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United States President Donald Trump has said his relationship with his billionaire donor Elon Musk is over and warned there would be “serious consequences” if Musk funds US Democrats running against Republicans who vote for the president’s sweeping tax and spending bill.
In a telephone interview with American broadcaster NBC News overnight, Trump declined to say what those consequences would be, and went on to add that he had not had discussions about whether to investigate Musk.
Asked if he thought his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive was over, Trump said, “I would assume so, yeah.”
“No,” Trump told NBC when asked if he had any desire to repair his relationship with Musk.
“I have no intention of speaking to him,” Trump said.
However, Trump said he had not thought about terminating US government contracts with Musk’s StarLink satellite internet or SpaceX rocket launch companies.
Musk’s opposition to the measure complicated efforts to pass the legislation in Congress, where Republicans hold only slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate.
The bill narrowly passed the House last month and is now before the Senate, where Trump’s fellow Republicans are considering making changes. Nonpartisan analysts estimate the measure would add US$2.4 trillion ($3.7 trillion) to the US$36.2 trillion ($55.8 trillion) debt over 10 years, which worries many lawmakers, including some Republicans who are fiscal hawks.
Musk also declared it was time for a new political party in the US “to represent the 80% in the middle!”
Trump told NBC he is confident the bill would get passed by the US’ 4 July Independence Day holiday.
“In fact, yeah, people that were, were going to vote for it are now enthusiastically going to vote for it, and we expect it to pass,” Trump said.
Republicans have strongly backed Trump’s initiatives since he began his second term as president on 20 January. While some Republican lawmakers have made comments to the news media expressing concern about some of Trump’s choices, they have yet to vote down any of his policies or nominations.
Deleted social media posts
Musk appears to have deleted some social media posts critical of Trump, including one that signalled support for impeaching the president, appearing to seek a de-escalation of their public feud. During his first term as president, the House, then controlled by Democrats, twice voted to impeach Trump but the Senate both times acquitted him.
The White House and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday AEST on the deleted posts.
One of the X posts that Musk appeared to have deleted was a response to another user posting: “President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and (Vice President) JD Vance should replace him.” Musk had written “yes.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, bankrolled a large part of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, spending nearly US$300 million ($462 million) in last year’s US elections and taking credit for Republicans retaining a majority of seats in the House and retaking a majority in the Senate.
Trump named Musk to head an effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending, lauding him at the White House only about a week ago for his work as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk cut only about half of one per cent of total spending, far short of his brash plans to axe US$2 trillion ($3 trillion) from the federal budget.
