US President Donald Trump, joined by businessman Elon Musk, in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30 in Washington, DC. Photo / Getty Images
President Donald Trump was dejected, processing his very public split with the world’s richest man.
Rattled after Elon Musk’s public attacks and apparent call for his impeachment, Trump worked the phones, debriefing close confidants and casual acquaintances alike.
His former ally was “a big-time drug addict”, the United States leader said at one point as he tried to make sense of Musk’s behaviour, according to a person with knowledge of the call.
Musk has acknowledged using ketamine, a powerful anaesthetic, which he says was prescribed for him to treat depression.
The New York Times recently reported that he was using so much ketamine on the campaign trail that he told people it was affecting his bladder, and he travelled with a pill box with medication with the marking of Adderall.
White House officials said that Trump’s concern about Musk’s drug use, stemming in part from media reports, was one factor driving the two men apart.
The President, who historically hasn’t hesitated to fire off deeply personal, blistering social media posts about others who have insulted him, was more muted regarding Musk than friends and advisers expected.
After his Friday face-off with Musk, he urged those around him not to pour fuel on the fire, according to two people with knowledge of his behaviour.
He told Vice-President JD Vance to be cautious with how he spoke publicly about the Musk situation.
But although the break between Musk and Trump only exploded into public view late last week, cracks in the alliance began to appear much earlier.
As Musk’s “move fast and break things” bravado complicated the White House’s ambitions to remake American society, the billionaire alienated key members of the White House staff, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and quarrelled with Cabinet members, physically coming to blows with one.
This account of the unravelling of the alliance between Trump and Musk is based on interviews with 17 people with knowledge of the events, including many who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about sensitive conversations.
White House officials say Trump has remained focused on his legislative and cost-cutting agenda, even as the battle between the two men has riveted Washington.
“President Trump and the entire Administration will continue the important mission of cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from our federal government on behalf of taxpayers, and the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill is critical to helping accomplish that mission,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Behind closed doors, however, retaliation against Musk has been the topic of conversations among Administration officials.
Trump on the Truth Social platform has called for public scrutiny of Musk’s government contracts, potentially imperilling his business empire.
However, Republicans are wary of how the world’s richest man could use his deep coffers to retaliate against them, especially as he floats the launch of a third political party.
“I feel like the kids of a bitter divorce, where you’re just saying, ‘I really wish Mommy and Daddy would stop screaming,’” Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said on his podcast on Saturday.
Musk arrived in Washington in January as Trump’s most powerful ally, spending nights in the Lincoln Bedroom while serving as a top White House adviser.
But there was not much of a honeymoon period, as Musk’s brute-force tactics, lack of political acumen, and ideological differences with the Maga base eroded his relationship with top Administration officials and eventually the President.
The first signs of trouble emerged in February, when an email landed in inboxes throughout the Government directing federal employees to describe their five accomplishments over the past week.
Cabinet officials and other agency leaders weren’t given advance notice of the memo, causing consternation at the highest levels of Trump’s Administration.
When officials learned the email had gone out to some federal district judges, who are not part of the executive branch, and others who handle confidential information, the feeling grew that Musk fundamentally misunderstood the federal Government or did not have the dexterity to manoeuvre through it.
Despite the tension, Trump and his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, stuck by Musk’s side. But Wiles grew increasingly agitated about clashes between Musk’s US Doge Service and other Administration leaders.
As Musk and his Doge team attempted to slash federal grants, dismiss federal bureaucrats and shut the US Agency for International Development, he became a line of attack for Trump’s political opponents.
At demonstrations across the country, signs that read “No one voted for Elon Musk” began to appear among protesters as they took to the streets.
On April 1, the first major referendum on Musk arrived.
Musk had flooded Wisconsin with cash to boost the Trump-aligned candidate in a race for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court. He lost badly, a wake-up call for Republicans, who began to recognise that Musk had gone from political risk to liability.
“There’s a real recognition in the White House and on [the] Hill that the Elon brand has a real political problem,” one person familiar with the politicians’ thinking said.
At the same time, Musk – like many other business leaders – was growing disillusioned with Trump’s economic policies.
On April 2, when the President rolled out tariffs intended to remake the global economy, Musk took to X to express his displeasure with the levies and call Trump’s trade adviser and long-time ally Peter Navarro “a moron”.
In private, Musk made personal appeals to Trump to reverse the tariffs. Trump did not comply, only relenting days later after a steep decline in bond markets.
