One of the problems with watching the Star Wars prequel is that one knows what happens. For example, it’s inevitable that Anakin Skywalker would eventually become Darth Vader, turning on his great friend and mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi. The same was apparent to anyone who saw the bromance between Elon Musk and Donald Trump: two oversized egos who forged an unlikely partnership to destroy wokeism and Make America Great Again. And yet, behind the bromance, with Trump loving Elon’s rocket landings and Elon praising Trump, the fallout was always coming. The trigger? Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
The Breakout Power Couple
If the American republic is a reality show, then Donald Trump and Elon Musk were its breakout power couple. One sold steaks and slogans, the other sold flamethrowers and tunnels. For a moment, they were the tech-and-tantrum axis, the double helix of power and platform. But like all primetime pairings, their arc had a third-act twist—less redemption, more Game of Thrones firestorm.Read: A timeline of the meltdown
Act I: From Paris to Palm Beach
There was a time, not long ago, when Elon Musk and Donald Trump were on different planets—ideologically, intellectually, and ecologically. Musk publicly distanced himself from Trump during his first term, even resigning from the White House advisory councils in 2017 after Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Musk was more Silicon Valley libertarian than nationalist firebrand; Trump, more Rust Belt messiah than Martian coloniser.But politics, like spaceflight, is about trajectory. And in July 2024, after an attempt on Trump’s life during the campaign trail, Musk’s compass shifted. He endorsed Trump. Loudly. Repeatedly. He became the single largest donor to the Republican campaign with nearly $300 million in funding. SpaceX’s Starlink was praised during the campaign, particularly for its potential to provide reliable internet access in rural areas—an area of focus for Trump’s second-term infrastructure promises.
Behind the scenes, Musk enabled the tech bros to go with Trump, helping to realise the intellectual blueprint associated with Curtis Yarvin.Curtis Yarvin, a Silicon Valley-based political theorist and blogger also known by his pen name ‘Mencius Moldbug,’ is often credited as a founding intellectual figure of the New Right and the ‘neoreactionary’ movement. His ideology favours strong executive power and a technocratic elite over liberal democracy—an outlook that resonated with Musk’s growing contempt for traditional institutions and love for systems engineering. And with his typical flair for drama, Musk turned what was once quiet admiration into full-throttle political support. Trump responded with the one currency he deals in best: spectacle.
I love Donald Trump, as much as a straight man can.
Elon Musk
Act II: DOGE Days and Rocket Praise
Donald Trump and Elon Musk
By early 2025, the bromance had been institutionalised. Trump appointed Musk to head the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency—DOGE. If the name sounded like a meme, it was because it was one. Musk, now a cabinet-level bureaucrat with budgetary scissors, had free rein to slash overhead and theoretically save the American taxpayer trillions. Within weeks, he was livestreaming audits, tweeting cost-cutting charts, and posting memes of bureaucrats turned into “NPCs.”Meanwhile, Trump basked in the Musk glow. At a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, he reportedly insisted the band play Space Oddity as a tribute to Musk and mused to guests about how “those rockets, they’re just incredible—beautiful machines.” It wasn’t policy. It was pageantry. They travelled together. They went to UFC fights. Musk’s son, X Æ A-12, appeared at White House events. For a while, Musk was “First Buddy”—unofficial, unfiltered, and ever online.
Act III: Policy Static and Musk’s Exit
Cracks had begun to show even earlier. One major source of tension was the so-called MAGA Civil War over H-1B visas. In early 2025, Trump’s base erupted over what they perceived as a betrayal of the America First doctrine, particularly as Trump’s administration floated limited reforms to streamline high-skilled immigration. Musk, a vocal advocate for retaining and attracting top engineering talent from abroad, defended the H-1B program, calling it essential for innovation in AI, automotive tech, and aerospace. This did not sit well with the populist flank of the GOP. Hardline Trump allies began to attack Musk, accusing him of putting corporate interests above American workers. Right-wing influencers branded him a ‘globalist Trojan horse,’ and social media became a battleground where MAGA’s nationalist rhetoric clashed with Musk’s techno-libertarianism. Around the same time, the Trump administration introduced a tariff framework designed to penalise countries that subsidised exports into the US—raising concerns among tech companies. Musk, who had publicly criticised similar tariffs in the past, warned they would increase domestic production costs for high-tech manufacturers like Tesla. It made importing components more expensive, while offering no meaningful relief for US-based innovation.
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The online vitriol was an early signal that Musk’s ideological alignment with Trump’s base was more fragile than it appeared.But alliances built on mutual flattery have the shelf life of a Tesla’s steering wheel. Trouble emerged with Trump’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill”—a sprawling tax and spending plan. While MAGA world cheered its middle-class tax cuts and deficit reduction promises, Musk bristled at its axe-swinging on clean energy incentives, particularly EV subsidies.Musk wasn’t subtle about it. In public posts, he attacked the bill as irresponsible. In private meetings, he warned Republican allies it would hurt American innovation. But most significantly, he realised the bill—and its supporters—no longer needed him. He had gone from insider to inconvenience.In May 2025, Musk stepped down from DOGE. Officially, it was to “refocus on private ventures.” Unofficially, the writing was on the wall.
Act IV: June 5 and the Flameout
The final straw came in June, with the subtlety of a SpaceX booster detonation. At a closed-door White House meeting, Trump reportedly voiced his disappointment with Musk’s public criticisms. Musk, mid-meeting, fired off posts on X denouncing the bill and reminding the world he had “bankrolled the campaign.” He reposted content calling for Trump’s impeachment. It was no longer dissent—it was defiance.Trump hit back.He publicly threatened to terminate federal contracts and subsidies for Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink, claiming it would save “Billions and Billions of Dollars.” By day’s end, Tesla had lost 14.3% in market value. Musk, in turn, stoked conspiracy fires by suggesting Trump’s name might be in the unreleased Epstein files. No evidence. Just thermonuclear innuendo.
Act V: Fallout and the Fractured GOP
The markets shook. SpaceX’s NASA contracts went into limbo. Musk’s loyalists cried betrayal. Some Republicans—Thomas Massie, Warren Davidson—sided with him. Most stayed with Trump.Trump pulled Jared Isaacman’s NASA nomination, Musk’s close friend, just days after the feud began. Peter Navarro and Musk reignited their mutual loathing over tariffs, with Musk publicly calling Navarro “a moron.”Then came the money. Musk withheld the final $100 million of his $300 million donation, citing “fiscal betrayal.” Trump responded by saying Musk had ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’. The digital divorce was final.
Postscript: The Gospel of Ego
FILE – Elon Musk jumps on the stage as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
In the end, this wasn’t just about electric vehicles or deficits. It was about two men who see themselves as the singular protagonists of American destiny—and couldn’t tolerate a shared spotlight. Trump wanted a loyal industrialist. Musk wanted a blank cheque. Neither got what they wanted.Now, one controls the levers of state. The other commands the timeline. One speaks from a podium. The other from a rocket. And the rest of America is left scrolling through a billionaire breakup, meme by meme, post by post.
