Trump ends friendship with Elon Musk amid social media firestorm

US President Donald Trump has declared that his relationship with Elon Musk has come to an end.

“I would assume so, yeah,” Trump stated during an NBC News interview on Saturday, when asked if he believed their close bond was over. He answered “No” when questioned about whether he wanted to repair the fractured relationship.

These remarks are Trump’s most recent following the dramatic fallout between him and Musk that unfolded on social media.

This situation arose after the tech mogul – who contributed millions to Trump’s election campaign and served as a White House advisor – openly criticized the president’s tax and spending legislation, which is a significant domestic policy initiative.

Most Republicans have rallied behind the president. Vice-President JD Vance remarked that Musk had “gone so nuclear” and might never be accepted back into the group.

Vance shared with podcaster Theo Von that it was a “big mistake” for the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX to confront the president.

For several weeks, Musk had been vocal about his disapproval of Trump’s flagship legislation – referred to as the “Big Beautiful Bill” – as it progressed through Congress.

He claimed that if the bill were to pass, it would add trillions to the national deficit and “undermine” the efforts he made while leading Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency, which aimed to reduce government spending.

Shortly after departing from Doge after just 129 days, Musk took to his social media platform X to label the bill a “disgusting abomination” – though he did not directly criticize Trump.

However, on Thursday, Trump expressed to reporters that he felt “disappointed” by Musk’s actions.

In response, Musk unleashed a series of posts on X, asserting that Trump would have lost the election without his support and accusing Trump of being involved with files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail while awaiting sex trafficking charges.

Musk has since removed the post, and Epstein’s attorney has publicly denied the allegations.

Trump reacted on his social media platform Truth Social, stating that Musk had gone “crazy”. In one of his posts, he threatened to terminate Musk’s federal contracts.