The war of words between Donald Trump and Elon Musk intensified on Thursday, June 5, with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO responding bluntly to the US president’s criticism over his opposition to Trump’s signature economic bill.
After Elon Musk’s continuous attack on Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’, the tech billionaire launched an all-out attack on the US President, saying without his support Trump would have lost the election.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” the Tesla CEO said in a post on X.
Without me, Trump would have lost election
In comment section, he wrote, “Such ingratitude”.
This comes after US President questioned his relationship with the tech billionaire- indicating their close alliance may be no more. Trump said Thursday he doesn’t know if he and Elon Musk will still have “a great relationship” after the former DOGE head has spent days blasting the GOP’s spending bill.
“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office before his bilateral sit-down with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “He hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. But I’m very disappointed … I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
The tight relationship between Trump and the Tesla CEO has been fracturing on public display. Asked about Musk’s ongoing criticism, Trump said he was “very surprised.”
The president noted that Musk hasn’t said anything “about me that’s bad” but added he’d rather the billionaire “criticize me than the bill.” Trump argued Musk was upset because “we took the EV mandate,” in reference to the electric vehicle tax credit the legislation would kill.
The war of words between Donald Trump and Elon Musk intensified on Thursday, with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO responding bluntly to the US president’s criticism over his opposition to Trump’s signature economic bill. “Whatever,” Musk posted on X. “Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill.”
Musk’s post followed Trump’s remarks from the Oval Office, where he said he was “very disappointed” in the billionaire. “I’ve helped him a lot,” Trump said. “He knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out we’re going to cut the EV mandate.”
Musk hit back quickly, saying, “False. This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”
Elon Musk loses $34 billion of his net worth in a day amid his fight with Donald Trump
Elon Musk’s net worth dropped by $34 billion on Thursday, June 5, one of the worst single-day wipeouts of his personal wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The massive loss in net worth followed a series of tweets from Musk, claiming that President Trump had ties to Jeffrey Epstein and suggesting he that he played an important role in helping Trump win the 2024 election. read here.
In response, Trump threatened to cut federal contracts with Musk’s companies and take away his EV (electrical vehicle) mandate which was introduced as a tax credit under former President JoeBiden’s administration under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offering up to $7,500 off electric car purchases, which benefited Tesla ranking it high on the U.S. market. read here.
Musk said he’d immediately decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft in response to Trump’s threat.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to BI’s inquiry regarding Musk’s Epstein post. “The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
Tesla shares plummeted more than 14%, representing about a $138 billion wipeout of the company’s total market cap.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated that $34 billion from Musk’s net worth was wiped out after Thursday’s fallout, representing one of the CEO’s biggest single-day losses.
In November 2021, Musk put up a poll on Twitter, asking his followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. More than 57% of 3.5 million responders said, “Yes.”
The post triggered a 16% decline in Tesla shares that week, leading to a $50 billion loss in the executive’s net worth.
