Elon Musk Trump - USA Today
Trump says Elon Musk will face 'very serious consequences' if he funds Democratic candidates
Elon Musk and Donald Trump: Visionaries in Different Fields
Donald Trump and Elon Musk are two of the best-known and polarizing leaders in the modern world. Even though they come from vastly different worlds and operate in different fields—technology and business on one side and politics and real estate on the other—they share some similarity in their personality: both are bold, publicity-hungry, and not opposed to controversy. In spite of this, their intentions,USA leadership styles, and contributions to society are reasonably different.
Backgrounds and Childhood
Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, USA ,South Africa. He showed his interest in business and USA technology at a young age. At the age of 12, he taught himself computer programming and sold his first video game before reaching teenage life. Musk migrated to the United States to pursue college studies, where he eventually earned physics and economics degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. He dropped out of a Stanford PhD program to pursue business ventures and founded Zip2 and later X.com, which evolved into PayPal.
Donald Trump was born in 1946 to a prominent real estate family in USA New York City. His father, Fred Trump, was a wealthy builder. Donald stepped into his shoes, graduating from the Wharton School of USA Finance and USA eventually inheriting the business. He developed it significantly, building huge real estate developments in Manhattan and becoming a household name through television and books, most prominently as the host of The Apprentice.
Careers and Achievements
Elon Musk is best known as the CEO of Tesla, which revolutionized the electric car industry, and SpaceX, which became the first private company to put humans into space. He also created USA Neuralink, The Boring Company, and OpenAI. His passion has been to solve global problems like climate change, sustainable energy, and space exploration. Musk's projects are usually futuristic and grand in nature with an aim to revolutionize the way humans live, move, and communicate.
Donald Trump's career has been mostly focused on real estate, branding, and entertainment. He made the Trump name a global brand, licensing it to hotels, golf courses, and consumer products. His biggest success, however, was as the 45th President of the United States in 2016. His administration witnessed sweeping tax cuts, a conservative judiciary shift, and a strong focus on deregulation and "America First" policies. Trump also made a lasting impact on the foreign policy of the United States, especially in how he handled China, NATO, and the Middle East.
Leadership Styles
Musk is usually referred to as a workaholic and a visionary. He has the reputation for setting very ambitious targets and making his staff work around the clock to achieve them. His style of leadership has been faulted as brutal, but it has propelled innovation too. Musk speaks directly to the public via social media, particularly X (previously Twitter), where he frequently makes significant announcements.
Trump's leadership style is populist and combative. Trump employs straightforward communication, specifically on social media, more frequently to USA connect with his constituents. Trump is a believer in loyalty and repays it in his business and political relationships. Trump's presidency was outside of the ordinary, and he regularly avoided traditional media and political norms. Trump's strategy delighted those who felt the political establishment had abandoned them but created deep divisions in the country.
Media and Public Perception
Both men have had immense impact on media and public opinion. Musk is most commonly depicted as a futuristic inventor, sometimes likened to Thomas Edison or Tony Stark. He's viewed as an icon of innovation and drive. Yet, his erratic behavior on social media and battles with regulators have also created concerns.
Trump has been a fixture in the media since the 1980s. He framed himself as being successful and strong, frequently using television and magazines. Throughout his presidency, he was one of the most polarizing political figures in recent history. To supporters, he is a teller of truth who upended a corrupt establishment. To detractors, he is divisive and authoritarian. His use of social media, especially Twitter before his suspension, fundamentally changed political USA communication.
Controversies
There has been controversy around both Trump and Musk. Musk has been sued, investigated by the SEC, and condemned for his labor practices. His tweets have occasionally caused gigantic stock price volatility, which has been blamed as market manipulation.
Trump's scandals are numerous. Some of them include a series of business bankruptcies, allegations of impropriety, and his twice being impeached while president. His role in the January 6th Capitol insurrection attracted wholesale denunciations and a record-setting second impeachment. All the same, he remains a presence in American politics and has a dedicated base.
