Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s friendship imploded well before the Tesla CEO fired off a series of (since deleted) scathing X posts last week, as the president told insiders that the former DOGE head was a “big-time drug addict” and felt that a physical fight with the treasury secretary was “too much,” the Washington Post reported Saturday.
Trump has cautioned insiders at the White House to be careful with Musk, telling JD Vance to “be cautious” when speaking of the fallout.
Musk is further accused of having “alienated key members of the White House staff, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and quarreled with Cabinet members” and even physically assaulting one. The Post spoke with 17 people with knowledge of the events, including many on the condition of anonymity.
The officials explained the two men disagree about the best ways for the country to save money, including the potential passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill” spending package. The White House began to realize Musk was “a real political problem” on April 1 after a Trump-approved candidate lost his race for the state’s Supreme Court.
Musk also got into a physical confrontation with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after Trump supported Bessent’s choice for acting IRS commissioner over Musk’s suggestion. The men began to “exchange insults” after the meeting with Trump and “Bessent brought up Musk’s claims that he would uncover more than $1 trillion in wasteful and fraudulent government spending, which Musk had not succeeded at doing.”
Musk ended up shoving his shoulder into Bessent’s ribs “like a rugby player” and Bessent responded with blows, something Trump later said was “too much.” Toward the end of April, Musk announced he would retreat from D.C. to focus on his own companies.
One of the final blows came after Trump told Musk he was not nominating Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator, despite Musk’s encouragement (Isaacman had donated to several Democrats). Musk took this as an affront to his own space-related goals, including colonizing Mars, and launched his tirade against Trump on X days later.
And while some “hope that there’s going to be a reconciliation” a White House insider told the Post, “it’ll never be the same.”
Read the entire report at the Washington Post.
