On the ever-changing political and business stage in the U.S., the tumultuous 'love-hate relationship' between Musk and Trump can be described as a spectacular reality drama.
As the tariff war erupted, Musk really had no words for his grievances. He didn't dare to directly criticize Trump and could only vent his anger on Navarro, the behind-the-scenes driver of the tariff war. On Twitter, Musk bluntly called Navarro dumber than a sack of bricks for making such an unreliable decision. But this criticism was like poking a hornet's nest. After enjoying the feeling for just two days, Trump responded: 'I don't need Musk to do anything; I just happen to like him.' Trump was probably thinking: you criticize my strategist as dumb, but all my policies listen to him, aren’t you indirectly criticizing me?
While the tariff war was still raging, Musk had another conflict with Besant. Musk directly recommended Sharpley to Trump as the acting head of the IRS, which infuriated Besant. The IRS is a subordinate unit of the Treasury, and Musk bypassing him to recommend someone directly to Trump was nothing less than a slap in the face. Thus, the two engaged in a heated 'war of words' in the White House meeting room. A few hours later, Trump issued an appointment notice, arranging for Besant's recommended Falkender to head the IRS. Clearly, this time Trump abandoned Musk again.
In the more than three months since Trump took office, Musk seemed to be on a rollercoaster, falling from the clouds straight into the depths, becoming the biggest loser in the world. He supported Trump not because of any sensational news about his child becoming a daughter. Musk has many children and wouldn't gamble his fortune on something like that. The fundamental reason is still interests.
During Biden's presidency, renewable energy subsidies were not given to Musk, while the aerospace technology subsidies given to Boeing were much more than those given to Musk. Musk felt he was making too little money under Biden, so he turned against him and pledged allegiance to Trump. The two probably reached a lot of consensus, such as Trump saying he wanted to focus on developing a space defense system, which would benefit Musk's projects.
After Trump was elected, Musk welcomed his moment of glory, being even more active than Trump, always the first to speak on any issue. On December 18 last year, Congress released a 1547-page appropriations bill, and Musk immediately went crazy, furiously tweeting hundreds of times a day, ridiculing and mocking, saying this pile of documents was akin to a big pile of pork. The entire Congress was left speechless by his insults, and Speaker Johnson could only swallow his anger, revising the bill twice until Musk was satisfied. At that time, Musk was at the height of his glory, standing at the pinnacle of the world, with the entire U.S. having to watch his face.
From that time until February of this year, Musk had been dominating global news headlines, actively expressing opinions on everything, tirelessly tweeting every day. But who would have thought that he suddenly fell silent and even announced he was leaving.
There are two things that marked Musk's sudden low profile turning point. One is his high-profile announcement to audit the Pentagon to clarify the whereabouts of military spending; the other is his announcement to thoroughly investigate the U.S. Treasury to see if there is gold inside. At that time, Musk had just finished investigating the International Development Agency, full of confidence and high morale, and everyone thought there would be a big show to follow. But unexpectedly, after announcing these two things, he fell silent and never spoke again, and these two matters also came to nothing.
In fact, there was another incident. According to the Washington Post, Musk went to the Pentagon to guide work and intended to hear U.S. military briefings. When Trump learned of this, he exploded in anger and cursed: 'What the hell is Musk doing there? You must ensure he doesn't attend the meeting!' Clearly, Trump was very unhappy about this. After that, Musk never went to the Pentagon again.
Since then, Trump's dislike for Musk has grown. He announced plans to cut NASA's science budget for 2026 by half, an unprecedented reduction in the U.S. aerospace sector. It should be noted that NASA is Musk's SpaceX's biggest customer, and a large number of research and launch plans require NASA's funding. Now that NASA’s budget has been cut in half, can Musk have a good time?
Musk helped Trump cut costs, but unexpectedly, Trump backstabbed him by cutting his own costs. At this time, Musk also dared not say much and could only helplessly mumble a few words on social media: 'This is very concerning. I fully support scientific research, but I am just the main contractor for NASA and cannot participate in budget discussions.'
One important reason why Musk backed Trump was dissatisfaction with Biden's budget, feeling that Biden gave too much money to NASA and not enough to his space exploration company. But now things are even worse than under Biden. To put it another way, if Biden or Harris were president, Tesla's sales would not have plummeted like they have now, and his assets wouldn't have shrunk by a third. Musk must be regretting it deeply, wondering to himself: what have I done? What was the point of spending so much money to make Trump president?
So what exactly happened that led to Musk's downfall? Was it because he wanted to investigate the Pentagon and the Treasury, and faced backlash from the deep state in the U.S.? Actually, no. The real reason is that Trump said it was now my turn to be the deep state. In this complex political and business game, Musk was like a pawn, manipulated at will by Trump, ultimately ending up with a complete loss. This also shows us that in the profit-driven world of American politics and business, there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests.
