What did Musk and Trump fall out over?

Publicly, Elon said Trump’s bill was full of pork and would increase spending and debt by a lot.

Voters on the right were already waking up to how shitty Trump’s bill was, and Musk just used his megaphone to let even more of Trump’s base know that it sucked.

Privately, Musk is probably pissed that Trump’s bill didn’t help his companies. These are two greedy assholes. It all comes down to money and ego at the end of the day.

That's a really good explanation thanks! Can you ELI5 why the bill sucked?
- The bill give massive tax cuts to the extremely rich, and it attempts to pay for part of that by:
  kicking many low income and disabled people off of federally funded health insurance
  closes poor rural hospitals that depend on Medicaid money
  cutting subsidies for manufacturing jobs that make emerging green tech, like EVs
  food and child care assistance will disappear for many poor families.
  and there is a bunch of weird little sneaky things hidden in it that people hope don’t get noticed because the bill is 200+ pages
  When you do the math, the rich will get a lot of money, the very poor will have lose money, the and middle class will break even but many will be put on unemployment.
  And it costs an extra $4,000,000,000,000, which is fucking bonkers.
- Normal people hate it because it's gutting things like Medicare, and GOP ghouls hate it because it doesn't cut enough and will add to the deficit by a lot

I think Musk is stupider than people realize. He's a true believer in his grandpa's technocracy movement (plus eugenics), and so he thought "if I was in control for just a few weeks everyone would realize they should just let me run the world"

Then, he got practically unlimited power, and everyone got mad at him. He seemed genuinely surprised that people weren't praising him for his sacrifices (such as selflessly condemning hundreds of thousands of people to death)

Then he showed he was useless at buying elections, and the right dropped him

He followed Trump around for a while quietly, probably spending most of it in a k-hole. Then Trump officially broke up with him, even if he glazed Elon on the way out

Then the narcissism kicked back in. Maybe his "friends" rubbed it in, maybe his dad called him a disappointment who fumbled the chance of a lifetime, maybe the threat of legal ramifications made him bitch out - but whatever happened, Elon woke up one day and decided "it wasn't my fault, Trump and Co fucked me"

I think Elon is actually concerned about the bill to some degree, because it does stretch our debt and spending to levels that could potentially pop the global economy. I think he does feel disrespected that his work at Doge is being rolled back and everyone is distancing themselves from him. I think he is upset that he spent all this money to buy the presidency, and got a bad ROI

But ultimately, Elon is a fucking idiot with a huge ego. He didn't understand what game he was playing, and so when he lost he started blaming others

And it's beautiful. Possibly the greatest crash out in history

Regarding "Elon is stupid" I don't agree. He has shown exceptionally good technical skills, he has no people skills, he's worse than useless at presenting himself to the public in general
I don't think he engineered much at either Tesla or SpaceX, but he had an excellent understanding of what they were doing - he could answer all the (non-ITAR, non trade secret) questions Tim Dodd asked in his tour of Starbase. When model 3 was new Randall Monroe did and assessment of the vehicle, Musk took the criticism and the next version fixed all the identified problems.
I would say Trump is the opposite. Actually low IQ, poorly educated, but good at talking to the population at large
- No, he's shown zero technical skills across his lifetime. He literally has no skill as a programmer or as an engineer
  Have you ever seen a kid with a model car that can rattle off the horsepower and acceleration speed? That's what Elon is. He doesn't understand these things - he buys companies and learns the spec sheet because he's a fanboy with too much money.
  Elon couldn't code his way out of a paper bag. He couldn't put together a model rocket with instructions on the box. What he can do is memorize a bunch of statistics he doesn't understand on a fundamental level
- Ever listen to a kid with a model car rattle off horsepower, 0-60 time, engine displacement, and other facts?
  The child does not understand what that means, not really. They might know the dictionary definitions for those words, but the kid doesn't have the context to understand what it means in a useful way. They just memorize the stats because they're neat.
  That's what Elon is.
  Elon is a trained programmer who doesn't understand code. It's painfully apparent he has no understanding of what he's talking about once he starts talking on a subject you know intimately... Dude is actually an idiot. An absolute joke. His thinking is laughably superficial
  He's also pretty terrible with people, but he sold the "awkward nerd" persona very well. He doesn't know what he's talking about - but he knows how to make it seem like he just can't properly express himself to a layman
- Intelligence is multidimensional. Musk is obviously great at business, the kind where you stretch the limits of what is allowed to grow your empire, and (I agree) he knows what he's building and capable of recognizing where he should lead the product next.
  His political acumen is gotta be dogshit, with an unlimited money all he managed to do is to destroy the "realworld ironman" image he spent a decade crafting. He has no rizz, especially compared to Trump who is loved by half of the world (and hated by the other).
  Also, critically for him IMO, he has no self-reflection. With all that power gassing your ego up, it is crucial to be able to step back and see that you're just a dumb ape as the rest of us. Recognize things you're bad at and find good people to field for you, instead of sycophants whispering "it's the kids who are wrong"
It's funny to watch Ted Faro play out IRL lmao
- When playing Forbidden West, I pretty quickly concluded that Faro was based on him. And the Zeniths were very much Bezos and friends.
The bill ends the carbon offset income that's the largest portion of Tesla's income. Combined with their sales being in the toilet because everybody hates him, and the company very well may not survive.