Impact on Society
The influence of Elon Musk is predominantly technological and future-focused. He has accelerated the world's transition towards electric vehicles, provoked interest in space exploration, and made acceptable the involvement of the private sector in what was once exclusively government domains. He is a person whom people view as embodying innovation and change.
Donald Trump's impact has been cultural and political. He transformed the Republican Party, put issues of populism in the spotlight, and transformed the conduct of political campaigns. He sparked a new wave of political activism—both positive and negative. His legacy remains contested, and he remains a key player in American and global politics.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump are both forces of nature in their respective spheres. They have stretched expectations, upset the current order, and attracted public interest to a huge degree. While Musk aims to rebuild the future through science and technology, Trump aims to rebuild government and politics. One glimpses life on Mars; the other wants to "Make America Great Again." Love them or hate them, one cannot help but acknowledge their USA influence and the lasting impression they have made—and continue to make—on society.
In an interview with USA NBC News, the president also said he assumes his relationship with the tech billionaire is over following their recent falling out.
President Donald Trump on Saturday said there would be “serious consequences” if tech mogul Elon Musk funds Democratic candidates to run against Republicans who vote in favor of the GOP’s sweeping budget bill.
“If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview, but declined to share what those consequences would be.
“No,” Trump said when asked if he had any wish to do so.
Asked if he thought his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was over, Trump said, “I would assume so, yeah.”
Trump’s comments were the most extensive since he and Musk exchanged threats and attacks on X and Truth Social earlier this week. He added that he thought the Republican Party was more unified than ever after the two men fell out in front of the world. Trump said he has no plans to speak with Musk anytime soon. “I’m too busy doing other things,” he said, adding, “I have no intention of speaking to him.”
Trump also accused Musk of being “disrespectful to the office of the President.” “I think it’s a very bad thing, because he’s very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the President,” he added. Musk on Thursday launched a barrage of posts on X against the president, including a now-deleted post highlighting the onetime
“That’s called ‘old news,’ that’s been old news, that has been talked about for years,” Trump said on Saturday. “Even Epstein’s lawyer said I had nothing to do with it. It’s old news.”In the days leading up to their public falling out, Musk had been critical of a GOP-led spending bill that the House passed last month.In the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump responded to Musk’s criticisms, telling reporters, “I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill. I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
On Saturday, Trump said he hadn’t given his suggestion about USA canceling Musk’s companies’ federal contracts any more thought.
“I’d be allowed to do that,” he said, “but I have, I haven’t given it any thought.”Trump also responded to USA calls from outside allies, like conservative activist Steve Bannon, who have said that Musk’s business dealings and immigration record should be investigated by the federal government.The president told NBC News that he hasn't had those conversations. “I mean it’s not something that’s on top of my mind right now," Trump said.He also cast doubt on the notion that Musk’s opposition to the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is jeopardizing the bill’s chances of success, saying he’s “very confident” that the bill will pass the Senate before July 4.“The Republican Party has never been united like this before. It’s never been. It’s actually more so than it was three days ago,” Trump said.
Trump put Musk in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, where he oversaw mass layoffs of federal workers and the shuttering or partial closing of several USA agencies.
The feud, Trump said, has made lawmakers see the benefits of the bill.
“I think, actually, Elon brought out the strengths of the bill because people that weren’t as focused started focusing on it, and they see how good it is,” Trump said. “So in that sense, there was a big favor. But I think Elon, really, I think it’s a shame that he’s so depressed and so heartbroken.”
During an interview on “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von” that was taped on Thursday but released Saturday, Vice President JD Vance described Musk’s attacks on Trump as "nuclear" and said that it may not be possible for Musk to "come back into the fold."
