Trump Rejoinder: Trump’s Influence on Silicon Valley and the Importance of a New Political Party in the Middle of the Earth

President Trump said on Thursday he was surprised that his former adviser Musk was attacking Republicans, but that he thought Musk was wrong in his criticism.

Revoke Mr. Musk’s security clearance. Mr. Bannon suggested that Mr. Musk’s top-secret clearance should be suspended during investigations into the tech billionaire. Mr. Musk has a clearance from the government which could be revoked by Mr. Trump. That would make it very difficult for Mr. Musk to continue to work with the government.

Use social media as an irritant. On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Musk posted a poll on X, asking whether it was time “to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle.” More than 80 percent of the nearly two million respondents so far have voted “yes.” There was a post that Mr. Musk said he accepted as true. It was not certain if he was agreeing with impeachment or a part of the post.

After Trump made a threat to cut off billions of dollars in federal subsidy to Musk’s companies, Musk claimed that he had proof that Trump had been in government documents about sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. “That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk claimed.

Cut contracts with Mr. Musk. On his own social media platform, Truth Social, Mr. Trump suggested that ending the government contracts with Mr. Musk’s various companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, would be “the easiest way to save money in our Budget.” The companies of Mr. Musk were promised 3 billion dollars by 17 government agencies.

Look at Mr. Musk’s immigration status and drug use. “I believe that he is an illegal alien and should be deported immediately, because of my strong belief that he is,” said Mr. Bannon, who is one of the architects of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Mr. Musk was born in South Africa and naturalized in the United States. Mr. Musk’s drug use and his efforts to be briefed on classified information about military plans involving China needs to be investigated.

May 2025Musk announced he was leaving the government, citing the end of his “scheduled time” as a special government employee. At a press conference, Trump said that Musk is one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced.

July 2024Musk endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt in Butler, Penn. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote on X minutes after the shooting.

August 2024Musk hosted an interview with Trump on X. After lengthy technical delays, the conversation largely followed the contours of Trump’s campaign speeches, and the two men both praised and talked past one another.

October 2024Musk hit the campaign trail with Trump. The billionaire wore a black “Make America Great Again” hat to an event in Pennsylvania, where he said that this will be the last election if Trump is not elected.

Musk gave away $1 million at one of Trump’s rallies and also took the stage at another rally in New York.

November 2024Musk spent election night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Florida. The next morning, he celebrated by uploading a picture of himself saluting the American flag with a caption that said “It is morning in America again”.

The Musk-Trump megabill: Blaming Trump for his “Disgusting Absolute” Government-Slashing Experiment

Musk and a Republican candidate for president are co-lead of a “Department of Government Efficiency” focused on curbting federal spending. It was not known at the time if the entity would be inside or outside the government.

February 2025Trump and Musk appeared together in the Oval Office, accompanied by Musk’s young son, to defend the work of DOGE, which has cut a swath through federal agencies.

Musk told reporters that people are going to get major government reform, and that they voted for it. They’re going to get what they voted for.

They also addressed concerns that Musk’s many companies, which have business with and are regulated by some of the agencies DOGE has targeted, created conflicts of interest.

Musk attended Trump’s first cabinet meeting later in the month. Trump introduced Musk by saying the billionaire was “sacrificing a lot” through his government work.

Trump asked if anybody was unhappy with Musk’s slash-and-burn approach after hearing reports that some agency heads were unhappy with it. His question was met with laughter.

Trump and Musk made the White House lawn into a temporary showroom for their cars. Trump sat inside a red Model S with Musk and announced his intention to buy a Tesla, in a show of support amid a global backlash against Tesla over Musk’s controversial involvement in politics in both the U.S. and Europe, where he has thrown his support behind far-right parties.

Musk, who for months led the Trump administration’s government-slashing unit until he left the role last week, has been actively attacking the megabill for days, calling it “pork-filled” and a “disgusting abomination.”

Trump posted on his Truth Social site: “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ 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!”

On Thursday, their disagreements over the Republican mega-bill advancing most of Trump’s biggest domestic policy priorities erupted into personal attacks, with the two men using their respective social media platforms to hurl insults.

He said Musk had no problems until after he left, and that he’d known the inner workings of the bill. Musk claimed on X that the bill was never shown to him.

“In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful,” Musk posted Thursday. “Everyone knows this! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. It is Slim and Beautiful.

Trump, Musk, and the Dragon: How SpaceX will respond to Trump’s threats and the security of the U.S. from the Russian invasion of Ukraine

They leave and wake up in the morning with no glamor. The whole world is different, and they become hostile, I don’t know what it is,” Trump said.

After Trump spoke, Musk posted on X that “without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

“While their political partnership appears to be at an end, it is difficult to imagine the government cancelling SpaceX contracts anytime soon,” said Dan Grazier, senior fellow and program director at the Stimson Center, a think tank focused on national security.

“It will be some time before any of the company’s competitors will be able to take up the slack, so it looks like the president and the tech mogul will have to find a way to get along,” he said.

It’s unclear if Musk was trolling or being serious, but he responded to Trump’s threats by saying SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft, which has been used for years to ferry crews and cargo to the space station.

Walking away from the federal government would strand those crew members and complicate the Trump administration’s goal of landing astronauts on the moon in the coming years.

SpaceX is also building hundreds of spy satellites for the Pentagon, Reuters reported in March, work that, if abandoned, could have national security implications and prompt a backlash from the intelligence community.

In addition, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network is a player in a multi-billion-dollar federal effort to expand internet access to underserved parts of the country.

Ukraine has also relied heavily on Starlink services since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, leading top Pentagon officials to coordinate directly with Musk, The New Yorker has reported.

Tax credits will help Tesla, but Trump can’t deny his support for the Plan to Expand the Number of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

The Congress devoted billions of dollars to expand the number of electric vehicle charging stations. The main component of the plan was having Tesla make its chargers compatible with other vehicles in order for them to get part of the federal funds. That plan has been halted by the Trump administration, even before Congress tried to pass the Trump-backed tax policy bill that would roll back support for EVs even more.

Trump said that Musk didn’t support the bill because it slashed subsidies for electric vehicles.

Musk has previously opposed the EV tax credits, viewing them as mostly benefiting his competitors, but he has changed his mind since he started overseeing mass layoffs and other shake-ups of the federal government.

Paul Levinson, a professor at Fordham University, said perhaps it will lead to more short-term stock market drops for Tesla and a hit to his wealth. If some of the federal money that flows to Musk’s business empire disappears, it will not hamper the billionaire in the long run, he said.

“His wealth is highly precarious,” he said, noting that most of Musk’s fortune is tied to his stake in Tesla. “The reality is that Musk’s position is far weaker than many realize.”

Both were performative gestures that crystalized the billionaire’s cozy relationship with the president, who was willing to shill for Musk after he dished out more than a quarter-billion dollars to support Trump’s run for president.