J.D. Vance was forced to reaffirm his allegiance to President Trump after Elon Musk backed a call for the vice president to replace his boss.
A spat between Musk and Trump over the president’s “big beautiful bill,” which the Tesla CEO denounced as a “disgusting abomination,” has blown up into an all-out MAGA civil war, with Musk and Trump dramatically trading blows in public.
On Thursday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO replied “Yes” to a post by an X user who asked: “President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and Vance should replace him.”
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Musk publicly mused about starting a political party, and told his followers in a bombshell allegation that Trump was named in the Epstein files, signing off by saying: “Have a nice day, DJT!”
He added in a follow-up post, “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
Vance also features in a conspiracy theory called “Dark Enlightenment” or Dark MAGA" that suggests a secretive cabal of tech titans is plotting to blow up the government and rule as a giant corporation with a CEO instead of a president.
The Silicon Valley plotters, including Musk, chose Vance as the person who would take over when Trump is toppled, according to the theory.
Trump has yet to address the latest allegations personally. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement saying: “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ because it does not include the policies he wanted.”
As the drama escalated, Vance posted a picture teasing a Friday appearance on the podcast of Trump-friendly comedian Theo Von. “Slow news day, what are we even going to talk about?” Vance joked.
In a follow-up post, the vice president added: “President Trump has done more than any person in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads. I’m proud to stand beside him.”
Musk and Trump’s alliance began to unravel after the GOP-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed Trump’s flagship budget proposal last month.
Before that, Musk had pushed Trump’s agenda by leading his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative within the administration tasked with cutting government spending and jobs.
Musk publicly attacked Trump’s bill on the grounds that it would undermine his work with DOGE by adding trillions to the U.S. budget deficit. But on Thursday, Trump claimed that Musk was really upset about the effect the bill will have on his electric vehicle company, Tesla.
“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 wrote on Truth Social.
“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!” the president added.
