Trump threatens to end Elon Musk's government contracts as rift deepens – Courthouse News
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Wednesday, April 23, 2025
In response, the billionaire former ally accused Trump of lying and added the president was “in the Epstein files,” marking a major split between Musk and the White House.
WASHINGTON (CN) — The longstanding love affair between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk appeared well and truly over Thursday after the president and his former adviser traded public barbs on camera and on social media.
And Trump, in a major escalation, suggested that the U.S. government could cancel billions of dollars in contracts with Musk’s companies.
The billionaire, who last week wrapped up his stint as a senior White House adviser and head of the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, kicked some dirt in Trump’s eye on the way out the door — coming out against a budget reconciliation bill spearheaded by congressional Republicans and backed by the president.
Musk was reportedly angry about a provision in the legislation that would paper over a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles that benefits Tesla, his automotive company. And on Thursday, Trump himself confirmed those suspicions to reporters.
“All of a sudden he had a problem,” the president said in the Oval Office. “He only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that’s billions and billions of dollars.”
Trump also contended that his former adviser “knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody” and that he had no problem with it.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump expanded on those claims, adding that he asked Musk to leave his position at the White House because the billionaire was “wearing thin.”
“I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted … and he just went CRAZY!” wrote the president, who argued that Musk had known for “months” that the tax credits were on the chopping block.
And in a separate post, he took things a step further, threatening to hit Musk where it hurt most — his many companies.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Musk’s companies, most notably aerospace firm SpaceX, hold billions of dollars in government contracts. SpaceX provides the feds with launch services and internet connectivity via Starlink, the billionaire’s satellite internet venture.
Trump’s comments triggered a social media firestorm from the billionaire on X, which he also owns.
Musk accused the president of lying, writing that he never saw the budget reconciliation package “even once.” He argued that congressional Republicans passed the measure out of the House last month “in the dead of night,” a remark which mirrored almost exactly what Democrats had said about the bill at the time.
The billionaire also slammed Trump’s “wearing thin” post as an “obvious lie.”
And Musk, who panned the sweeping legislation as a “disgusting abomination” that would balloon the national deficit, dug up a 2012 post from Trump in which the now-president argued that no member of Congress should be eligible for reelection if they do not balance the federal budget. He argued that he would support rolling back electric vehicle credits if the reconciliation bill cut “all the crazy spending increases.”
The billionaire further took credit for congressional Republicans’ performance in the 2024 election, arguing that without his involvement Trump would have lost the election, Democrats would control the House and the GOP would have a razor-thin majority in the Senate.
Capping off his social media maelstrom, Musk added that Trump was “in the Epstein files,” a reference to information related to contacts of New York financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“That is the real reason they have not been made public,” the billionaire wrote. “Have a nice day, DJT!”
The deepening feud between Trump and Musk was a field day for Democrats who have long framed the billionaire as an unelected bureaucrat who the White House had given free rein to gut federal agencies and unilaterally slash government spending.
“BILLIONAIRE BROMANCE BREAKUP WEEK IN DC!” wrote Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in a post on X. “Does anyone have popcorn?” Wisconsin Senator Tina Smith posted. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer simply reacted with a popcorn emoji.
Reacting to Trump’s threat to cancel Musk’s government contracts, Wisconsin Representative Mark Pocan wrote that “a broken clock is right twice a day.”
The Musk-Trump meltdown comes just a day after Republican leaders in Congress expressed confusion at the billionaire’s about-face on the budget reconciliation bill, which is now up for debate in the Senate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday told reporters that Musk’s flip was “curious” but that he considered the former presidential adviser a friend and that he didn’t take the move personally. But Johnson added that the billionaire was “flat wrong” about the bill.
If made law, the budget reconciliation measure would implement huge swaths of the Trump administration’s legislative agenda, making it a vital piece of legislation for congressional Republicans. The bill would, among other things, expand the president’s tax cuts implemented during his first term, and would slash some government spending while adding new budget for border security and defense operations.
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