The global public has spent the past three days watching the conflict between two former friends and political allies. Elon Musk, entrepreneur and the richest man in the world, exchanged “fire” on social media with U.S. President Donald Trump. No weapons were off-limits—everything became fair game. Each of them used his own social media platform to attack the other.
How Did It All Start?
Musk was “dismissed” last week from the government’s Office for Government Efficiency (DOGE). Despite big pre-election promises, he accomplished very little because his role—like that of the whole office—was purely advisory. Trump’s administration and the Republican majority in Congress, who hold actual legislative power, ignored Musk’s proposals for drastic budget cuts and reductions in government bureaucracy.
At first, his departure seemed peaceful. Trump and Musk held a joint press conference at the White House where they had only praise for one another. There were no signs of the storm that would soon follow.
The problem began three days ago when Musk appeared on national TV for the first time since leaving government. He commented on Trump’s “Big and Beautiful Bill,” which had already passed the House and was under Senate review. Musk criticized both Congress and the bill, saying, “It can be either big or beautiful, not both.” He also claimed the bill, which increases the budget deficit and long-term public debt, “undermines the efforts of the DOGE team.”
How Did It Escalate?
Although Musk didn’t mention Trump directly—he was speaking only to Congress—Trump took the criticism personally. After all, it’s his bill, embodying all his campaign promises.
The next day, Trump responded: “I don’t know what happened to him,” accusing Musk of opposing the bill only because it removes government subsidies for electric vehicles. However, that claim doesn’t hold water—Musk has been calling for the end of those subsidies since last year.
Trump is a highly narcissistic person who doesn’t tolerate criticism—even when it’s not directed at him. He saw this as a personal attack and publicly called out Musk, saying he was disappointed in him. Trump is used to being surrounded by loyal people who nod along and confirm everything he says. Any form of policy criticism is seen as betrayal. He treats his associates as subordinates who must do only what he wants. In Trump’s eyes, Musk is a traitor for publicly disagreeing with any of his policies.
That infuriated Musk—who’s not exactly emotionally stable either, to put it mildly. Musk took the opportunity to start criticizing Trump’s protectionist tariff policies. You could see how much that had been bottled up—he’d remained silent for months. Musk was boiling inside. He’s not an economic nationalist; he dislikes protectionism. Such policies go against his worldview. On the other hand, for Trump, they’re the most important thing in the world. Trump is a mercantilist (a term first pointed out by Vedrana Pribičević, credit where due). He sees the world as a zero-sum game. Someone must lose so that the U.S. can win.
But that whole thesis is wrong—not just in principle, but in practice. Trade is “fair” when it’s free and voluntary, not under compulsion. In voluntary exchange, both sides win; there are no losers. When governments intervene with regulations and constraints, forcing trade on unwilling partners, it reduces trade volume and creates losers. That’s the consequence of protectionism.
Musk understands this well because he has a libertarian or economically liberal worldview. Trump never will—his worldview doesn’t allow it. Their opposing worldviews made this conflict inevitable. I wrote back in November, right after the U.S. elections, on Liberal that it was only a matter of time. One of them had to break ranks.
Who Won?
In this first phase of the conflict, Donald Trump came out on top. The American president has a solid base of fans that resembles more of a cult. These are people who will defend and justify every move he makes, no matter how senseless, stupid, or harmful. It’s a global cult—probably the biggest in human history. With followers like that, it’s hard to lose any online battle.
Secondly, Musk behaved poorly. Even though he was likely right—and I’d support him over Trump any day—he didn’t present arguments in this conflict. He only hurled insults and made accusations without evidence, sometimes even defamatory ones. For example, he accused Trump of being listed in Epstein’s files—one of the right’s most common smear tactics. Don’t like someone? Just say they’re linked to the late pedophile Epstein.
Trump—surprisingly—responded to that quite gracefully, even with some humor at his own expense. He wrote: “Elon lies. He lies even more than I do.” You have to laugh! And then he added: “If he keeps lying like this, I’ll put tariffs on ketamine. That’ll teach him!”
Trump came across as the more composed and adult person in the room compared to a reckless Musk. Even though I predicted their falling-out, I never thought it would play out like this. But it’s not over yet. Musk could still stir things up.
Where Did It Go Wrong?
Many say Musk should’ve talked to Trump privately to explain his disagreements about the bill and the tariffs. The thing is—he probably tried. Do you think none of his close associates ever tried to explain how harmful these policies are? But Trump is stubborn. Even private opposition means a breakup.
Musk had good intentions. I can’t think of a more noble goal than reducing national debt. He rightly believed he was the right person for the job, given his track record of slashing bureaucracy and waste in his companies. But government is something else entirely. It spends other people’s money, and it does so without limits. The people who benefit from that aren’t nobodies—they’re the most powerful, precisely because of their ties to government. Take away that privilege, and they’ll fight back with everything they’ve got.
Lesson for the Future
You could see this over the past six months by opening any news portal, newspaper, or turning on the TV. The media’s hate campaign against Musk was unmatched. They don’t like Trump either, but what they did to Musk was on another level.
Within a single week, Musk was publicly accused of being a fascist, a Nazi, a drug addict. What’s next—maybe that he doesn’t go to church, or sleeps with men? I’m surprised they haven’t yet accused him of being a pedophile—maybe they’re saving that for the perfect moment. In any case, Musk has become the most slandered person in modern history, and his only real “crime” was believing he could reduce government spending.
After his experience, I doubt anyone will try something similar for at least a century.
But Musk didn’t just face media fire and activist sabotage of his companies—those attacks were often orchestrated by groups funded by U.S. taxpayers. He might have survived that. The real resistance came quietly, from his own circles. Neither Trump nor the Republican establishment—despite talking about fiscal conservatism—are fans of cutting government spending. Doing so would mean reducing their own power.
Most people don’t enter politics with noble goals like Musk had. Most go into it seeking more power and control. Their power lies in deciding how and where to direct limitless amounts of other people’s money. If that gets limited, they lose power. They won’t allow that.
Musk isn’t the first to try to change how government handles public finances and taxpayers. President Ronald Reagan and economist Milton Friedman tried the same in the 1980s. It went similarly to Musk’s DOGE—minus the public feud, because Reagan and Friedman were aligned. But Friedman learned that government is far more complex and vast than anyone assumes. Its tentacles reach into the private sector, NGOs, even criminal circles. It’s so tightly networked and fiercely protective of its privileges that not even the White House can break it.
Musk has announced plans to form a new political party. But everything he’s advocating for already exists in the Libertarian Party, the third-largest in the U.S., though it holds no federal seats. Perhaps Musk thinks the same ideas could gain traction under a new brand. Right now, that sounds more like a fairy tale. Musk might just need time to cool off—and eventually realize he can do far more for humanity by focusing on his companies. Everything was going perfectly until last year. This political detour? He never needed it.
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