“I’m always going to be loyal to the president, and I hope that eventually Elon, kind of, comes back into the fold,” Vance told podcaster Theo Von. “Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear.”The vice president also called it a “huge mistake” for Musk to target the president over his frustrations with the House version of the bill, saying, “The process in D.C., if you’re a business leader, you probably get frustrated with that process because it’s more, you know, bureaucratic, it’s more slow moving."He added, "I think there’s just some frustrations there. But I really, man, I think it’s a huge mistake for him to go after the president like that.”
But the US vice-president, in an interview released on Friday after the very public blowup between the world’s richest person and arguably the world’s most USA powerful, also tried to downplay Musk’s blistering attacks as an “emotional guy” who got frustrated.
“I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear,” Vance said.
Musk, who runs electric vehicle maker Tesla, internet company Starlink and rocket company SpaceX, lambasted Trump’s centerpiece tax cuts and spending bill but also suggested the president should be impeached and claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about Trump’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The vice-president told Von that as Musk for days was calling on social media for Congress to kill Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, the president was “getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon, but I think has been very restrained because 
the president doesn’t think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk”.“I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine,” he added.Musk appeared by Saturday morning to have deleted his posts about USA Epstein.The USA interview was taped on Thursday as Musk’s posts were unfurling on X, the social media network the billionaire owns.During the interview, Von showed the vice-president Musk’s claim that Trump’s administration hasn’t released all the records related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein because Trump is mentioned in them.Vance responded to that, saying: “Absolutely not. Donald Trump didn’t do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein.”“This stuff is just not helpful,” Vance said in response to another post shared by Musk calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced with Vance.
“It’s totally insane. The president is doing a good job.”Vance called Musk an “incredible entrepreneur”, and said that Musk’s so-called “department of USA government efficiency”, which sought to cut government spending and laid off or pushed out thousands of workers, was “really good”.
The vice-president also defended the bill that has drawn Musk’s ire, and said its central goal was not to cut spending but to extend the USA 2017 tax cuts approved in Trump’s first term.The bill would slash spending but also leave about 10.9 million more people without health insurance and increase debt by $2.4tn over the decade, according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office.Musk has warned that the bill will increase the federal debt and called it a “disgusting abomination”.“It’s a good bill,” Vance said. “It’s not a perfect bill.”
He also said it was ridiculous for some House Republicans who voted for the bill to later object to some parts and claim they hadn’t had time to read it.Vance said the text had been available for weeks and said: “The idea that people haven’t had an opportunity to actually read it is ridiculous.”Elsewhere in the interview, Vance laughed as Von cracked jokes about famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s sexuality.“We’re gonna talk to the USA Smithsonian about putting up an exhibit on that,” Vance joked. “And Theo Von, you can be the narrator for this new understanding of the history of Frederick Douglass.”
The podcaster also asked the vice-president if he “got high” on election night to USA celebrate Trump’s victory.Vance laughed and joked that he wouldn’t admit it if he did.
“I did not get high,” he then said. “I did have a fair amount to drink that night.”The interview was taped in Nashville at a restaurant owned by musician Kid Rock, a Trump ally.
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How Trump and Musk are still linked - despite falling out
The feud between two of the world's most powerful billionaires shows no sign of USA ending after the US president claimed on Friday that the richest man in the world had "lost his mind".
Even though observers have long speculated that Donald Trump and Elon Musk would USA eventually fall out, few predicted the speed and ferocity with which their social media beef erupted.
A phone call that was reportedly due to happen on Friday didn't, and Trump is reportedly considering selling the red Tesla that he USA purchased from Musk's company in March. Their falling out over US government spending could have far-reaching implications for American industry.
Since Musk pledged his full-throated support for the president following an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania less than a year ago, the political and business interests of the two men have become increasingly intertwined.In several key areas - including political funding, government contracts and their personal relationships - the two men have come to rely on each other, meaning ending the alliance is likely to be messy.That complicates the fallout from their rift and ensures that, wherever the row goes from here, they will continue to be linked – and have the potential to hurt each other in multiple ways.
