Another day, another drama at the White House. Not content with trying to “make America great again”, Elon Musk and Donald Trump appear to have spectacularly fallen out.
The US President brought in the tech entrepreneur at the start of his second term to streamline operations – which Musk did with relish as part of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
At the time, the pair were all smiles. “I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, as their relationship kicked off. That all seems to have collapsed in recent weeks.
But what exactly have they been saying – and how did the drama unfold? Impressively, this all unfolded over just ten days: here’s what to know.
May 28
Musk comes out against Trump’s planned bill on tax cuts and spending: something that only narrowly passed back in May. Estimates suggest that it will increase the US’s budget deficit by around $600bn next year.
Musk told reporters he was “disappointed” in it (though Trump himself later admitted he was “not happy about certain aspects” of it).
May 29
In a not-so-shock move, Musk announced that he would now be leaving the Trump administration for good. The reason? His DOGE cost-cutting mission had apparently fulfilled its purpose. But the public disagreement with Trump might have had something to do with it too.
At this point, the relationship between the two was still cordial. “I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote on X. “Elon is terrific!” Trump responded.
May 30
Shock horror! Trump and Musk part ways – seemingly amicably. Musk attended the announcement while sporting a black eye, praised Trump’s Oval Office decor and was given a commemorative gold key.
He also dismissed reports that he’d taken vast quantities of drugs during his time advising Trump, allegedly consuming vast quantities of ketamine, magic mushrooms and ecstasy during his time in power.
During the briefing, Trump confirmed that he was “not really leaving”, and that he would continue to go “back and forth” to the White House.
June 2
Trump comes out swinging about his new bill. In a post on his network Truth Social, he wrote that “many false statements” were being made about it, and called it a “big, beautiful bill.”
June 3
Musk snaps. In a post on X, he attacks the legislation, calling it a “disgusting abomination” and a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled” piece of work. “Shame on those who voted for it,” he added. “You know you did wrong.”
June 4
Things really heat up from there. At 13.57 local time, Musk takes to X to call for a new spending bill that "that doesn't massively grow the [budget] deficit and increase the debt ceiling.” An hour later, he’s canvassing his followers for support.
“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT okay!”
June 5
Musk is still on X, retweeting old posts from Trump (from 2012 and 2013) where he criticises government spending.
For his part, Trump tells reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.” He adds that Musk is upset about the planned cuts to subsidies for electric vehicles (Musk owns Tesla and Space X).
Things escalate from there. Musk takes off on an X rampage. He responds to Trump’s assertions about subsidies in real time, writing, “Whatever… there has never been legislation that [sic] both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this!”
Back in the Oval Office, Trump replies that Musk knew "every aspect of the bill.” Adding insult to injury, he adds: “I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Musk claps back, saying that Trump’s claims were “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 would even read it!"
"Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” he writes, adding "Such ingratitude".
Trump, long-provoked, finally snaps back on Truth Social. “Elon was ‘wearing thin’, I asked him to leave,” he writes, adding that Musk “went CRAZY.”
"The easiest way to save money in our Budget," he says in another post, "is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts".
Musk writes back, calling it an “obvious lie”. Going one step further, he also alleges that Trump was “in the Epstein files”: documents collected in the case against the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Musk didn’t provide any proof about this, and Trump did not address it. However, he does continue to rail against Trump, writing that his bill would "cause a recession in the second half of this year" and appearing to endorse calls to impeach him. He has since deleted the post,
June 6
The relationship between the two does appear irreparably fractured. In an interview with ABC News, Trump calls Musk “the man who has lost his mind” and says he is “not particularly interested” in talking to him – despite reports that they were due to speak on the phone later that day.
CBS also reports that Trump was thinking about selling his red Tesla, which he reportedly bought to help promote Musk’s company – and which had been parked outside the White House for weeks.
“I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem,” Trump tells CNN later, adding to CBS News's Robert Costa that he was “totally” focussed on policy rather than Musk.
For his part, Musk appears to have gone quiet.
