Elon Musk calls for Trump to be impeached in escalating feud – The Times
Elon Musk called for President Trump to be impeached as simmering tension between the two escalated into an all-out war across their respective social media platforms.
The two men traded barbs for several hours on Thursday afternoon, with Musk at one point suggesting that Trump was withholding documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring because the president himself was implicated in them.
Trump fired back at Musk’s flurry of posts by calling him “crazy” and suggesting his government contracts and subsidies be cancelled.
Thursday’s hostility erupted after Trump expressed that he was “very disappointed” with his former adviser, who left his job as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) last week after a friendly joint press conference at the White House.
Musk has spent the days since lambasting Trump’s signature economic proposal, dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill”, saying its measures do not do enough to cut America’s debt.
“Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Thursday. “I don’t know if we will any more. Elon knew the inner workings of this bill. He never had a problem until right after he left … I’m very disappointed in Elon.
“I think he misses the place … People leave my administration and they love us and then at some point they miss it so badly … some leave and become hostile.”
The bill includes tax cuts as well as plans to slim down government spending. It is being considered by the Senate after being approved by the House of Representatives last month. One of the measures is a proposal to remove consumer tax credits for electric vehicles. Trump suggested that Musk’s attacks on the bill were over concerns that it could damage his electric car company, Tesla.
Musk denied knowing what was in the bill before it went to the House.
“False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” he wrote on X after the Merz meeting.
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The South Africa-born businessman poured as much as $300 million into Trump’s presidential campaign, along with other Republican causes, last year. In a later post, he claimed to be responsible for the president’s re-election.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote. “Such ingratitude.”
Trump joined the online fray by accusing Musk of going “crazy” at the end of his tenure in the White House.
“Elon was wearing thin, I asked him to leave, I took away his [electric vehicle] mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” he wrote.
“The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Addressing Trump’s allegation about electric vehicle subsidies, Musk wrote: “Whatever. Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil [and] gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill.
“In the entire history of civilisation, there has never been legislation that [is] both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.”
The billionaire brought his X followers into the row with a poll suggesting a new political party should be created to serve “the 80 per cent” of centrist Americans.
He then upped the ante, purporting to reveal dirt on Trump. “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” he wrote.
He wasn’t done. In a later salvo, Musk responded by saying “yes” to another user who posted the suggestion that Trump should be impeached and that JD Vance, his vice-president, ought to take over. Moments later the businessman said that “the Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year”.
Shares in Tesla extended losses after Trump’s criticism of Musk. The shares have lost almost 25 per cent of their value since the start of the year. They dropped 14 per cent on Thursday, wiping more than $100 billion from the value of the company. However, they recovered some of the ground they lost on Thursday, and by mid morning on Friday were up just over 4 per cent.
Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser, told The New York Times that the South Africa-born Musk should be deported.
“They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately,” he said in a phone interview.
Trump’s final word, at the time of writing, was to say: “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.”
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would “not get involved” in the row between Musk and Trump, but said it “was confident that Trump will sort out this situation himself.”
There was speculation on Friday morning that the two were planning a call to clear the air, but that was scotched by Trump, who told CNN: “I am not even thinking about Elon.
“He’s got a problem,” Trump is reported to have added, although he “wishes Elon well”.
There are also reports that the president is planning to sell or give away the Tesla he bought in March. The car, which has been visible in the car park at the White House complex, has been used by various members of his staff.
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