Trump's Trials - Public feud erupts between President Trump and former adviser Elon Musk

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

A week ago, President Trump and Elon Musk were saying fond farewells as Musk left government. On Thursday, their disagreements over the GOP budget bill erupted into personal attacks.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Detro. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. President Trump has brought back strength to the White House. We can't just ignore the president's desires. This will be an entirely different country in a short period of time. Every episode of Trump's Terms, we bring you NPR's latest coverage of the 47th president with a focus on actions and policies he is pursuing on his own terms and in the process, taking the presidency into uncharted territory.

Today's story starts right after this. I'm Tonya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. At a time of sound bites and short attention spans, our show is all about the deep dive. We do long-form interviews with people behind the best in film, books, TV, music, and journalism. Here our guests open up about their process and their lives in ways you've never heard before. Listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY. Keeping up with the news can feel like a 24 hour job. Luckily, it is our job. Every hour on

the NPR News Now podcast, we take the latest most important stories happening and we package them into five-minute episodes so you can easily squeeze them in between meetings and on your way to that thing. Listen to the NPR News Now podcast, now. I'm Steve Inskey. Elon Musk and President Trump seemed inseparable for months. Musk brought one of his many children, X, to the White House. Well, if you don't have a feedback group, okay, X, we'd have to, if you, if you, sorry. He turned up casually dressed at cabinet meetings.

Obviously, that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room. And I'd like to thank everyone for your support. Thank you very much. He stood up the Department of Government Efficiency, one of the world's richest men joyously firing people while waving around a chainsaw. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. Chainsaw!

And President Trump was all in favor as recently as last week when Musk left government service. And he's one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced. He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation, and we appreciate it. This is all history. Maybe. Because they broke up yesterday. NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtz-Laban was watching. Hi there, Danielle. Danielle Kurtz-Laban Hey, good morning.

Pete I guess we should note this very personal seeming dispute began with an actual policy disagreement. What is it? Danielle Kurtz-Laban Assensibly, yeah. I mean, the big, beautiful bill was at the start of all of this. That bill is the massive policy package Republicans are trying to pass right now. Musk had loudly criticized that bill for days because of the cost of the bill. At one point, Musk called the bill a disgusting abomination. And look, the bill is expensive. The nonpartisan CBO has reported it would add $2.4 trillion to future deficits. But then all of that brings us to yesterday when Trump was asked about Musk's criticism of that bill. And Trump said that

he thinks Musk, as CEO of Tesla, well, he's just angry that the bill would cut tax incentives for people buying electric cars. All of a sudden, he had a problem. And he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate because that's billions and billions of dollars. And then Trump went further. He also said Musk just misses the power and attention that he had when he was in government Okay, so this escalated in real time must got onto X and he said EV credits aren't the issue for me and and then what? You're right. It escalated

well Trump then threatened to end the government contracts at Musk's companies have musk in turn threatened to decommission a spacecraft that NASA uses and then Musk got really aggressive. He posted that Trump hadn't released all the records around sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because, according to Musk, those files implicate Trump. Now, I should say Musk did not provide any evidence of that. And Musk also has in the past made accusations of sex crimes without evidence. I did talk to the White House. they had no immediate comment on any of that. But Musk had even more to say, including retweeting someone calling for Trump's impeachment.

So yeah, this is about as ugly of a falling out as there is. All of that said, it is worth pointing out, Musk and Trump were never in complete lockstep. There was friction there while Musk was still a government employee. I just wanna ask how much this matters because it all feels like a TV show, an unreality show. Does it matter?

Well, look, to some degree, the attention this is getting is, yeah, just social media rubbernecking. And definitely, if you watch Democrats and leftists online, the schadenfreude is high. But to zoom way out, whether or not this is consequential, it's remarkable because of the remarkable way that Trump elevated Musk. Now Trump brought in this businessman gave him sweeping power, but it wasn't a one-way street. Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump get elected. So yesterday, Musk made it clear he thought he deserved more in return. He posted, without me, Trump would have lost the election. And he added, quote, such ingratitude.

Musk all but said that, yeah, my money should buy me power. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, thanks so much. Thank you. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks as always to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without

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