Elon Musk calls for Trump to be impeached after explosive public fallout
by Asher McShane · LBCBy Asher McShane
Elon Musk has called for the impeachment of Donald Trump after an explosive public fallout over one of the president's key domestic policies.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Musk is against Trump’s spending bill, which was passed by the US House last month and is awaiting a vote in the Senate, believing it will add to the US national debt.
It has sparked an acrimonious split between the pair, with them trading insults on social media.
As the row escalated, Musk suggested his former boss should be removed from office, replying “yes” to a user on X who wrote: “Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.”
On Thursday, Musk took aim at Trump himself, unleashing a flurry of inflammatory posts about the American leader.
Responding to the insults, Mr Trump wrote two posts on his own platform, Truth Social, where he threatened to pull SpaceX and Tesla's government contracts.
"Elon was wearing thin, I asked him to leave, I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!," the president wrote.
In the wake of the bust-up stocks in Musk's electric car company Telsa plummeted even further, putting not just the South African's political capital at risk, but his wealth also.
In the second post, Trump added that the "easiest way to save money" in his signature tax bill was to "terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts".
The threats did not deter 53-year-old South African-born entrepreneur, who taunted Trump to act, writing: 'This just gets better and better.
'Go ahead, make my day …'
He then escalated the feud to new heights when he claimed the President was 'in the Epstein files'.
Read more: Why has Elon Musk left Doge and what now for billionaire?
Trump had earlier told reporters in the Oval Office that the world's richest man misses being in the White House and has "Trump derangement syndrome".
"Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore," he said.
"I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot."
Musk replied on his platform, X, writing: "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," he added.
The billionaire had publicly endorsed Trump during the election and poured $290 million of his fortune on the Republican's campaign.
His support came after the July 13th assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
But now Trump has suggested Musk, who has been struggling with declining Tesla stocks since he took his White House job, was against the bill because of its implications for electric vehicles.
"He knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem & he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut EV mandate," Trump said.
Musk denied this, saying: "False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!"
It comes after billionaire Elon Musk repeatedly attacked Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill, even has urging US lawmakers to "kill" the bill as the rift between the former allies deepens.
Trump's budget, which includes massive tax breaks and increased defence spending, was passed by the House of Representatives last month.
It is now being mulled over by senators as it prepares to pass through the second chamber.
Urging the lawmakers to crush the bill, the Tesla boss has spammed X with a flurry of posts lashing out at budget.
“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL,” one post on Wednesday read.
It follows a string of posts warning against the "disgusting abomination" on Tuesday, calling it a "massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill".
"Shame on those who voted for it, you know you did wrong. You know it," Musk also wrote that day.
The US' budget office said on Wednesday that Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” would see federal revenues slashed by $3.67tn and spending cut by $1.25tn through 2034.
Musk claimed: “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
White House officials say Trump remains committed to passing his spending and tax bill through the senate, despite the loud dissenting voice from his billionaire former ally.
Sending out a "myth buster" statement, it alleged that any claim that the bill would lead to higher deficits is a "hoax".
"By every honest metric, President Donald J. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill dramatically improves the fiscal trajectory of the United States and unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth," it said in a statement.
The explosive collapse in the pair's relationship has led to the billionaire Republican donor stepping down from his role in Trump's administration after 129 days.
He had been put in charge of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency or 'DOGE,' new department tasked with slashing government waste.
Musk's criticism of the bill was his first public attack on the president.
"It undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," he told reporters.
"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it.
"It is not the only occasion where Musk has lashed out at the White House over DOGE's treatment. He told the Washington Post: "DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything.
"Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it."
Musk was referring to the "Trump tax bill" - a series of sweeping cuts to federal spending. The X owner appears to believe it would actually weaken cost-cutting efforts.