Elon Musk’s insults toward Donald Trump left the president “dejected” and “rattled,” The Washington Post reported Saturday. Now it’s apparently Trump’s turn to trash his former ally, saying he will not make amends.
Musk’s departure from the Trump administration was announced last week after Trump pulled his nomination for Musk’s ally, Jared Isaacman, to lead NASA. Musk then made the feud public when he began dumping on Trump’s tax bill, calling it a “disgusting abomination.” A Trump administration official said they are “taking away Elon’s friends,” Rolling Stone reported, and now, Trump has deemed the relationship over. On Saturday, Trump told NBC News that he is too busy to speak to Musk.
The president called Musk, who reportedly took so much ketamine during the 2024 campaign that he could not pee right, “a big-time drug addict” in a phone call, a source told The Post. Trump reportedly made several phone calls to those in his inner circle as well as acquaintances about the split.
Musk’s drug habits on the campaign trail included ketamine, Ecstasy, and psychedelic mushrooms, The New York Times reported late last month. His drug usage, and the media discussion surrounding it, helped drive the breakup, White House officials told the Post.
The former head of the Department of Government Efficiency lobbed insults at Trump earlier this week that culminated into one alleging there were files showing the president’s connections to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which he has since deleted. Vice President J.D. Vance said in response that Trump “didn’t do anything wrong” with Epstein.
“Most entertaining outcome is most likely,” Musk, who has been posting less often than usual, wrote on X Saturday.
Those close to the president expected him to be more vitriolic toward his new adversary, The Post reported, but he was quieter at first this time, reportedly telling people not to escalate the situation. He even reportedly told Vance to be diplomatic.
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“I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday.
“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV 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 in another post. The furthest Trump went earlier this week was to threaten to cancel Musk’s government contracts.
Now the president is looking more and more like his regular self. When NBC News asked on Saturday whether he had any interest in making amends, Trump said, “No.” The outlet also asked whether he thought his relationship with Musk was over. “I would assume so, yeah,” he said.
When NBC News asked Trump whether he would speak to Musk soon, he said he was otherwise occupied. “I’m too busy doing other things,” he said. “I have no intention of speaking to him.”
He also told the outlet that Musk had been disrespectful. “I think it’s a very bad thing, because he’s very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the President.”
Even so, this sounds tepid for a person who, for example, insulted how Heidi Cruz, Ted Cruz’s wife, looks and suggested Cruz’s father was linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He called Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley “birdbrain” and Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate Tim Walz “tampon Tim.”
Musk has been the recipient of Trump’s classic insults as well. “When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, “drop to your knees and beg,” and he would have done it…” Trump posted on Truth Social in 2022.
Trump’s biggest escalation was a threat toward Musk in the NBC News interview. He said that there would be “serious consequences” if Musk funds Democrats to run against Republicans who support Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
“He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” he told NBC News. He did not say what those consequences would be.
Musk had previously slammed the bill in a post on X. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” he wrote.
The political arm of SpaceX, Musk’s company, has made donations to Democrats. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) received $24,000 from SpaceX’s PAC, which she donated to a food bank, Axios reported. Overall, Democrats are not interested in Musk’s help.
“I don’t give a shit about Elon Musk,” Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) told Axios. “I just don’t. We’ve got real problems.”
“He doesn’t need to come back into our fold, if he ends up being a spoiler on their end, that ends up helping us,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) told the outlet.
Musk does not seem interested in joining the Democrats either. “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?” he posted on X earlier this week.
From Rolling Stone US
