The war of words between Donald Trump and Elon Musk escalated on Thursday, June 5, as the Tesla and SpaceX CEO fired back at the US President’s criticism over his rejection of Trump’s key economic bill.
Following his repeated disapproval of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” Musk launched a direct attack, claiming that Trump owed his election victory to him.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House, and Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
In the comment section, Elon Musk simply wrote, “Such ingratitude.”
This came shortly after US President Donald Trump publicly questioned the state of his relationship with the tech billionaire—hinting that their once-close alliance might be over. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office ahead of a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said, “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore. He hasn’t said anything bad about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. But I’m very disappointed… I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Tensions between Trump and the Tesla CEO have been mounting, with their relationship visibly deteriorating. When asked about Musk’s criticism, Trump admitted he was “very surprised” and suggested the backlash was tied to the removal of the electric vehicle (EV) mandate in the new spending bill. “We took the EV mandate,” Trump noted, referring to the legislation’s impact on the EV tax credit. “He’d rather criticize me than the bill.”
The verbal clash intensified on Thursday, as Musk shot back on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “Whatever. Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill.”
Musk also rejected Trump’s claims about his prior knowledge of the bill, responding, “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!”
