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President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he won’t touch the federal subsidies Elon Musk’s companies are enjoying because he wants Musk to continue to prosper.
Musk, however, begs to differ.
“The ‘subsidies’ he’s talking about simply do not exist,” Musk wrote in an X post on the same day.
The Trump administration has already scrapped or slapped expiry dates on every clean energy incentive “while leaving massive oil & gas subsidies untouched,” Musk wrote in his post.
Musk’s EV company, Tesla, is already feeling the pinch. Tesla said during its earnings call on Wednesday that removing the $7,500 EV credit under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” would affect its US sales.
Vaibhav Taneja, the company’s chief financial officer, said the “abrupt change” meant the company has a “limited supply of vehicles in the US this quarter.”
SpaceX, on its part, wins federal contracts on merit, Musk said in his X post on Thursday. Musk said his rocket company is “doing a better job for less money. Rerouting SpaceX’s work to “other aerospace companies would leave astronauts stranded and taxpayers on the hook for twice as much,” he added.
The White House, Tesla, and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Threats and market jitters
Musk had been a prominent backer of Trump during last year’s presidential campaign and enjoyed a close relationship with Trump.
Musk spent at least $277 million supporting Trump and other GOP candidates in the 2024 elections. Shortly after Trump’s victory in November, he headed the White House DOGE office and led the administration’s cost-cutting efforts.
That was until last month, when Musk and Trump began to turn on each other.
Their relationship started to break down on June 5, when Musk attacked Trump’s signature tax bill in an X post, calling it a “MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK.” He also claimed credit for Trump’s victory in last year’s election.
“Such ingratitude,” Musk wrote.
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Hours later, Trump threatened to cancel Musk’s government contracts in a Truth Social post, saying it would be the “easiest way to save money in our Budget.” That drew a tit-for-tat response from Musk, who said he would decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is used in NASA missions, before walking it back.
Musk expressed regret over what he had said about Trump a few days later. Some of his posts about Trump “went too far,” Musk said.
The détente, however, didn’t last.
On July 1, Trump said DOGE should take a “good, hard, look” at Musk’s companies after Musk said he would start a new political party and defeat GOP politicians who voted for Trump’s tax bill.
“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE,” he added.
Musk dared Trump to follow through on his threat: “I am literally saying CUT IT ALL. Now.”
The markets were not as confident as Musk. Tesla’s stock fell by 5% after Trump’s post on July 1. Tesla’s shares are down by over 24% year to date.
Musk’s business empire has received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits over the last 20 years, per an analysis published by The Washington Post in February.
On Wednesday, Musk told investors on Tesla’s earnings call that the company is entering a “weird transition period where we will lose a lot of incentives in the US.”
“Does that mean like we could have a few rough quarters? Yeah, we probably could have a few rough quarters,” Musk said.
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