Donald Trump and Elon Musk are not the same person, but they could have been. One was born in Queens, New York; The other in Pretoria, South Africa. The two inherited their corresponding family fortunes, built their own empires, made their controversy their identity and used their networks (social truth and x) as the best speaker to speak without filters … and to propagate bulos. Trump recovered the White House and affirmed as the undisputed leader of the Maga Movement, while Musk consolidated in front of Tesla and Spacex, promoting the revolution of electric mobility and space exploration. His egos do not fit in the same room, much less in the Oval Office of the White House.
His was not a friendship. It was an alliance between two men who understand power as a scenario of permanent confrontation, where everything can be said, everything can be agreed and everything can be broken instantly. Between them they built a magic-technocratic axis that influenced the United States agenda during the first semester of 2025. Today, that axis has jumped through the air.
The fall of your relationship is not just a personal disagreement. It is a break with institutional, economic and technological consequences on a global scale. What began as a collaboration between two hypermillonarium egotistas ended up in an open war with accusations of betrayal, contractual threats and even insinuations about the Epstein case. The last act of a relationship marked by runaway egos, particular interests and an authoritarian vision of the world.
An impossible relationship
His first approach was in December 2016. Trump had just won the elections and appointed Musk member of his economic advisory advice. Then there was no magician cap or warm hugs: there was strategy. Tesla’s CEO needed to protect the interests of electric mobility and clean energy. But the honeymoon lasted little. In June 2017, after the departure of the US of the Paris Agreement, Musk cut the relationship: “Climate change is real,” he wrote on Twitter. “Leaving the Paris agreement is not good for the United States or for the world.”
Five years later, they met again. In 2022, Trump baptized him as “one of the world’s great geniuses.” In 2024, Musk became the largest individual donor of his campaign: 250 million dollars. In August, he proposed a commission to cut bureaucracy. Trump gave him a name (Doge) and a position as director. The high point came in October in Pennsylvania. Musk goes up to a rally with a magic cap and proclaims himself “dark magic.” After the electoral victory, the pact is sealed. Musk is invested as star advisor and technocratic voice of Trumpism 2.0.
Everything exploded on June 5. The origin: the Republican fiscal plan. Musk described him as “disgusting abomination.” Trump, from the White House, said “surprised” and “very disappointed.” “Elon knew the details of the project better than anyone,” he lamented before German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Musk, from X, denied it: “Approved so fast that almost no one in Congress could read it.” The crossing climbed. Trump hinted that he would withdraw all public contracts from Musk. He counterated with a bomb: he hinted that Trump appears in the archives of the Jeffrey Epstein pedophile. He even supported a message requested by the presidential ‘impeachment. “He went crazy!” Trump wrote in Truth Social.
Musk invoices
That same day, Tesla lost 14 % in the stock market: 150,000 million evaporated dollars. Musk, 27,000 million of its heritage. Investors came out in stampede before Trump’s direct threat: “The easiest way to save billions in the budget is to cancel all Elon’s subsidies and contracts.” Words matter, especially when they are in the mouth of the president of the United States.
The damage is not just financial. It is strategic. Spacex has commitments for 5,900 million with the space force and 2,890 with NASA for lunar missions. If they are checked or freezed, the American space calendar wobbles. Neuralink is under the magnifying glass of the FDA. Starlink depends on authorizations of the FCC. Tesla, of exemptions that NHTSSA could revoke. YX, its social network, faces FTC research and sec. “Every advantage that was expected from the proximity to Trump now becomes a risk,” summarizes Ross Gerber.
And the horizon is even more uncertain. The Tesla roadmap revolves around robotaxis without pedals or steering wheel. The government must authorize them. If it does not, the strategic plan sinks. To this is added the elimination of the subsidy of $ 7,500 per electric car, key to the business model. JP Morgan estimates a combined loss of 3.2 billion a year between regulatory benefits and credits.
Cornered, Musk tantea new exits. He released a survey on founding a new political party. Most voted yes. The message is clear: if Trump margrates him, he does not leave. He stays. But in its own way. Because neither Musk forgot, nor hit the return
