Trump and Musk’s bromance ends in tears

Governance expert, Professor Sam Koma, says the public ‘breakup’ of US President, Donald Trump, and South African-born billionaire, Elon Musk, has the potential to weaken the political influence and power that Trump has particularly within the Republicans.

Trump and Elon, who were once allies in the lead up to last year’s US elections, have been at each other’s throats since Thursday, hurling insults at each other on social media.

The fallout comes just days after Musk resigned as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, allegedly in protest of the tax-and-spending bill, which he has described as an outrageous and disgusting abomination.

He says the controversial bill will add to the United States’ budget deficit and leave cash-strapped Americans with more debt.

This spending bill contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history!

It is the Debt Slavery Bill. https://t.co/7EEyUEha1q

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2025

Trump has been left perplexed by Musk’s response to the piece of legislation that’s packed with multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks. The US President has hailed the proposed law as a big, beautiful bill.

Professor Koma says Musk is now likely to influence Trump’s impeachment.

 

Trump has threatened to pull Musk’s lucrative government contracts, while the tech billionaire says he will decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft that’s used to take astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.

Dragon is the only US option for delivering crew to and from the space station.

In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately pic.twitter.com/NG9sijjkgW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025

Musk’s critic and a former adviser to President Trump, Steve Bannon, wants the US President to retaliate against the SpaceX leader by targeting his business.

Bannon said Trump should sign an executive order to use the Korean War-era national security mobilisation law called the Defense Production Act to take control of SpaceX.

Steve Bannon is telling President Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act and seize control of SpaceX from Elon Musk with the stroke of an executive order.

The Defense Production Act is a powerful federal law that allows the U.S. government to take over private assets and… pic.twitter.com/NUnsrXs8TC

— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) June 5, 2025

This call comes as Musk is also pushing hard for Trump’s downfall, claiming that the US President is implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Epstein, who was Trump’s close friend, killed himself in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial for allegedly abusing young women and underage girls, between 1996 and 2019.

Yes https://t.co/rqRsX8B4Hg

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025

International relations expert, Professor John Stremlau, says the ‘breakup’ was a long time coming.

The political fundi says it could also be grounds for the Democrats to look for ways to impeach Trump.

 

Political commentator, Brooks Spector, says having two bulls in the same kraal was never going to work out.

President Trump has major plans to prioritize. Jesse Watters suggested something like this yesterday that, with all the important tasks on Trump’s to-do list, Elon is likely not in his top 30 priorities.

— Riley (@riley1999) June 6, 2025

Elon Musk was used by Trump to win the election and discarded, as Trump often does. Musk sacrificed much to help save America from its greatest national security threat: the National Debt. This is a major disappointment for Musk and American voters.

— stevepfi1 (@stevepfi2) June 6, 2025

I see it a little differently… Trump threatened to remove Elons company subsidies because Elon has been outspoken about the bill being trash. That’s billions of dollars taken from a guy working for us for free. I’d have fired back, too. I’m not taking sides. I think they both…

— FAFO The First (@FAFOtheFirst) June 6, 2025

Elon…the bill’s a joke. Trump’s pride is showing

— Jill Bevel (@bevel_jill) June 6, 2025

Elon & Trump need to shake hands and let their differences go.🤷‍♀️🇺🇸❤️🇺🇸

— Tammy Sulsona-Davila (@tam5967) June 6, 2025

Navel is right, Trump needs to understand Elon musk also needs to revive his tech because we need that, as the Republican they also insist on the Tax cuts, My advice is trump should let Elon do what he want but the issue isn’t elon it’s President Trump, not letting things go

— Jerry Smart (@Jerryeyitayo) June 6, 2025