By: Alberto Giovanelli
After having allocated about US$ 288 million to boost Trump and related candidates’ campaign, Elon Musk, owner of X and creator of SpaceX, changed his stance towards the government, after the imminent approval of the public spending and immigration package promoted by Trump, which would further increase US public debt.
After his violent foray into politics, Musk’s business emporium is in trouble. His confrontation with Trump and his expensive and failed attempt to elect a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice eroded his political capital.
His popularity plummeted when the Department of Government Efficiency —that he created to oversee the cutting of public spending— completely disrupted the functioning of the federal government and further exposed him, creating polarization among Americans.
However, now Musk is trying to go back on the offensive. At the very least, his bet on politics could affect lawmakers who, according to him, opposed his promise to cut spending.
Musk wrote this week on X: “Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
He has already identified his next objective: to encourage the re-election campaign of Thomas Massie, Republican representative for Kentucky, who opposes Trump’s flagship legislative package. Encouraged to support Massie by former Republican Congressman Justin Amash, – a Trump rival who promptly stated that the two-party system was an “existential threat” – and announced the creation of a new party even further to the right of Republicans.
Simultaneously, Trump renewed his criticism of Elon Musk, in the midst of the debate over his budget plan. The president warned that, without the help of the state, the businessman “would probably have to close and head back to South Africa,” and threatened to cut the subsidies that Elon’s companies receive.
Trump added that Musk “receives, by far, more subsidies than anyone else in history” and that, if he were to take them away, “No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE.”
These tensions also impacted the markets. Tesla shares plunged 6% on Tuesday, after Trump publicly hinted at the possibility of expelling Musk from the country
Thinking that this conflict is “personal” is a huge mistake. Elon Musk mainly reflects the transportation, energy and space exploration sectors, with a focus on innovation and technological disruption. His best-known investments and projects, such as Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, belong to these sectors. In addition, Musk has also dabbled in artificial intelligence and social media, with companies such as xAI and X (formerly Twitter), but each of these projects has received huge state subsidies that Trump threatens to cut off. Against this threat, Musk and the great tycoons of the world that he leads are rising up. Hence the fall in stocks, the suspension of projects in progress and the fear of the new crises that are coming. The current critical stage of world capitalism does not seem to exempt even the richest in the world from difficulties, contradictions and confrontations.
This confrontation between Trump and Musk highlights the fracture within the Republican sectpr and reignited the debate on the role of private capital in public policy. The president’s warning about subsidies, DOGE’s possible intervention and the businessman’s statements against the increase in debt turned the conflict into one of the most explosive topics on the current American political scene.
We must also understand that this crisis between sectors of power expresses the problems created by the resistance to Trump’s first measures just months after taking office. These tensions may multiply as the mobilization against the Government grows and new crises and divisions can be foreseen. Meanwhile, Elon Musk in just a few months transmuted from a “beacon” of the world to a dark tycoon with an uncertain future.
