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An alliance between the two most powerful men in the world seemed destined to blow up into a volatile feud yet somehow held … until it didn’t.
Within a few hours on Thursday, the public spat between Donald Trump and Elon Musk exploded into debates over the president’s impeachment, calls to launch primary challengers against Republican allies in Congress, and Musk’s accusation that the president is implicated in a sexual abuse scandal.
But how they choose to escalate from here could have far-reaching impacts — and not just for the fate of a massive bill that sparked their breakup.
Trump and Musk command the world’s attention, own competing social media platforms, and are each in a position to wield the power of the presidency and spend, and lose, billions of dollars against one another.
How Trump could go after Musk
Kill government contracts
Trump has already suggested yanking government contracts for Musk’s companies Tesla and SpaceX, which are due to receive at least $3 billion in contracts from 17 agencies.
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“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
On his War Room podcast, Trump ally Steve Bannon urged Trump to retaliate against the world’s wealthiest man by, among other things, using the Defense Production Act to take control of SpaceX. “The U.S. government should seize it,” Bannon said Thursday.
Cut off Elon’s access to the White House
Musk ended his 130-day “special government employee” term in the Trump administration last week after serving as an “adviser” to the president for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which Musk unleashed across the federal government to make drastic cuts to spending and the workforce.
But Trump left the door open for Musk to return. That 130-day term can be renewed next year. Trump could sever that arrangement at any time.
Bannon also called on Trump to strip Musk’s top-secret clearances, which he is granted in conjunction with his work on SpaceX and NASA.
Make X illegal
With more than 220 million followers on a social media platform under his control, Musk can use that audience and ability to shift media narratives against the president to advance his agenda. Trump, whose entire campaign was built on retribution, possesses executive authority to shut X down, according to experts.
Trump could declare X a national security risk, “which would permit him to ban the platform outright,” claims Devan Leos with AI platform Undetectable AI.
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The president could invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on national security grounds to prevent X from operating, which would likely trigger a high-profile legal battle.
“Musk now faces a difficult choice. He can ban Trump from X in retaliation, but that would almost certainly trigger an executive response from the White House,” according to Leos.
The president, meanwhile, owns more than 100 million shares, or roughly 53 per cent, of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of social media platform Truth Social. His stake in the company is worth billions of dollars.
Investigate Musk’s immigration status and drug use
Musk was born in South Africa before he emigrated to Canada and later the United States. Last year, The Washington Post reported that the billionaire worked in the country illegally before gaining citizenship.
Bannon called on the president to deport him. “Elon Musk is illegal. He’s got to go too,” Bannon said on his War Room podcast.
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Trump also could wield the power of his office to initiate other investigations under a Department of Justice controlled by his fierce ally Attorney General Pam Bondi, including into allegations of his drug use at the campaign trail and within the administration.
How Musk could go after Trump
Flood opponents with cash
The world’s wealthiest person spent tens of millions of dollars supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign. On Thursday, he took credit for his victory. But this year, his multimillion-dollar effort to support a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate blew up in his face, with his DOGE efforts tanking his — and Tesla’s — appeal.
Still, Republican candidates fear being his target. Musk and his allies have threatened to fund primary challenges against any GOP member of Congress who supports legislation he doesn’t.
“Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80 percent in the middle?” Musk asked on Thursday.
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Democrats agree with Musk that Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is a disaster but aren’t necessarily welcoming him to the party after the right-wing billionaire torched government agencies and helped but Trump back in office.
“We should ultimately be trying to convince him that the Democratic Party has more of the values that he agrees with,” California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, whose district represents Silicon Valley, told Politico. “A commitment to science funding, a commitment to clean technology, a commitment to seeing international students like him.”
Liam Kerr, co-founder of the centrist WelcomeFest meeting underway in Washington during the Trump-Musk feud, told the outlet that “of course” Democrats should be open to Musk.
“You don’t want anyone wildly distorting your politics, which he has a unique capability to do. But it’s a zero-sum game,” Kerr told Politico. “Anything that he does that moves more toward Democrats hurts Republicans.”
Wield social media against the president
It took just four hours for a feud playing out on two different social media platforms for Musk to drop what he called a “bomb” against the president.
“Time to drop the really big bomb,” he wrote on X. “[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.”
That loaded accusation — Musk’s suggestion that Trump was involving the sex offender’s trafficking scheme — appeared to be the tipping point in their feud.
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Musk, who just days ago seemed to have no problem associating with a man he is now alleging is implicated in Epstein’s crimes, could launch a humiliation campaign against the president for an audience that has been largely disappointed with the Trump administration’s approach to the Epstein case.
Far-right influencers have turned on top federal law enforcement officials over the case, accusing Trump of continuing what they believe is a “deep state” conspiracy theory covering up powerful people. Musk could leverage that hostility.
Use DOGE against Trump
Musk hired a small army of young loyalists and old allies for his government-wide operation to not only eliminate jobs and spending but extract reams of data from millions of Americans.
DOGE’s unprecedented access to Americans’ data “is alarming, made worse by the complete absence of meaningful oversight,” according to Ben Zipperer, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “That unrestrained access to data will likely worsen the problem of identity theft in the United States, which could cost working families tens of billions of dollars annually.”
A report from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office also uncovered more than 100 instances that Musk allegedly abused his role as a “special government employee” overseeing DOGE to benefit his private interests.
Musk violated “norms at an astonishing pace,” amounting to “scandalous behavior regardless of whether it subjects him to criminal prosecution.”
The report accuses Musk of using the government to promote his businesses, including turning the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom, and allegedly discovered roughly two dozen instances where the government “entered or explored new lucrative contracts” with the billionaire while halting enforcement actions against his companies.
