “went CRAZY”.
Since then, Musk’s said Trump’s tariffs will cause a recession, and escalated things with an unverified claim about Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump’s latest: “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.”
Stay with us as this online feud, which could spill into real life, rumbles on.Lily Jamali
North America Technology Correspondent
Elon Musk’s foray into right-wing politics cost Tesla dearly at the start of the Trump administration.
Protests, dubbed #TeslaTakedown, have played out across the country most weekends since Trump took office, and Tesla sales have plunged.
"He should not be deciding the fate of our democracy by disassembling our government piece by piece. It's not right,” protestor Linda Koistinen told me at a demonstration outside a Berkeley, California Tesla dealership in February.
Koistinen said she wanted to make a “visible stand” against Musk personally.
Now, Musk’s stunning spat with Trump may actually help the Tesla brand, according to Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
“We’re a very forgiving country,” Moorhead says in a telephone interview.
“These things take time,” he acknowledges, but “it’s not unprecedented”.
Earlier this week, in an interview, veteran tech reporter and analyst Kara Swisher likened Musk’s personal brand to that of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
She said Gates was once regarded as “the Darth Vader of Silicon Valley” because of his "arrogant and rude" personality.
Today, despite his flaws, Gates has largely rehabilitated his image.
“He learned. He grew up. People can change,” Swisher told me, even as she acknowledged that Musk is “clearly troubled.”
Whether that will draw prospective Tesla buyers back to the brand is another story.
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