When the Trump/Musk feud began about a month ago, some speculated it was pure theater to allow Elon Musk to distance himself from President Donald Trump to restore the economic status of his companies, particularly Tesla. Also, Musk had publically stated on more than one occasion he was tiring of the unusual amount of death threats both he and his family were suddenly facing because of his involvement in government in Washington, D.C.
Tesla automobiles and dealerships were being vandalized around the nation and the world because of Musk serving as the founding father of DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency). DOGE was essentially a means to perform a complete forensic audit of the Federal government and financial activity of the last 4 years in particular. It had a mission of exposing waste, fraud, and abuse and it did so. It also revealed our political leaders have not been held to the same accounting practices both the Trump and Musk empires were held to!
Taxpayer dollars were found missing in the TRILLIONS!
In May Forbes estimated Musk’s net worth at $425 billion dollars but also reported it had begun to decline due to his working (volunteering) relationship with President Donald Trump. Some speculate Musk has lost $100 billion in 2025 from both his DOGE involvement and his ongoing feud with President Trump thereafter.
Elon Musk left the Trump administration as a special government employee leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on May 28.
President Trump announced he was not going to appoint a personal friend of Musk by the name of Jared Isaccman to head up NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Saturday May 31st. While Trump did not offer specifics about his withdrawal of Isaacman for appointment, he did make mention of something in his background he found objectionable.
“Trump says he will withdraw nomination of Musk associate Jared Isaacman to lead NASA” – NPR
Soon thereafter Musk seemed to go on an unhinged rampage against President Trump by way of attacking his “Big Beautiful Bill” in his social media platform “X” (formerly Twitter).
From Wikipedia:
“On June 3 at 3:32pm Eastern Time, Musk warned bill supporters: ‘In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people’. Three hours later, he called the ‘pork-filled’ bill a ‘disgusting abomination’. In the next two days, Musk continued, asking for a bill that does not increase the debt ceiling, saying that bankrupting America was not acceptable, and asking to ‘KILL the BILL’”.
“President Trump vs. Elon Musk Explodes Into a Full-Blown War of Words Now, with Stu Burguiere” – Megyn Kelly
Musk seemingly crossed a line when he made references to both Trump being on the Epstein flight list as well as making the claim Trump would not have won the 2024 General Election without him.
Trump (and/or his people) then made references to Musk “wearing thin” and seemingly exhibiting somewhat erratic behavior attributable to some form of substance use. Shortly thereafter Musk released the result of a drug test he had taken showing himself clean of any narcotic substances.
CONCLUSION:
Both Donald Trump and Elon Musk were certifiable geniuses before they were billionaires. Both do not spend the normal 1/3 of their lives in sleep as do most of us. Both are problem solvers and are happiest when they accomplish their goals, the bigger their goals, the happier they are. However they both have one major difference.
Donald Trump has largely made his $5 billion net worth in wealth without government assistance while Elon Musk has relied heavily on government assistance to amass his net worth of $325 billion. Musk has received generous help from taxpayer dollars in both, the manufacture and sales of electric vehicles, as well as his SpaceX spacecraft for NASA.
Government subsidies are not a bad thing but they are not always the best thing either.
In my humble opinion we should not be going down the road (pun intended) in the promotion of electric vehicles but rather hydrogen fuel cell vehicles instead. This is not a position I take in support of climate change but rather because fossil fuels burned today are finite and will come to an end one day. We should be conserving them for the future.
I do not believe the passion Trump and Musk exhibit over this budget bill is contrived or for show. I think each of them is being authentic and each of them is looking to address the problem from two completely different approaches.
President Trump seems to be of the mindset he has to somewhat play ball with the players who have been in Washington, D.C. a lot longer than he has which means giving in to an additional $5 trillion in national debt. I think he figures he can offset that with a combination of reducing the trade deficit ($1 trillion), making foreign governments (NATO) pay more of our defense budget that protects them ($1 trillion), and reducing the number of takers in this country (illegal aliens) while increasing the number of makers (doctors, engineers, scientists) in this country.
Musk seems to be of the mindset we have to immediately stop any and all deficit spending and start to pay down our already too high national debt of approaching $37 trillion. His most immediate concern seems to be that we have now reached a tipping point whereby the money we make as a nation in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) no longer covers the interest payments on this debt. This debt-to-GDP ratio is a metric of a country’s ability to pay down its debt.
“Musk declares war on Trump: Threatens new American party, if ‘Porky Pig Party’ passes spending bill” – The Economic Times
Some random thoughts to conclude with about Trump and Musk:
- Both men love America.
- Both men love capitalism.
- Musk was new to Washington, D.C. Trump is not.
- Most of Musk’s companies are publically traded.
- Most of Trump’s companies are NOT publically traded.
- Both men classify themselves as “Christians”.
- Both men love families with children.
Time will tell what happens with our national economy and thus our security.
- It is possible one of these two men will be right while the other is wrong.
- It is possible they will both be part right and part wrong.
- It is also possible both men will be wrong.
I agree with President Trump in that electric vehicles should not be taxpayer funded to make them affordable to the general public. I also agree with Elon Musk that we should not be adding $5 trillion in additional debt to our national budget in 2025.
President Trump has said publically in the past, “I am very big on loyalty.” Elon Musk now seems disloyal to both Trump and MAGA Americans and that is a very bad place for him to be. I wish he would have used more tact as I genuinely like Musk just as I like Trump.
I am truly torn by both their feud and the truths they speak.
© 2025 by Mark S. Schwenda
