Musk to Trump: Without me, you wouldn’t have returned to White House

The feud between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump about the “Big Beautiful Bill” continued on Thursday.

Musk, the world’s richest man who played a key role in the emergence of Trump, was appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

But last week, Musk announced that he was quitting Trump’s government

SPONSOR AD

He quit his role a day after he spoke out against a Trump-backed spending bill.

The controversial bill is a centrepiece of Trump’s second-term domestic agenda, combining major tax cuts, stricter immigration enforcement, welfare programme overhauls, and significant increases in border security funding.

Since Musk’s exit from the White House, his criticism of the bill had grown louder.

Briefing reporters at the Oval Office before his bilateral sit-down with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said Musk knew the inner workings of the bill and never had a problem until right after he left.

“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore. He hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. But I’m very disappointed … I’ve helped Elon a lot,” he said.

“He’s not the first. People leave my administration and they love us and then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it 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 glamor is gone, the whole world is different, and they become hostile. I’m very disappointed.”

Responding to Trump’s remarks, the tech billionaire tweeted: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House, and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.

“Such ingratitude.”