I'm putting 50/50 odds that it's an intentional, theatrical distraction from other more important things that are going on, or it's just the inevitable outcome of two malignant narcissist sociopaths being in the same room together too often. If they quickly kiss and make up I'll lean more towards the former than the latter.

I've found criminals and high up business people are never friends, just friends when it suits them. They'll have HUGE fallouts then be ok with each other when they need each other. Just IME
Nah, musk has said some stuff that you don't come back from. There is no way Trump says "eh, he accused me of being a pedophile but it's all good".
- That's exactly my point. If they do in a few days "come back from" that and are all buddy buddy again, then I think that indicates it was just a staged performance for show and distraction and none of it was real fighting. Suggests it was all just an act. (IF they do come back from it. Which remains to be seen)
  Muskrat has already backed down from a few things he said in the "heat" of the argument, like that he was going to disassemble the Dragon capsules. So I wouldn't jump to your conclusion that they can't possibly "come back from" this, my point is just that if they do, it was probably all just an act to begin with because I agree if it's real, stuff was said that neither one of these vindictive sociopaths is likely to forget.

Fun fact: This isn't the first time they've worked together and broke up. IIRC, Trump choose Musk for some advisory role during his first term (I don't remember what, specifically). Musk resigned because Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord.

Ahhhh I didn't know that thanks

While I am sure there are real, specific reasons that can be pointed to as "the reason," the real answer is that you can't put two narcissists in a room together and tell them they're on the same team. This always was the only possible outcome.

Other than them both being dickheads

Why do you think they need more than that?

Fair point

The same thing that got them together. Money.

Don't doubt that but do you know what exactly?
- I doubt it is one thing but there is a bill on the floor about removing tax credits for EVs which would hit Tesla quite bad.
I think it's more about power. Musk wanted more, but got less.

It's also possible that this is just political theater designed to distract people

Also I think Tesla stock went up a bit since this whole thing started. Muskrat might just be trying to distance himself from Trump to save Tesla's sales numbers.

Musk feels like he bought a president and should own him outright, Trump feels like he's renting a timeshare on the oval office and Musk is taking up too much of his 'allotted' time.

40% of Tesla income comes from offsets paid by ICE companies.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-profit-could-shrink-under-trump-policies-jpmorgan-2025-1

Trump is killing that.

You ever see what happens when you put two narcissists in the same room? This is what happens.

There is no fall out. They both are still getting exactly what they want. It is a ploy.

Neither one wanted to be top when nobody was watching.

Because autocracy cannot sustain conflict of ideas. It was just a matter of time as every political scientist said 6 months ago.

Have you heard the Tenacious D song “Two Kings”?

“We don’t have to cognitive capacity to lead… ok we’ll do it”

Eel-on-musk saw a ray of daylight from the bottom of his k-hole and had a crisis of conscience…? Idk man everyone’s on drugs. And I do mean that literally, for this regime.

Musk was taking all the attention and jumping about like a dick.

First rift was musk was going to get classified briefings on China and Trump put a stop to it.

Also Musk had a fall out with Bessent and Trump sided with Besset.

Also rumoured he fucked Steven Millers wife (who is a lefty and would blacken a right eye with a hook).

Nothing to do with the bill at all IMO. He does not give a single fuck about that in any form. Just a pain point he knows he can drive a wedge through a big part of Trumps base.

They're both raging self obsessed narcs who can't stand anyone else getting attention. It was just a matter of time.

Tl;dr: housecats

This is just Trump's M.O. No reason required.

Fair point

What are the chances they are working together and creating a distraction?

Less than 1%.
People vastly overestimate these bozos.
They aren’t lying. They actually believe this shite. They aren’t playing genius 5d chess they are just reactive morons. Look at the leaked Signal group chats.
No doubt Vance is a bit smarter and is acting a bit, given all the ‘Trump is americas Hitler’ stuff. But this is unspoken between them.
- I see your point, but I'd be cautious of underestimating them.
  Regardless of their own shortcomings, they have more resources than virtually anyone else on the planet to compensate for them. They certainly have teams of incredibly smart, and incredibly well paid people scheming for them.
Until the Epstein post, I had the same question. Now, not so much.
It's entirely possible

Wow. Reading the comments, it's amazing how uninformed people here are.

Read the news, folks.

What?! Only fools believe what the professional journalists say! Dintcha hear? It’s all fake news! The only real news is the stuff you see online, in random and especially backwater Internet forums, because why would some random, anonymous person lie or have things wrongly worked out? Trust in the obscure and unverifiable!

I assume - Musk tried to pressure Trump to get more kickbacks, but t has loyalty elsewhere. Not to mention musk has aggravated everyone in the WH and someone from t’s inner circle told him to just cut him out because musk served his purpose and t agreed. And of course, musk isn’t president he is!

musk wanted the govt to spend less, trump wanted it to spend more