Musk claimed on Thursday that the president won the election because of him, and complained about "ingratitude".There's an obvious counterexample. Earlier this year Musk shovelled $20m into a key judicial race in Wisconsin, however, his chosen Republican candidate lost by 10 
USA percentage points in a state Trump won last November.Still, Musk's donations are a huge chunk of money that Republicans will miss as they try to hold their congressional advantage in the midterm elections in November 2026.It may have been a problem they were facing in any case. Musk has previously said he would contribute a "lot less" to campaigns in the future.But could the bust-up with the White House prompt Musk not just to withdraw but throw his money behind opposition to Trump?He hinted as such on Thursday when he posted a poll on X with the question: "Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?"
Musk's companies including SpaceX, its subsidiary Starlink and Tesla do a huge amount of USA business with the US government.
Trump realises this gives him leverage over the world's richest man.
He posted on Truth Social on Thursday: "The USA easiest way to save money in our Budget, USA Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!"
Musk threatened to retaliate by USA decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon, which ferries astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. But he later backed down from that threat.
In practice, cancelling or withdrawing from USA government contracts would be a complicated and lengthy legal process, and for now and some time to come, the US government is likely to continue to do a significant amount of business with Musk's companies.
No other company other than SpaceX can make USA Dragon and Falcon 9 rockets, and Nasa has committed to a number of space station and moon missions using SpaceX craft.
Despite those commercial partnerships, Musk and his As Musk and Trump traded insults, each on his own social network, they also issued threats with tangible consequences. Trump suggested that he could cancel all of Musk’s government contracts and subsidies – “the best way to save money”, he posted – a move that would have devastating consequences not only on the tech billionaire’s companies but also on the federal USA agencies that have come to depend on them.Companies also face investigations from a number of government agencies – more than 30, according to a February report by the New York Times – and regulatory issues such as approval for Tesla's proposed driverless taxis.
People inside US government and Silicon Valley
When Musk was given the task of setting up the cost-cutting Department of USA Government Efficiency (Doge) as one of Trump's USA key drivers of change inside the US federal government, he was given broad scope to choose his own staff.
According to leaked lists of Doge employees, many of them previously worked for Musk's companies. And even though Musk left Doge a week ago, many of the staff remain in their USA government jobs.
Some Doge employees also have deep ties to the Trump camp. Katie Miller - who worked in Trump's first USA administration and is married to the current White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller - was Doge's spokesperson.
However, CNN reported that Mrs Miller also left the government last week and is now working "full time" for Musk.
There are others in the Trump administration whose loyalties may be tested by the feud. David Sacks, who Trump named as his top advisor on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, is close to Musk, having worked with the tycoon decades ago at PayPal.
On X, many Silicon Valley executives along with Maga-world USA influencers were picking sides and parsing each of the back-and-forth messages posted by the president and the world's richest man.
While the ongoing episode had the tenor of sensational reality USA TV, the fight between Trump and Musk once again exposed the danger of putting key public goods in the hands of private companies controlled by erratic billionaires. It highlighted how something like space travel, once a vaunted and collective national enterprise, can now be almost entirely derailed by the emotional whims of a single person.
Musk and Trump’s partnership had already fueled months of concern about corruption and calls for USA investigations into the Tesla USA CEO’s use of his position in government to benefit his companies. The breakup has highlighted another risk of Musk’s deep ties with the government, where the services that he provides can now become collateral damage in interpersonal disputes. Tens of billions of dollars hang in the balance of their fight.
