➤ The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has left his temporary job in President Donald Trump’s government. Though Mr. Musk was once a huge supporter of Mr. Trump, the two men are now fighting on social media.
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has left his temporary job in President Donald Trump’s government. Though Mr. Musk was once a huge supporter of Mr. Trump, the two men are now fighting on social media.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, immigrated to the US. He became a US citizen and now runs several companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. Mr. Musk also owns the social media company X, which used to be called Twitter. Mr. Musk’s companies – especially SpaceX – do billions of dollars of business with the US government. As his companies grew, Mr. Musk became the world’s richest man.
Mr. Musk was a huge supporter of Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign for president, spending nearly $300 million in an effort to get Mr. Trump elected. As president, Mr. Trump created a new government group called “DOGE” (Department of Government Efficiency). The idea for DOGE came from talks between Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk.
Mr. Trump put Mr. Musk in charge of DOGE. But as complaints about DOGE and Mr. Musk grew, the White House changed its position. They claimed someone else was in charge of DOGE, and that Mr. Musk was a “special government employee [worker]”.
At first, most DOGE workers were young people who had worked for Mr. Musk in his other businesses. Most had no government experience.
The team worked quickly to gain control over computer systems in many important parts of the US government. They got access to information on government workers and ordinary citizens. DOGE also got access to hugely important government systems, including computer systems used to pay the government’s bills, which control trillions of dollars.
(Source: Molly Riley/White House [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)
DOGE took massive amounts of money away from government departments and fired thousands of government workers. In many cases, DOGE made changes to spending that had been approved by Congress. Many court cases were brought against DOGE, and some of its actions were stopped or reversed.
At the same time, many people across the US became very upset with Mr. Musk’s actions and began to protest him and his companies. Between the end of last year and late April, the value of his electric car company, Tesla, dropped roughly 50%.
On May 28, Mr. Musk said he would leave government work. Two days later, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Musk at a goodbye ceremony at the White House, where Mr. Trump gave Mr. Musk a golden “key to the White House”.
But Mr. Musk was unhappy with a large bill that Mr. Trump is trying to push through Congress. The bill will increase the amount of money the US government owes by $3.8 trillion. That upset Mr. Musk, who had said he was working to cut the amount of money the government owed.
😕
This image has not been loaded because of your cookie choices. To view the content, you can accept 'Non-necessary' cookies.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have been insulting each other on social media (above). Mr. Trump suggested that he might cut all government money going to Mr. Musk’s companies. Mr. Musk suggested that SpaceX would stop providing services to NASA, though he later backed away from the idea.
Mr. Musk called the bill “disgusting” on X. Mr. Trump said he was “very disappointed” in Mr. Musk. He said Mr. Musk was upset because the bill didn’t include a part that would encourage people to buy electric cars. The two men continued to insult each other on social media, and Mr. Musk said that Mr. Trump wouldn’t have been elected without his help.
Mr. Trump suggested that he might cut all government money going to Mr. Musk’s companies. Mr. Musk suggested that SpaceX would stop providing services to NASA, though he later backed away from the idea.
It’s a big change from being close friends. Both men have a lot of power, and it’s not clear how – or if – the disagreement might be resolved.