Trump says DOGE is a monster that may ‘go back and eat Elon’
The truce between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump didn’t even last a month.
After the Senate narrowly passed a procedural vote to debate Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” over the weekend, Musk on Monday said he would use his vast resources to launch primary campaigns against Republicans in Congress who voted for the massive domestic policy agenda. Musk spent much of Monday and early Tuesday morning posting and re-posting messages that criticize the tax cut and spending bill — particularly for its sky-high cost.
Trump late Monday night fought back, suggesting his administration may investigate Musk’s companies’ massive government contracts. On Tuesday at the White House, Trump said Musk risked losing “a lot more” than government subsidies and threatened that the Department of Government Efficiency that Musk once led may become a monster that will “go back and eat Elon.”
So far, the feud hasn’t grown as personal or as vicious as their public blow-up last month when Musk, without providing evidence, accused Trump of withholding information about disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and claiming that Trump’s name was included in the government’s so-called Epstein files.
A week after the peak of that feud, Musk said he regretted some of his posts about Trump. Musk deleted some of his most inflammatory X posts, including the one relating to Epstein and another agreeing with the suggestion that Trump should be impeached. Musk had since softened his tone about Trump and the bill, largely shifting his focus on social media and in interviews to his companies.
That shifted dramatically Monday when Musk began posting nonstop about his opposition to Trump’s signature legislation. But this time around — at least so far — Musk hasn’t mentioned Trump’s name in his dozens of posts about the bill.
Still, the fight is costing Musk where it counts: Tesla’s (TSLA) stock tumbled 7% in Tuesday after losing 2% on Monday, missing out on the broader stock market gains that sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to record highs. Much of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla’s publicly traded stock.
Tesla shareholders have been very sensitive to the Musk-Trump spat, nervous that Trump may make good on his threat to dissolve contracts with SpaceX or Tesla. The stock lost about 14% on June 4, the day when Musk and Trump’s feud over the spending bill erupted into the public.
“This BFF situation has now turned into a soap opera that remains an overhang on Tesla’s stock with investors fearing that the Trump Administration will be more hawkish and show scrutiny around Musk-related US government spending,” said Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, in a note to investors Tuesday. “Tesla investors want Musk to focus on driving Tesla and stop this political angle.”
Source: CNN
