How Trump and Musk’s relationship soured – and why the President should be afraid ...Middle East

Not so long ago, people in Washington DC were joking that Elon Musk was Donald Trump’s vice president.

Not according to the constitution. But in terms of the access he had been given, the amount of time he was spending at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate planning for his return to the Oval Office, and Inauguration Day itself when Musk and other tech leaders such as Mark Zuckerberg, received better seats than most cabinet members.

There was a joint interview on Fox News with Trump loyalist Sean Hannity that cemented their bromance. “I think President Trump is a good man,” proffered the South African-born Musk. Trump said: “The way he said that, you know, there’s something nice about [it].”

Trump’s critics alleged Musk was more powerful than the president, attacking government departments with a metaphorical chain saw, and the individual pulling the strings.

Now the affair is over. Less than a year after Musk formally endorsed Trump, following the assassination attempt at a campaign rally after which the president was able to defiantly raise his fist, his once loyal supporter is leaving the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and going back to focus on his businesses, including Tesla, X and SpaceX.

Officially, the 53-year-old’s departure after 128 days as a special government employee, is taking place on good terms.

“I would like to thank President Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote on X. “The Doge mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

In his post, Musk cited regulations that limit special employees to 130 days of service, a period that comes to an end this month.

But given the administration has torn up just about every rule it encountered, it is hard to believe if both men wanted Musk to stick around, something like that would get in the way.

The truth is, it was clear that Musk’s chaotic slashing of government spending and his return to overseeing his business — several of which are struggling after a public backlash — was long on the cards. Some found it astonishing that the 78-year-old Trump would be willing to share a spotlight with someone so similarly addicted to media attention.

As it is, Musk’s departure come days after he criticised what Trump hopes will be a landmark piece of legislation — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — that independent experts say will increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion (£2.8bn) by 2034.

The bill has also been described as containing some of the most regressive tax changes in recent history, with measures to help the already wealthy, but doing little to benefit working-class Americans.

Given Musk’s task had been to reduce waste and trim debt, Trump’s bill makes a mockery of that mission. For all the ad hoc firing of staff and cutting of critical budgets to departments such as USAID, it seems he cut just 12 per cent, or 260,000, of the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce.

And he came nowhere near his frequently touted target of $1 trillion (£0.7trn) in savings.

Musk criticised Trump’s budget measure, telling CBS: “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the Doge team is doing.”

Some economists say the budget risks harming not just the US economy, but the global financial system, if the deficit grows and confidence in America continues to erode.

White House officials heard the comments and were not impressed. However, following the comments, Trump said he would negotiate the bill because he was “not happy about certain aspects of it”.

It was reported Trump and Musk did not have a conversation before his departure.

The episode highlights the fact that for all his gleeful jumping up and down on the stage alongside Trump, and his delight about having a Black Maga hat, Musk was never a true believer, in the way of, for example, the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

There are now questions over whether Musk could turn his ire on other policies of the administration, and even become an opponent.

Musk and other business leaders wanted a more liberal immigration policy because it would help them hire the best talent. On the issue of tariffs, which has emerged as a litmus test, Musk has always been a champion of free trade.

square IAN DUNT

Musk’s reign of incompetence and cruelty is over. Good riddance

It was clear that Musk was not only unpopular with the American public, where polls showed people did not like an elected figure having such power over their lives, but with some in Trump’s cabinet, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and trade adviser Peter Navarro, whom Musk called “dumber than a sack of bricks”.

So why did a man who for most of his life steered clear of party politics decide to join with such enthusiasm the campaign to re-elect Trump?

It seems Musk may have been caught up in the moment of Trump’s dramatic fightback after his near-assassination’s on stage at a rally last summer, and decided to back him.

It has been reported recently that the world’s richest man would donate $100m (£74m) to Trump’s political operation, although according to The New York Times, the money has not been received.

From Trump’s point of view, it seems much clearer what has taken place.

The president likes to collect and play with lots of shiny things, be it conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, or 2024 Republican rival Vivek Ramaswamy.

Yet once Trump gets bored with them, or — making use of a rare talent for identifying what helps or hurts him — decides they are no longer a benefit, he just as quickly drops them.

That is what seems to have happened with Trump and Musk. Many are surprised their political love affair lasted so long.

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