Are Elon Musk and Donald Trump Finally Breaking Up?
Ever since January, we have been hoping that Donald Trump and Elon Musk were headed for the kind of cataclysmic friendship breakup that leads to drinks being thrown in faces, Instagram blocking, and the death of several group chats. It seems that our prayers have (almost) been answered. Rumor has it Elon Musk will be packing up his chainsaw and leaving Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks. According to a report in Politico, President Trump has told his inner circle that the the time has come for Musk to “return to his businesses and take on a supporting role.” Unfortunately, this seems less like a messy split and more like two people cherishing the time they’ve spent together but making the responsible decision to stop being so codependent.
Three Trump insiders told Politico that the president “remains pleased” with Musk and all of the cuts he’s made through the Department of Government Efficiency, which have resulted in tens of thousands of federal layoffs, the dismantling of USAID, and a near-complete gutting of the CDC, among other things. However, both men have seemingly decided that it’s time for the Tesla CEO to step back and return to his businesses.
Some Musk fans are apparently supportive of the transition, with Politico reporting that there’s not much left for him to cut. Trump himself has begun hinting publicly at Musk’s departure, saying to reporters recently, “I think he’s amazing but I also think he’s got a big company to run and so at some point he’s going to be going back … He wants to. I’d keep him as long as I could keep him.” Maybe they should carve their initials into a tree on the South Lawn.
Despite the president’s affection for the guy, some folks in the White House admitted that they haven’t been huge fans of Musk’s presence. “They think he’s a genius,” one adviser said of Trump and his pro-Musk allies, “but he’s a one-man wrecking ball.” Others noted that Musk’s growing unpopularity with the American people could become an issue, and that it might start to “rub off” on the president. (See: Musk throwing millions of dollars at a conservative judge’s campaign in Wisconsin, only for the state to overwhelmingly elect the liberal candidate.) “That’s when the honeymoon ends,” one Trump source explained, adding that it’s “starting to happen.”
Publicly, however, the administration remains pro-Musk. Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, Vice-President J.D. Vance remarked that Musk will still have some kind of presence in Trump’s day-to-day. “DOGE has got a lot of work to do, and yeah, that work is going to continue after Elon leaves,” Vance said. “But fundamentally, Elon is going to remain a friend and an adviser of both me and the president.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared the Politico report “garbage” in a post on X, writing, “Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.” Musk himself quoted the post, adding, “Yeah, fake news.”
It’s unclear what their definition of “publicly stated” is. There is Trump’s statement about Musk wanting to go back to his company “at some point.” Last week, Musk told Brett Baier on Fox News that he thinks he’ll have completed DOGE’s mission by the time his special-government-employee status ends (he can technically keep this position for years, but he’s limited to working no more than 130 days per year). “I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that time frame,” he said.
Basically, it seems like Musk is about to leave, but wants everyone to know that there is no drama. Have he and Trump considered co-authoring a Notes App statement about how they still love each other but this chapter of their story is ending?
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