Politics
Elon Takes Vicious Swipe At Trump, Immediately Regrets It
Another day, another verbal vying between former friends Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.
As the U.S. Senate appears headed toward passage of Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax cut bill, Musk has increasingly lashed out on social media, accusing Senate Republicans of consigning Americans to “debt slavery” over the spending contained in the bill.
On Tuesday, the mercurial businessman found himself on the receiving end of a retort from President Trump, who came out swinging after letting Musk dangle in the wind for most of Monday.
“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!” Musk wrote.
He promised to seed the start of a new “America Party” if Republicans cast aside concerns about the national debt to cement Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
The threat prompted President Trump to suggest Musk might be forced to return to his native South Africa if he loses out on billions of dollars in electric vehicle subsidies that are being stripped from federal line items as part of the bill.
“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this?”
The thought of turning the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency against Musk after he introduced its cost-cutting measures to the federal government would certainly be an ironic twist of fate.
The specter of a government audit did not appear to faze Musk, who spent Tuesday morning reposting messages calling his SpaceX rockets “more beautiful” than Trump’s bill and sharing results from political betting markets staking the possibility that his “America Party” gets off the ground later this year.
“Removal of funding for enforcement of federal contempt of court orders is the actual crux of this spending bill. This is nominally aimed at removal of illegal immigrants, but obviously also enables many other abuses of power by the President,” Musk wrote, asking his followers, “Should this be allowed?”
Tesla, the largest maker of electric vehicles in the U.S., benefits heavily from federal subsidies that are set to be slashed. Under the Biden administration, new EV purchases were eligible for up to $7,500 in rebates while used EVs could return as much as $4,000 to customers. Both offers have been zeroed out in the bill, which appears to now have enough votes to pass the Senate.
Tesla’s stock is down 13% over the past five days and fell further on Tuesday after Trump’s threat, the Daily Mail notes.
The two men’s roller coaster relationship rode the highs and lows of the presidential election. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement: Musk injected more than $250 million into various get-out-the-vote operations that may have contributed to Trump’s sweep of all seven swing states, and in return, Musk was given a prominent role in the new administration to oversee austerity, a personal cause he holds dear.
It all came apart following Musk’s departure from the White House in May, when stories quoting anonymous sources cast him as a mentally addled drug user who made randy comments to women while financially supporting an array of mistresses and ex-wives who bore his 14 children.