Elon Musk and Donald Trump's feud has exploded.
SpaceX may retire Dragon amidst Musk and Trump feud
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| Credit: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images |
Elon Musk is contemplating decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, responding to President Donald Trump's apparent intent to terminate government subsidies and contracts with the billionaire's companies. It looks like the feud between the former allies has quickly turned vicious.
SpaceX's CEO initially announced that the company would retire its Dragon spacecraft in an X post on Thursday, with Musk sharing a screenshot of a post published on Trump's Truth Social account earlier in the day.
"The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," said Trump in the screenshotted post. "I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!"
"In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately," Musk wrote on X.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft are a family of vehicles designed to carry passengers and cargo. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has previously relied upon them to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Mere hours prior to Musk's announcement, SpaceX posted on X that it was preparing to launch a Dragon next Tuesday.
For a few hours, it seemed reasonable to assume that this launch would now not go ahead. However, Musk then appeared to quickly walk back his decision. Responding to an X user advising him to "cool off and take a step back for a couple days," the billionaire subsequently stated that Dragon will not be decommissioned after all.
It's unclear whether Musk's initial announcement was sincere, or whether his apparent about-face might be sarcastic. Musk has a history of making flippant comments online with no apparent regard to their consequences. What is clear is that Musk and Trump's relationship is well past the honeymoon phase, and now looks much more like an ugly divorce.
If Trump does terminate government contracts with Musk's companies, it would deal a significant blow to the billionaire. According to a Washington Post investigation, NASA has invested over $15 billion in SpaceX alone. When put together with Musk's other companies such as EV automaker Tesla, his various businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits.
Musk and Trump go through messy public breakup
Musk's relationship with Trump has significantly deteriorated in recent days. The billionaire announced that he was leaving his position as de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last Wednesday, just one day after he criticised Trump's tax bill as undermining its work. The split was presented as amicable at the time, with Trump presenting Musk with a golden key and words of praise. However, their love affair has quickly turned sour.
Musk continued to lambast Trump's bill after his departure from DOGE, arguing that it will increase government debt by trillions of dollars. Strongly disagreeing with the president's characterisation of the proposed legislation as a "Big Beautiful Bill," Musk labelled it a "disgusting abomination" and has been calling for lawmakers to crush it.
For his part, Trump has claimed that Musk is simply throwing a tantrum because the bill supposedly cut an alleged "EV mandate." The president stated on Thursday that he had asked the billionaire to leave his administration, and that Musk had been "wearing thin."
"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!" Trump claimed.
Despite Trump's assertions, he did not abolish any EV mandate as there has never been any U.S. law which makes switching to an electric car mandatory. However, Trump has taken several anti-EV measures since his inauguration, including abolishing incentives encouraging EV adoption, pausing $3 billion in funding for a U.S. charging network, and introducing a $250 annual fee for EV users in his recent tax bill.
Trump's claim about Musk is an interesting contrast to his statements in March, when he praised the billionaire for not complaining about the supposed end of the non-existent EV mandate. The president made the comments while he and Musk co-hosted a Tesla ad on the White House lawn in an effort to boost the company's cratering stock prices.
Tesla's struggling share value has now fallen again amidst Musk's feud with Trump, plummeting more than 14 percent on Thursday to wipe out over $150 billion in value.
"I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago," Trump wrote on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Musk went all-in attacking Trump on Thursday, claiming that the president is linked to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and sharing posts calling for him to be impeached. Musk has also hit out at Trump's tariffs on international trade, predicting that they will "cause a recession in the second half of the year."
"Without me, Trump would have lost the election," Musk alleged on X. "Such ingratitude."
Topics SpaceX Donald Trump Elon Musk Politics
BREACKING NEWS: Elon freaked out
ReplyDeleteThe question is: what happened, for him to drop all these bombs?
Deletehttps://tenor.com/view/popcorn-relax-delicious-gif-12033509
ReplyDeleteHonestly same. We all saw this coming. It was a matter of time 😅
ReplyDeleteThat isn't good
ReplyDeleteIt's not at all
Deletebruhhh what?
