The relationship between US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk became a public conflict on Thursday (5), with former allies exchanging personal attacks after the billionaire had constantly criticized the Republican’s fiscal megaproject.
During a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump fired at Musk, who until last week was one of the main presidential counselors. “I’m very disappointed with Elon,” said Trump. “I helped Elon a lot.”
While the president criticized Musk, the billionaire responded in real time in X, the social media platform he has. “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, the Democrats would control the House and the Republicans would have 51 to 49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote. “What ingratitude,” he added.
Musk invested hundreds of millions of dollars to support Trump’s presidential campaign in 2024 and, after the president’s victory, received Carta Branca to cut off the federal staff.
Last week, Trump promoted a farewell event for Musk in the Oval Hall, celebrating him as “one of the largest business and innovative leaders the world has produced” and giving him a golden key with the White House emblem. Musk promised to remain “friend and counselor of the president.”
But this week, Musk began to attack the project that is one of Trump’s priorities. He has criticized the text in several posts in the X, calling it “disgusting abomination,” arguing that the proposal would undo all the work he did to cut government spending and implying that he would mira in republicans who supported the legislation in the middle-year term elections.
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Trump stated on Thursday that Musk’s criticism of the project was intensely self-employed, saying that he only opposed the legislation after the Republicans removed the mandate for electric vehicles, which would benefit Tesla, Musk’s company. The president also minimized Musk’s financial support during the campaign, arguing that he would have won in Pennsylvania without him.
Musk also countered Trump’s statement that he “knew the internal functioning of the project better than anyone here.” “False, this law has never been shown to me once and was approved by the hidden, so fast that almost no one in Congress has even read it!” Wrote Musk, sharing a video from Trump saying he was disappointed with him.
