They have been virtually inseparable since the closing weeks of the 2024 campaign, but their closeness has precipitated a question that looms over the relationship: when will Donald Trump and Elon Musk part ways?
Two men famed for their egos, temperamental attitudes, spotlight-hogging, and lust for unlimited power surely can’t maintain a lasting political alliance, many observers have argued. And the first Trump administration was remarkable for its rate of turnover, cycling through advisors and officials at such a rate that some are best known for the brevity of their tenure. Yet as the months go by, Trump seemingly hasn’t inched closer to telling his billionaire buddy, “You’re fired,” even when provoked by jokes about Musk being the “shadow president.” He has continued to go out of his way to do his megadonor significant favors — like hosting a showcase for electric vehicles from Tesla at the White House.
So a Politico headline published on Wednesday came as a challenge to the the spirit of ongoing collaboration that the U.S. head of state and the world’s most influential oligarch have cultivated: “Trump Tells Inner Circle That Musk Will Leave Soon,” it read. The report, which included comments from various Trump insiders, detailed how the president, despite his strong support for Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as it gutted federal agencies, has hinted at the billionaire soon leaving Washington to once more tend to his corporate empire, possibly when his allotted 130-day term as a “special government employee” comes to an end. The article also described the frustration other advisors and officials have experienced working alongside the unpredictable Musk, who does not communicate well and can demonstrate disastrous political instincts, as with his outrageous claim that Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
And some in Trump’s orbit have come to feel, Politico reported, that the mounting negative attention around Musk could become a liability for the president and the Republican party. A new Marquette poll released Wednesday showed that 41 percent of respondents approved of his work with DOGE, with 58 disapproving, while his personal favorability stood at 38 percent, compared to 60 percent unfavorable. These numbers sat alongside a declining job approval rating for Trump himself and an increasingly gloomy outlook for the economy.
If there was an added reason to believe a Trump-Musk split was in the offing, it’s that the White House strenuously denied it. “This ‘scoop’ is garbage,” wrote White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on X on Wednesday morning, sharing the Politico piece. “Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.” While Leavitt did not dispute the reporting in the article, it’s true that Musk and Trump have indeed offered vague assurances that Musk won’t be a prominent fixture of the administration forever: at a White House event for Tesla, Musk told the press, “I think I’ll know when it’s time,” and that “I’ll stay as long as it’s useful and productive.” In December, before Trump took office, Musk shared a post from Trump surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy, who was to co-lead DOGE but got forced out by Musk, announcing that DOGE had set an expiration date of July 4, 2026. “The final step of @DOGE is to delete itself,” Musk wrote.
Musk shared Leavitt’s attack on the Politico report on Wednesday afternoon, likewise declaring it “fake news.” Yet he waited hours to say this, almost till market close, on a day when it seemed that both Tesla shares and stocks in general were responding favorably to the idea of Musk getting back to business as usual — as opposed to, say, spending millions and hosting town halls in support of GOP candidates who are then blown out by 10 points. That’s exactly what happened to a Musk-bankrolled candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, in a contest that Musk later claimed he “expected to lose.” (Previously, he had said that the race, which he posted about incessantly, “might decide the future of America and Western Civilization!”).
Musk’s apparent insistence that he would not be stepping aside in the “coming weeks,” as Politico put it, was also at odds with his own comments in a DOGE-focused interview on Fox News last Thursday. In that appearance, he estimated that DOGE’s work would be largely finished within the 130-day special government employee window. “I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that time frame,” he said, indicating that he would transition out of his Beltway role by the end of May.
Given this estimate, it’s not clear what aspects of the report Musk considered to be “fake news,” and it could be that he was merely objecting to accounts of Trump allies characterizing him as an annoyance and liability. One person who didn’t bother to repudiate Politico’s claims, however, was Trump. Instead, the president was touting what he called “Liberation Day,” in commemoration of new global tariffs of up to 50 percent on imports from abroad. The official announcement of this unpopular policy was delayed until 4:00 p.m. ET, or market close, in apparent expectation of an economic shock, and stocks plunged in after-hours trading.
From Rolling Stone US