ReplyDeleteI don’t want this to happen at all.
ReplyDeleteMAGA vs DARK MAGA 🍿
ReplyDelete2 kids in a park are fighting. Should we just let them?
ReplyDeleteTime for Elon to buy an island.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THIS DIVORCE 🤣😂😂
ReplyDeleteThat seems to have backfired quickly.
ReplyDeleteThe Trump vs Musk event is like a soap opera 🙄 😳 😄
ReplyDeleteTrump destroys everything he touches.
ReplyDeletehttps://tenor.com/view/me-atrapaste-es-cine-its-cinema-cinema-esto-es-cine-gif-17729711691959966457
ReplyDeleteTwo evil people fighting each other. 🙄🙄🙄
ReplyDeleteThe President of the United States is publicly threatening to cancel government contracts because he has a personal feud with Elon Musk? That is textbook abuse of power and a clear conflict of interest.
ReplyDeleteHow is this even acceptable?
A stupid man judging a genius man.. The world is upside down!
ReplyDeleteEat each other is a billionaires' lifestyle. Drug added and insane. Neither should be in government or collecting billions in subsidies. Hopefully, someone smart ensured we own the intellectual property.
ReplyDeleteHumans are never leaving this planet again 😭
ReplyDelete😓
ReplyDeleteThere is an argument that Elon posted on x that is interesting, for those who are confused about which side to take, he said "Trump has been here for 3.5 years, I will be here for more than 40 years" think about it
ReplyDeleteAnd thus, Space Wars begins.
ReplyDeleteIRL dungeons and dragons
ReplyDeletemy money is on Elon
Nice, now we're making our country weaker, this is a joke
ReplyDeleteThere's a conversation missing, the two of them being face to face, or not, right, because there were so many conversations and look how it ended 😂
ReplyDelete😂😂😂
DeleteRespecting all voices is how we move forward together.
ReplyDeleteThat won’t cover 1 day of additional US debt.
ReplyDelete💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔
ReplyDelete😢
ReplyDeleteAs Elon said on X yesterday, ''One thing is, it's not boring''
ReplyDeletehttps://tenor.com/view/are-you-not-entertained-maximus-gladiator-aren't-you-amused-am-i-not-funny-gif-2396413337976800815
What from Tesla and to Mess la ? Wow 😵💫 this is serious business !
ReplyDelete🥺
ReplyDeleteWTF IS GOING ON HERE !!!!!
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS NONSENSE
OMG. WTF??? NO WAY.
ReplyDeleteElon is taking his toys and going home. Lol
ReplyDeleteHe should.
DeleteMaybe we won’t have to go to Mars after all.
ReplyDeleteWe will be going do not worry about that.
DeleteTrump will fail totally
ReplyDeleteI’ve been following SpaceX closely. Losing government contracts is huge and decommissioning Dragon shows Musk’s serious about this fallout.
ReplyDeleteTrump didn’t actually cancel anything. He just made a statement in the OP.
DeleteWOW 😳
ReplyDeleteNah, Dragon will not be decommissioned. It's too valuable to Spacex and can be used for much more than government contracts.
ReplyDeleteThey just need to stop this! They are acting like kids!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is a nightmare
ReplyDeleteSo being multi planetary is no longer a necessity?
ReplyDeleteThis is just sad 😢
ReplyDelete🙈😳🙈
ReplyDeleteHighly doubt that
ReplyDeleteThis is insane, immature, and embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteWas dragon government funded? I'm sorry but as a taxpayer I just cant afford to be collecting space rocks right now
ReplyDeleteWell, Elon wanted cuts! Less government.
ReplyDeleteTwo impulsive people could reach a consensus about BBB. That's unnecessary.
ReplyDelete🥺
Elon is too emotional he reacts like a child, its embarrassing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a dumb fucking move. FFS.
ReplyDeleteCanceling a contract will take a while. America needs Elon. His contract will never be canceled.