Not long afterwards, Musk’s tension with Trump’s trade team devolved into blows, in an altercation with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, said Stephen Bannon, the influential right-wing podcaster and long-time political adviser to Trump.
In mid-April, Musk and Bessent had gone into the Oval Office to make their respective cases about their preferences for acting IRS commissioner. Trump decided to support Bessent’s choice. That disagreement was first reported by the New York Times.
After Bessent and Musk exited the Oval Office and began walking down the hallway, the two men started to exchange insults, Bannon said.
He added that Bessent brought up Musk’s claims that he would uncover more than US$1 trillion ($1.6t) in wasteful and fraudulent government spending, which Musk had not succeeded at doing.
“Scott said, ‘You’re a fraud. You’re a total fraud,’” Bannon said in an interview.
Musk then rammed his shoulder into Bessent’s rib cage “like a rugby player,” Bannon said, and Bessent hit him back.
Multiple people stepped in to break up the scrum as the two men reached the national security adviser’s office, and Musk was shuffled out of the West Wing.
“President Trump heard about it and said, ‘This is too much,’” Bannon said.
In late April, Musk said he would be pulling back from Washington to focus more on his businesses, especially Tesla, which was struggling.
Musk said he would still be spending part of his time in Washington, and his Silicon Valley allies claimed he would still run Doge from afar.
While he was away, however, his opponents within the Administration had an opening to undermine him.
It involved Jared Isaacman, whom Trump had nominated to be Nasa administrator at Musk’s urging.
Musk’s ambition is to colonise Mars, and having an ally heading Nasa was a major goal for him. But Isaacman had made numerous political contributions to Democratic candidates – a liability in an Administration that prioritises loyalists.
Just more than a week ago, on the tech billionaire’s final day as a special government employee, Sergio Gor, the director of presidential personnel, armed Trump with printouts showing Isaacman’s donations.
Trump informed Musk that he was pulling Isaacman for the role because of concerns over his loyalty.
Gor’s role was no coincidence. The long-time Trump aide had clashed with Musk throughout the transition, disagreeing on recommendations for appointments.
Tensions between the two escalated in March after Musk came to believe that Gor had leaked a story to the New York Times about a meeting in which Musk clashed with multiple Cabinet members, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
Musk’s suspicions were piqued because the story did not mention his criticism of Gor’s office, the person said.
Gor made it known to others that he wanted to retaliate against Musk.
When Trump decided to pull the Isaacman nomination, the decision appeared to be a blow to Musk’s ambitions in space.
“Sergio is a vital member of the team, and he has helped President Trump put together an Administration that is second to none,” White House spokesman Steven Cheung said.
“As a long-time adviser, there is nobody more capable of ensuring the Government is staffed with people who are aligned with the mission to make America great again and work towards implementing the President’s agenda.”
Despite the mounting tensions, Musk and Trump presented a united front that day during a formal send-off for Musk in the Oval Office, where Trump presented him with a ceremonial key and praised him as “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced”.
But just days later, the acrimony between the men exploded on X as Musk attacked Trump’s signature legislation and urged Republican members of Congress not to support it.
Senior White House officials tried to play down the impact, insisting that the President already knew where Musk stood on the topic.
But Trump’s restraint faltered on Friday during an Oval Office appearance, as he told reporters he was “disappointed” in Musk and questioned the future of their friendship.
Trump said Musk’s criticism of the bill was rooted in his concerns that it would eliminate a tax credit for electric-vehicle owners that benefitted Tesla. Musk denied that accusation and responded with a tirade.
In the hours after the blow-up, some in Trump’s orbit believed a quick reconciliation was possible – gathering, from their own interactions with the President and conversations with each other, that he was open to a détente with Musk. But by morning, those prospects had receded.
Trump on Saturday insisted that he had no interest in speaking with Musk – telling CNN and ABC reporters as much in phone calls, and also sharing the sentiment with advisers, according to a White House official.
He told aides he was considering selling the red Tesla that has been parked outside the White House – a vehicle the White House said he bought “at market rate” in March, after Musk displayed several of his vehicles on the White House lawn.
Musk continued to fan the flames, doubling down on his unsubstantiated claim that Trump was implicated in documents related to the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
He questioned what he had to apologise to Trump for and mused about launching an alternative to the Republican Party, which he is now calling the “America Party”.
“There’s hope that there’s going to be a reconciliation,” said one White House ally close to both Trump and Musk worlds. “But it’ll never be the same.”
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