‘Such ingratitude’: Donald Trump, Elon Musk spar as president threatens to pull government contracts

Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania in July 2024. But nearly a year later, that relationship appears to be over.

Following a send-off from the White House last week, Musk — the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the wealthiest person on the planet — has been openly critical of a Republican spending bill spearheaded by Trump making its way through Congress.

The bill is projected to increase the federal deficit by $2.4 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It would also leave nearly 11 million people uninsured due to its Medicaid cuts while providing tax cuts that would overwhelmingly benefit the richest Americans.

“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote on X, his social media platform, earlier this week.

On Thursday, while meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office, Trump responded to Musk’s recent criticism by appearing to declare their friendship over.

“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said.

Trump suggested Musk’s change of heart came after electric vehicle subsidies were taken out of the budget bill, but the billionaire had previously called for them and other tax credits to be removed.

The president also brought up Pennsylvania, where Musk deployed serious resources to help secure a Trump victory. Despite Musk’s deep pockets and outreach across the state in the months leading up to the election, Trump dismissed its impact on the outcome.

“I would have won Pennsylvania easily anyway,” Trump said.

Musk disagreed.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote on X. In another post, Musk wrote, simply, “Such ingratitude.”

Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate and cannot lose too many votes if they want to pass Trump’s budget bill. But several Republican senators have come out in support of Musk’s criticism of the bill and its long-term impact on the federal deficit.

“This is immoral, what us old farts are doing to our young people,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) said of the budget bill Wednesday on CNBC. “This is grotesque, what we’re doing.”

Trump escalated the feud Thursday afternoon by threatening to cancel billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts that currently flow to Musk’s companies.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

In 2024, Tesla and Space X received over $6 billion from the federal government in the form of contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits, according to public data analyzed by the Washington Post.

That number does not include classified defense and intelligence spending, such as a spy satellite network SpaceX is reportedly developing for the Pentagon. The cost of that contract is $1.8 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Tesla shares plummeted following the back-and-forth, dropping 14% Thursday afternoon. SpaceX is a private company, but Musk issued his own threat in response to Trump’s.

“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk wrote on X.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is used by NASA to ferry astronauts, equipment, and resources to and from the International Space Station.