Elon Musk has ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’: Trump
The partnership between tech multibillionaire Elon Musk and US President Trump appears to have frayed to a new breaking point.
Trump on Thursday commented on Musk and his criticism of the president’s “big beautiful” spending package, which Musk called a “pork-filled Congressional spending bill” and a “disgusting abomination.” Musk last week exited the administration as a special employee leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk, the world’s richest individual, had donated about $275 million to Trump’s election campaign.
Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Thursday, said, “Elon and I have a great relationship” but that “I don’t know if we will anymore. I was surprised, because… we had a wonderful sendoff. “
“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill. He never had a problem until right after he left,” Trump said.
Trump said that others who have left his administration “at some point they miss it so badly” and “some of them actually become hostile. I don’t know what it is, it’s sort of ‘Trump derangement syndrome,’ I guess they call it,” the president said. “They wake up in the morning, the glamor is gone, the whole world is different, and they become hostile.”
Trump, alluding to Musk’s position as CEO of Tesla, also asserted that “Elon is upset because we took [away] the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles. They’re having a hard time, the electric vehicles, and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy. Elon knew this from the beginning.”
Trump would have lost the election without me, says Musk: Elon Musk has taken credit for Donald Trump’s election victory, saying the president would have lost to Kamala Harris without his support.
He made the remarks after the president accused his former close ally of suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome”, signalling the official collapse of their once warm relationship.
Musk immediately hit back, writing on his social media platform, X: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” he posted. “Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.” “Such ingratitude,” he added.
Since stepping down as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency last week, Musk has slammed Trump’s bill as a “disgusting abomination” for increasing the national debt.
Discussion of their broken friendship overshadowed the president’s Oval Office press conference with Friedrich Merz, Germany’s new chancellor, as Trump said his former ally was lashing out because he did not get his own way.
He claimed the Tesla chief executive was upset that his ally had been rejected as the next administrator of Nasa and that the bill meant the end of tax breaks for electric vehicles worth billions to his company.