- Support for Musk among Americans quickly soured in the initial weeks of the Trump administration as he fed USAID “to the woodchipper”, helped strip cancer research that helps kids and threatened every federal worker with termination. But it was his role in Wisconsin’s state supreme court race that ultimately marked the beginning of the end of this marriage of convenience.
It was perhaps the most widely predicted break-up in American political history. The bromance between Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, and President Donald Trump, the world’s most powerful, appears to have run its course.
On Tuesday, only some 100 hours after officially leaving the employ of the White House, Musk admitted he could no longer swallow his disgust at what the Tesla CEO called an “abomination” of a tax bill—stopping short of naming Trump directly, however.
Many online users were mildly astonished that it took this long before the two finally broke up.
After all, they had not been on the best of terms in the past.
In July 2022, they famously exchanged barbs with Trump calling Musk just “another bullsh*t artist”, while the Tesla CEO shot back it was time for him to “sail into the sunset”.
It didn’t end there either. The then ex-president mocked Musk over his “driverless cars that crash” and “rocketships to nowhere”, branding the entrepreneur a corporate welfare queen always in need of more subsidies.
“I could have said ‘drop to your knees and beg’, and he would have done it,” Trump claimed.
Furious at the Biden administration, however, Musk ultimately decided to bankroll Trump’s campaign in support of his campaign claim for safe cities, strong borders, prudent spending and an anti-‘woke’ agenda.
After his sweeping victory and triumphant return to the White House, a jubilant Musk later confesses to loving Trump “as much as a straight man can love another man“.
This timeline charts the series of scandals and blunders that saw Musk’s star fall as he went from being a powerful ally and “First Buddy” to a political liability whose approval ratings proved radioactive for the Trump administration.
July 13, 2024
Musk endorses Trump for the first time after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pa. Later the entrepreneur would describe his campaigning as an “all-in” bet on Trump. It was a dramatic turnaround for Musk, who told his fans in March in no uncertain terms that he would not be making any political donations of any kind to either of the nominees.
November 5
After spending roughly $290 million of his own money—including controversial giveaways to spur voter registration—Musk helps Trump sweep all seven battleground states. Convinced the Tesla CEO now has the might of the White House behind him, investors bid up its shares for weeks with the stock rallying 75% until it finally peaked in mid-December at over $480/share. By then, it had become worth as much as the rest of the global car industry combined.
November 12
Trump officially taps Musk to run the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, initially with a goal of delivering $2 trillion in budget cuts by the country’s 250th independence day celebrations next July. “Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time,” Trump writes, likening it to the Manhattan Project. Musk would soon predict mass headcount reductions in the civil service.
December 28
Trump needs to spend political capital to bail the Tesla CEO out when the entrepreneur attacks his MAGA coalition over the issue of H-1b visas. “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend,” Musk posts. The president is forced to step in, demonstrably taking the billionaire’s side against his own voters.
January 20, 2025
At Trump’s inauguration bash, a fist-pumping Tesla CEO takes the stage to express his thanks to the president’s supporters that “the future of civilization has been assured”. In the process, he thrusts out a stiff right arm not once but twice in what many observers deemed to be a fascist salute to the MAGA faithful. The images go around the world, eliciting a storm of controversy.
February 3
Musk celebrates a weekend spent feeding the United States Agency for International Development “into the wood chipper”. The Atlantic’s Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Anne Applebaum later sums it up as “the world’s richest man takes food and medicine from the world’s poorest children.”
February 10
The Washington Post breaks the story that one senior DOGE advisor to the State Department is none other than a 19-year-old programmer Musk hired. Edward Coristine, who calls himself “Big Balls” online, is later lampooned in a March 1 Saturday Night Live skit as a symbol of Musk’s questionable judgment.
February 21
Boasting he will take a chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy, Musk brandishes a power tool gifted to him by Argentine president Javier Milei on stage at a CPAC conference. One of the defining images of Musk’s brief political career, it rankles Trump and even Tesla bulls criticize the PR blunder, saying he inspires people as a builder, not a demolished.
February 22
Musk sends an email to the entire federal bureaucracy demanding employees list five things they accomplished that week. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” he warns. Soon reports reveal senior Trump officials take offense at the advisor overstepping his boundaries by threatening their staff with layoffs.
February 26
At the first official cabinet meeting, Trump once more comes to the aid of Musk. With a simple question “Is anyone unhappy with Elon?” the president aims to silence reports of growing frustration with Musk and paper over cracks emerging between Musk and several key members of his government.
February 28
On the Joe Rogan podcast, Musk calls Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time”. Already blamed for helping strip $190 million to fund research combating cancer in children, Democrats ramp up attacks, now claiming the entrepreneur aims to dismantle the widely popular government-run entitlement program.
March 11
The third time Trump rides to the rescue of Musk. After weeks of protests and images of burning Teslas and vandalized dealerships, Trump turns the South Lawn of the White House into an impromptu car showroom and openly urges his supporters to buy Tesla cars. He also warns anyone destroying or defacing Tesla property will be treated as a terrorist by federal law enforcement.
April 1
The date marks the beginning of the end of Musk’s political career. Wisconsin voters elect Susan Crawford to the state Supreme Court despite the Tesla CEO personally spending millions and campaigning to sway the outcome in favor of Republican Brad Schimel. Democrats succeeded in turning the vote into a referendum on Musk and DOGE, making him a liability for the Trump administration. The next day the first stories leak that he would soon be returning to Tesla, forcing the White House to issue a non-denial denial.
April 10
At a cabinet meeting, Musk slashed his estimate for DOGE savings from $1 trillion, already half of what he originally promised, down to just $150 billion. Even that figure is disputed, with the only cuts both tangible and permanent codified in a $9.4 billion rescissions package currently in front of Congress. Independent polls show a majority of Americans do not approve of the job he’s doing
April 23
After a demonstrative attempt to show presence during an unscheduled Tesla all-hands fails to soothe frayed investor nerves, Musk signals during the company’s Q1 earnings call that he will only spend one to two days a week in Washington. Despite net profit plummeting 71% in the period, far worse than expected, the stock rebounds sharply on the news he’s dialing back his DC commitments.
May 20
At the Qatar Economic Forum, Musk states he’s done, for now at least, bankrolling the Republican party. “I think I’ve done enough,” he says, adding that he no longer sees a reason. Just three weeks earlier he had still praised Trump in a cabinet meeting marking the first 100 days, predicting: “I think this could be the greatest administration since the founding of the country.”
May 27
In an interview with CBS News, Musk voices open criticism of Trump’s spending bill, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will raise deficits by $3.8 trillion. Describing it as disappointing, he argues that the generous tax cuts are undermining the efforts of his DOGE team. The following day, he announces his time as a special government employee in the service of the Trump administration is effectively over, and he leaves Washington with a literal black eye on Friday.
June 3
Now, officially looking outside, Musk turns on Trump. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” he posts. What repercussions will ensue is unclear but already over the weekend Trump withdrew the nomination of Musk’s preferred pick as head of NASA.
June 5
After Trump punches back during a press briefing with the German chancellor, Musk goes scorched earth on his former ally. In a matter of hours, he claims Trump is directly implicated in the Epstein files, argues the ingrateful president is only in power because the Tesla CEO put him there, and backs a call for his removal with Vice President J.D. Vance taking his place in the Oval Office. Trump responds by threatening to terminate all of his government contracts and subsidies. Tesla shareholders once more find themselves collateral damage as a record $150 billion-plus is wiped off the company’s market cap, costing Musk personally $34 billion. It is the second-largest daily loss ever in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, according to the media giant.
