Trump and Musk Resume Hostilities Neither Has Time For

The world’s most powerful man, and the world’s richest, are at it again. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The richest man in the world, and the world’s most-powerful man, are no longer friends. And the fallout is something we may all have to contend with.

President Donald Trump attacked Elon Musk early Tuesday, renewing hostilities that cropped up in June. The billionaire Tesla CEO threatened Monday to fund primary challenges to Republican lawmakers who support the tax and spending bill that just made its way through the Senate, while hinting at establishing a new political party.

The president, possibly in jest, suggested he could “look into” whether Musk, a naturalized U.S. citizen, could be deported.

Speaking with reporters outside of the White House, he also said he might have the Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting group established by Musk earlier this year, examine the myriad subsides afforded to Musk’s business empire. A detailed analysis from the Washington Post pegs that figure at around $38 billion, spread over 20 years, mostly through NASA and the Department of Energy to SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, and Tesla.

“No more rocket launches, satellites, or electric car production and our country would save a fortune,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network early Tuesday. “Perhaps we could have DOGE take a good, hard look at this?”

“You know what DOGE is, right? It’s the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” Trump told reporters in Washington.

A prolonged battle between the two men, who not long ago were seen as kindred spirits in the MAGA movement, even sharing time in front of the cameras in the Oval Office, might seem little more than good entertainment. But it is more than that.

Having lawmakers looking over their shoulder as they draft legislation, fearful of the wrath of the world’s richest man and his willingness to fund rival candidates, isn’t a solid foundation upon which to build policy. A White House focused on exacting revenge through political means on a publicly traded entity doesn’t paint a picture of a country that runs according to the rule of law and would be welcoming to foreign investment.

It is worth noting, as well, that neither man has the time for distractions. While the Senate has passed his tax-and-spending legislation, the bill faces an uncertain future in the House before Trump can sign it into law. At the same time, the president is just days away from a potentially enormous market event tied to the July 9 expiration of his pause on the “Liberation Day” tariffs he unveiled on April 2. He is also in the middle of an effort to strong-arm Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates.

Musk, for his part, is about to face shareholder reaction to quarterly figures that likely will show a further slide in EV sales, plus a second-quarter earnings report that is expected to include more margin pressures. A third challenge is that while his robo-taxi fleet is on the roads in Austin, Texas, it is far from operating at the kind of scale he has promised.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a longtime Tesla bull, thinks Musk’s risks from the fallout are far more pressing than they are for the president.

“Tesla investors want Musk to focus on driving Tesla and stop this political angle, which has turned into a life of its own,” he said in a note published Tuesday. “At the end of the day being on Trump’s bad side won’t turn out well—and Musk knows this.”

His latest messages would seem to suggest that is true. Sort of. Musk noted on his X social media network Tuesday that while it’s “so, so tempting” to escalate his feud with the president, he would “refrain for now.”

Less than an hour later, he asked his 221.5 million followers their thoughts on “removal of funding for enforcement of federal contempt of court orders” from the tax bill.

A protracted feud between the two carries huge risks for important elements of the U.S. growth story.

Eliminating tax and emissions credits for EVs as part of the cost-cutting Musk had advocated only accelerates the lead China has established in that market. Animosity between Trump and Musk makes it less likely that Trump’s tilt away from green energy can be reversed.

Establishing a third political party, funded by the billions Musk has created over the past two decades, would only make it harder to win approval for deficit reduction that would make government spending sustainable.

In any case, it doesn’t look good to have two of the world’s most important figures trading adolescent barbs over social media.

Write to Martin Baccardax at martin.baccardax@barrons.com