"Elon and I had a good relationship": After disappointments and sound bites, Trump and Musk dramatically display their breakup

In the Oval Office, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz remains perfectly calm and lets the storm pass. Except that it's not him who is being attacked by the American president, known for roughing up some of his foreign guests. He's mainly busy settling scores with the richest man in the world. Donald Trump says he's "very disappointed" by the multi-billionaire's incessant criticism of his mega-budget bill, the centerpiece of his platform.

" Elon and I had a good relationship. I don't know if we still do," he says of his former "special advisor," who only left his White House spending-cutting mission last Friday. The hyperactive entrepreneur responds live on his social media account, X.

"Anything"

"Nonsense," wrote Elon Musk in a comment on a video of Donald Trump claiming his anger was due to the loss of subsidies for electric vehicles.

"False," he then posted above an excerpt in which the American president assured the entrepreneur that he knew the text's contents in advance. A "great and beautiful law" according to Donald Trump, an "abomination" according to the Tesla and SpaceX boss.

Then the multi-billionaire, who generously funded the Republican campaign in 2024, gets carried away: he claims that "Trump would have lost the election " without him and accuses him of "ingratitude." The joust causes Tesla's stock to plummet on the New York Stock Exchange.

In the Oval Office, Friedrich Merz continues to be a supporting character, as do Vice President J.D. Vance and other US and German officials, while Donald Trump rather cruelly portrays his former ally as a jilted lover.

"He said the most beautiful things about me," he recalls of Elon Musk.

"People leave our government, they love us, and at some point they miss it so much... And some of them become hostile," the Republican continued.

Ever since Elon Musk's explosive entry into Donald Trump's campaign last year, doubts arose about the longevity of the relationship between these two impulsive, attention-hungry, instinct-driven men—one in politics, the other in business and technology.

"New political party"

For several weeks, the romance seemed perfect. Donald Trump constantly defended his ally against criticism of the brutal methods of Doge, the fiscal austerity mission he led.

He didn't hesitate to call the vandalism of Tesla cars "terrorism" and to organize a promotional campaign for the brand at the White House. Elon Musk, for his part, showered praise on the American president, even calling him a "king" on the day of his inauguration.

He was seen wearing a cap with the words "Trump was right about everything " at the cabinet meeting, and following him like his shadow, at the White House as well as at Mar-a-Lago, his luxurious residence in Florida. But cracks eventually appeared, due to public tensions between the multi-billionaire , who manages huge federal contracts via SpaceX, and the president's ministers and advisors.

Some experts believe that what may have sealed Elon Musk's fate happened not in Washington, but in Wisconsin during a spring election for the local Supreme Court.

The Tesla boss was heavily involved in trying to get a conservative judge elected, but it was the Democratic candidate who won by a landslide.

Donald Trump, who hates above all else being associated with defeat, naturally followed Elon Musk's first solo political adventure closely. He clearly wasn't put off by it. The world's richest man asked on X on Thursday if it wasn't "time to create a new political party" in the United States.