Elon Musk’s spectacular falling-out with President Donald Trump has escalated further, with the former DOGE chief suggesting the president should be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance.
The latest attack came not long after Trump threatened to cancel Musk’s government contracts, claiming Musk had “gone crazy” after not getting what he wanted in the mega-spending bill.
In response, Musk then declared: “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”
ADVERTISEMENT
This could be damaging for the US, which relies on the SpaceX Dragon to transport people and cargo to the International Space Station.
Musk also went nuclear on his former ally by replying “Yes” to a post by an X user that asked: “President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and Vance should replace him.”
And earlier, he told his followers that Trump was named in the Epstein files, signing off by saying: “Have a nice day, DJT!”
The Trump-Musk bromance took a rapid turn on Thursday, when Trump broke his silence about Musk in a dramatic intervention after the Tesla billionaire’s frenzied attacks on the “big, beautiful bill.”
After the Oval Office tirade, Trump then put out a Truth Social Post, saying: “Elon was “wearing thin,” I asked him to leave,“ Trump posted. ”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!”
He added: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it.”
Musk replied on X: “Such an obvious lie. So sad.”
Trump’s latest threat could have financial implications for Musk if the president acts on them.
As the head of SpaceX, Musk has has billions of dollars worth of contracts with the federal government, mostly with the Pentagon and NASA.
He also has several other interests with the government related to SpaceX’s satellite service, Starlink, and reportedly expressed an interest in helping Trump build his so-called “golden dome” missile shield.
But the spectacular falling out could make that highly unlikely—even though though it was only last week that Musk had said he would continue to visit the White House as an unofficial adviser.
Standing in the White House with Musk on Friday to mark the end of his work with DOGE, Trump heaped praise on the Tesla chief, telling reporters Musk had “delivered a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington.”
“Elon has worked tirelessly helping lead the most sweeping consequential government reform program in generations,” Trump said.
But much has rapidly deteriorated since—ever since Musk spoke out about Trump’s mega-spending bill on Tuesday and declared it as a “disgusting abomination.”
White House sources say that Trump had become increasingly frustrated that Musk had spent the past few days using his social media platform to unload on the bill with his 220 million-plus followers.
“This was a person who the President had invited into his inner circle, to Mara-lago, to cabinet meetings,” one insider noted.
But Thursday’s Oval Office rant was a particularly stinging rebuke for Musk, who spent more than $300 million helping the president win back the White House.
Musk had largely stayed out of the political arena until Trump was almost assassinated last year.
But in the aftermath of Trump’s near death experience, the billionaire immediately set up his America super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win office, and later took up a post as Trump’s DOGE slasher-in-chief.
After hitting out at the spending bill, he declared this week that he wants to “fire” people who voted for Trump’s mega-spending bill.
Such a move could dampen the efforts of Republicans at next year’s midterms and in the lead up to 2028—and potentially make the Tesla chief an unlikely ally for the Democrats.
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin said: “As Trump faces national humiliation and Republicans scramble, each hour gets more pathetic for these guys.