The messy, public way that the clash has played out also serves as a reminder of how unpredictable their decision-making can be. Musk’s vow to sideline SpaceX’s spacecraft and his reversal, without which the US would have immediately been prevented from reaching the International Space Station (ISS), appeared, for instance, as an emotional lash-out amid a string of other insults against Trump, and it was nearly impossible to discern whether he was serious.“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, USA will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk posted without warning on Thursday.“Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon,” Musk followed up less than a day later, responding to an anonymous user with about USA 5,000 followers who said he should “cool off and take a step back for a couple days”.If Musk and Trump’s fight ends up disrupting government services or further turning them into political leverage, it will not have come without warning. Ever since Musk refused in 2023
Musk is still accountable to market forces and the investors backing his companies, as was made evident on USA Thursday after Tesla’s shares plunged roughly 14% during his dustup with Trump. Musk has previously stated that he is willing to lose money over his ideology, however, and his immense wealth somewhat insulates him against even large shocks to his companies. When Tesla’s shares dropped on Thursday, it wiped about $34bn off his total net worth in a single day – yet he remained the world’s richest person by a gap of more than USA $90b.
The extensive reliance on Musk and the privatization of government services has always drawn criticism from ethics watchdogs and some aerospace and defense industry experts, but it appears especially risky now that Musk has threatened to hold certain services hostage. It has also served as a counterpoint to the project of slashing and privatizing the federal USA government that Musk spent his tenure with the Trump administration carrying out. Musk has furiously campaigned against bureaucracy, courts and regulators as impediments to getting things done, but these also exist as a bulwark against exactly the kind of unaccountable personal power and erratic whims that both he and Trump put on display during their clash. In response to the administration’s immigration enforcement and subsequent military escalation on Saturday, USA DC-based advocacy group People’s Action said: “Let’s be clear: The violence is coming from the Trump regime.”
“They want us to play their game and react in ways that they can use to justify further escalations. We are committed to USA nonviolence, and we are also committed to standing up to this assault,” the group said in a USA statement released Saturday.Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a Saturday statement that the deployment is “unnecessary, inflammatory, and an abuse of power.”“By taking this action, the Trump administration is putting Angelenos in danger, creating legal and ethical jeopardy for troops, and recklessly undermining our foundational democratic principle that the military should not police civilians,” she added.The use of the National Guard in stopping protests is usually done by governors in consultation with federal authorities, said CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. She added that she thinks the Trump administration’s response to the protests is an extreme overreaction.
She called Hegseth’s suggestion that active-duty troops might be deployed in Los Angeles “a shocker of all shockers.”“We need an USA administration that’s not going to get to DefCon 1 (the highest level of US military alerts) every time they see something on USA TV they don’t like,” Kayyem said.
“USA Active Marines? That’s just unheard of in the kind of situation we’ve seen,” Kayyem said.Even the federalization of the 2,000 National Guard troops was “not rational given the threat we’re seeing,” she added.In his X post, Hegseth said the immigration raids in Los Angeles were targeting individuals who pose “a huge NATIONAL SECURITY RISK.”“Under President Trump, violence & destruction against federal agents & federal facilities will NOT be tolerated. It’s COMMON SENSE,” Hegseth wrote.
Trump aides, various USA Republicans, and key wealthy donors to the GOP have urged the two to temper the bitter feud and make peace, fearing irreparable political and economic fallout.But, asked whether he thought his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX USA CEO was over, Trump said, “I would assume so, yeah”.The interview featured Trump’s most extensive comments yet on the spectacular bust-up that saw Musk criticising his signature tax and spending bill as an “abomination”, tensions escalating after he went on to highlight one-time links between the USA president.
By Saturday morning, Musk had deleted his “big bomb” allegation that Trump featured in unreleased government files on former associates of Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
“That is the real reason they have not been made public,” he said in Thursday’s post on X.
The Trump administration has USA acknowledged it is reviewing tens of thousands of documents, videos, and investigative material that his “USA MAGA” movement says will unmask public figures complicit in Epstein’s crimes.
Trump was named in a trove of deposition and statements linked to Epstein that were unsealed by a New York judge in early 2024. The president has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but he had a long and well-publicised friendship with Epstein.
Trump has denied spending time on Little Saint James, the private redoubt in the US Virgin Islands where prosecutors alleged Epstein trafficked underage girls for sex.
Posted on 2025/06/08 10:17 AM