Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, and President Donald Trump, the world’s most powerful person, have had a working relationship that touches on everything from party politics to spaceflight.
As that relationship disintegrates in full public view, there are major ramifications — and revelations — from their feud.
Whether you’re catching up or avidly following the latest play-by-play as it unfolds online, these are 4 major bombshells and takeaways from their apparent falling out.
It was a $138 billion fight
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images
It may be a war of words, but when the dust settled, both Musk and Tesla emerged worth significantly less for it.
Tesla shares in the EV giant closed down over 14% on Thursday, wiping $138 billion off the company’s valuation. Musk saw his net worth drop by $34 billion.
The feud, if it persists, means Musk could lose some of the MAGA might who had previously rushed to his defense when Tesla’s stock was dropping.
When Tesla’s value was falling in March amid brand backlash, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged people to buy Tesla stock. Trump then bought a Tesla at a White House event with Musk. After their row, Trump is considering selling it.
CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson wrote in a note following the public fallout on Thursday that investors should “buckle up” and expect more volatility in the near term. The automaker’s stock price recovered slightly in overnight trading, but Tesla could lose one of its biggest backers if Trump decides he’s done with his onetime “first buddy.”
Thomas Monteiro, an analyst at Investing.com, told Business Insider that Tesla’s stock had already been “extremely overvalued” because of perceiving added benefits from Musk’s close relationship with Trump.
“Once you remove the buffer that was shielding the company, investors are forced to look at the actual internal numbers, and they are simply not consistent with the stock’s performance this year,” Monteiro said. “With sales down across the board in what seems now like a sustained trend, it’s very hard to look past the brand devaluation factor.”
Trump could also move to make life harder for Tesla on the regulatory front. Tesla is also gearing up to launch a flagship robotaxi service in Austin this month, and Musk has been pushing for the Trump administration to overhaul the autonomous vehicle regulations that stand in the way of his ambitious plans.
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Trump threatened Musk’s government contracts, and NASA relies on SpaceX
NASA
As the fight escalated, Trump said on TruthSocial on Thursday that cutting Musk’s companies’ government contracts would save “Billions and Billions.”
Monteiro said that if Trump were to follow through on his threat, the potential cut to government contracts would likely impact SpaceX more than Tesla.
Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, has around $22 billion in federal contracts and counts NASA as its largest customer, its CEO Gwynne Shotwell said last November.
The space agency is set to use SpaceX’s Starship rocket in its coming Artemis moon missions, and SpaceX also has numerous contracts with the Department of Defense, including a nearly $6 billion deal to launch national security satellites struck in April.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is the only US vessel capable of carrying passengers and cargo to and from the International Space Station, and also has a nearly $1 billion contract to deorbit it in 2030. The move floated by Trump sparked concerns that it could mark the end of the International Space Station and leave it without a safe deorbiting plan.
Musk responded to Trump’s Truth Social post by saying SpaceX would begin decommissioning the Dragon immediately, although he later backed down.
Musk is mulling a new political party — and could try to bring his MAGA fans with him
With both Musk and Trump commanding massive followings that have increasingly overlapped in the last year, Trump could soon find himself fighting to convince some of them to stay on his side.
The president could also lose one of his largest backers.
In addition to pouring over $270 million into efforts to elect Trump, Musk also used his social media platform as a promotional outlet for the president.
Now, Musk is polling his followers to determine whether it’s time to create a new political party. He racked up over 5.6 million votes in the span of 24 hours, with about 80% voting in favor of the idea. Mark Cuban seemed to support it, reposting Musk’s poll on X and replying with three check marks.
It’s unclear whether it’s an idea Musk is seriously considering. However, if he did follow through, it could result in more turmoil with Trump and increased tensions within the Republican Party.
While Musk replied “Yes” to a post that included a reference to impeaching Trump, several Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, made their allegiance to Trump known.
Meanwhile, high-profile backers of both have also pushed the two to reconcile. Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman shared a post on X in support of both Trump and Musk and called for the two to “make peace for the benefit of our country.” Musk didn’t seem completely opposed to extending the olive branch with Trump, commenting on the post, “You’re not wrong.”
Musk also reshared a post that said, “Tech needs Republicans for the present. Republicans need Tech for the future. Drop the tax cuts, cut some pork, get the bill through.”
Both men aired dirty laundry about each other
The escalating feud offered a window into how each of the men view their devolving relationship — and they didn’t appear to hold much back in their criticism.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday that “Elon was ‘wearing thin,'” and was asked by Trump to leave his position in the White House.
“I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY,” Trump posted.
He also said that Musk had seen the “Big Beautiful Bill” that he lashed out against, and only developed an issue with it when he discovered that it would cut EV mandates. Musk fired back, implying Trump had lied and that he had never seen the bill.
Musk also made it clear that he felt responsible for Trump’s election victory.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” he wrote. “Such ingratitude,” he added.
Then it was “time to drop the really big bomb,” as Muck described it, alleging that Trump is in the “Epstein files” and that was the “real reason they have not been made public.” (Trump’s past ties to Epstein have been publicly known, and Trump has said the two had a falling out more than 15 years ago and that he wasn’t a fan of the convicted sex offender.
While it’s unclear if Musk and Trump will repair their rift, Thursday’s public blowup made one thing clear: both are willing to roll up their sleeves and punch back.
