The feud between two best friends, United States (US) President, Donald Trump and the billionaire promoter of Tesla, Elon Reeve Musk gets messier by the day over policy issues
The recent misunderstanding between President Donald Trump of the United States (US) and his former Special Adviser on Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk has taken a nosedive leading to the billionaire owner of Tesla working in favour of the impeachment of the radical incumbent President.
The dispute, now spilling across social media and mainstream headlines, centres on Trump’s controversial budget bill and Musk’s allegations of political ingratitude.
The billionaire tech mogul has openly backed a call for the impeachment of Trump, intensifying a growing war of words between the once-allied public personalities. Just last Thursday, June 5, 2025, Musk had endorsed a call by the right-wing writer, Ian Miles Cheong for Trump’s impeachment and for US Senator JD Vance to hold forth. Cheong had posted on his X handle that, “President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him”. Musk had affirmed the impeachment post with a, “Yes,” which he replied about 20 minutes later.
The public endorsement comes as Musk has repeatedly criticised Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill”-a sweeping budget measure that extends Trump-era tax cuts and allocates $46.5 billion for additional US-Mexico border barriers. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote on X earlier last week, adding, “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” He further warned the bill would worsen the US fiscal outlook. He said the bill would “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt”.
The tension between Musk and Trump escalated after Trump expressed disappointment in Musk’s vocal criticism, saying, “I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here,” Trump told reporters during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “All of a sudden he had a problem.”
Shortly after, Musk sharply disputed Trump’s remarks when he said, “False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”
In a further rebuke, Musk suggested Trump owes him political gratitude, insisting that, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House, and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate”, Musk posted on X. “Such ingratitude.”
The tech billionaire had recently resigned from an advisory role within the Trump administration, citing disagreements over the budget and governance priorities. While Musk remains supportive of certain US government efforts, he has championed aggressive cuts to federal spending-an agenda that has sparked protests and political controversy nationwide.
While the policy feud between the two giants rage, Trump had come up with another policy that sounded like ‘Send Them Packing’. In a stunning move, president Trump has signed a travel ban on citizens from 12 countries, a policy that is also escalating his face-off with his estranged political ally, Musk. The travel ban revives an effort from President Trump’s first term that led to chaos and court battles. President Trump’s proclamation barred travel from a variety of countries, primarily in Africa and the Middle East. On Wednesday, June 4, 2025, Trump signed the controversial ban which affects 12 countries, to prevent large numbers of immigrants and visitors from entering the US. The ban, which will take effect from Monday, June 9, 2025, bars travel to the United States by citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The US President also imposed restrictions, but stopped short of a full ban, on travel from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. People from those countries cannot come to the United States permanently or get tourist or student visas.
The decision resurrects a policy from Mr. Trump’s first term, which caused chaos at airports and led to legal challenges. It is the latest move in Mr. Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration, after he blocked asylum at the Southern border, barred international students from Harvard University and ordered immigration raids across the country.
The decision came days after an Egyptian man in Colorado was arrested and charged with carrying out an attack on a group honoring hostages being held in Gaza. Trump administration officials had warned that there would be a crackdown after that attack. Meanwhile, one of the seven African countries suspended by Trump, Chad, has in retaliation suspended visas for US citizens from Thursday, June 5, 2025.
The president of Chad said, “Chad has neither planes to offer, nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said on his official Facebook page, in an apparent reference to Trump’s friendly ties with richer countries. The African Union (AU) said in a statement the ban would harm “people-to-people ties, educational exchange, commercial engagement, and broader diplomatic relations” built with the US over decades. It appealed to Washington to adopt a “consultative approach and to engage in constructive dialogue with the countries concerned”.