ReplyDeleteIf Trump releases the files, Elon will get discredited. If Trump doesn't release the files, Trump will look guilty as hell. We live in an interesting timeline...
ReplyDeleteChildish fight.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is going on? Is this Trump vs. Elon thing actually real? How did we even get to this point?!
ReplyDeleteGreat at least now Ukraine won’t
ReplyDeleteHave Musk Starlink 👌👌👌👌👌👋👋👋👋👋
Elon needs to sign into rehab, ASAP.
ReplyDeleteNo Trump does.
DeleteTrump isn't a drug addict
Deletehttps://tenor.com/view/octopus-trollers-gonna-troll-troll-trolling-gif-22234933
ReplyDeleteHe's acting like a kid. America was great without Elon Musk. America will still be great without him.
ReplyDeleteGoddamnit Trump you fucking idiot
ReplyDeleteElon so emotional
ReplyDeleteCheck ♟️
ReplyDeleteOh man this season of this show is getting good 🍿
ReplyDeletehttps://tenor.com/view/stare-sam-jackson-shook-shocked-scary-gif-5260044
Elon should now concentrate in his business especially $TSLA.
ReplyDeleteHe should so Chyna can beat us at that too
ReplyDeleteThey both read the same books. The art of negotiation. Lol, then the art of reconciliation
ReplyDeleteThis had been a wild ride. Don’t they know their words can hurt many.
ReplyDeleteWhen you dance with the devil, this is how it ends.
ReplyDeleteElon was used and abused
rip $tsla 🤣🤣🤣
ReplyDeleteHahahah my God
ReplyDeleteElon needs rehab asap
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is going on?
ReplyDeleteLike watching two kids yelling at each other in a school yard.
ReplyDelete😔
ReplyDeleteI like Elon, generally.
ReplyDeleteBut he is about to "find out" pretty fucking hard.
that's one way to call Trumps bluff!
ReplyDeleteNot good for America
ReplyDeleteI’m beginning to think Elon really is on drugs and is coming down
ReplyDeleteOh you're just now getting it???
DeleteWho has the real power
ReplyDeleteBye bye ISS
ReplyDeleteMan l hate to see this this stuff going on ! Two great Americans going at it. The left media is going to ride this hard. I would love to see both Great Men settle this. God bless America and President Trump and my friend Elon.
ReplyDeleteThese two alphas have clashed before and will again in the figure. What’s certain is the Avengers might argue but allows mend the fence.
ReplyDeleteAnd of a hour ago he reversed. Dragon is safe
ReplyDeleteThis makes me want to sell my Tesla. Elon needs to grow up.
ReplyDeleteAn idiotic comment from an obviously low IQ individual run by emotion not logic. Go ahead sell your tesla to virtue signal nobody cares, you'll only be affecting your own financials moron.
DeleteThere's No Compromise Is Division
ReplyDeleteUnited We Stand
Elon Musk and President Donald J Trump y'all Need A Talk In Private 2gether This Is All Upsetting In My Soul I Need Ü Both To Be Stronger 💪 2gether
Kids are butthurt
ReplyDeleteWow we're lead by a idot
ReplyDeleteNow the the world is going down the Shithole.
ReplyDeleteWait… retiring Dragon just because of a political spat? That feels like throwing away a masterpiece because someone insulted the frame.
ReplyDeleteDragon has been the workhorse for ISS resupply and crew missions. Retiring it now over politics seems like a huge loss.
ReplyDeleteRight? Dragon has a proven safety record and still has years of utility left. Retiring it now feels premature, unless there’s some deeper plan behind the scenes.
DeleteHonestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Musk just uses this as an excuse to double down on Starship.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think you’re onto something. Musk probably sees Starship as the future anyway, and Dragon might be considered ‘legacy tech’ at this point.
DeleteThis is why mixing space exploration and partisan politics is dangerous. Science should be above ego fights.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. This is the danger of relying so heavily on private companies for national space programs — they're still vulnerable to personal and political drama.
DeleteI doubt they’re really retiring Dragon. This sounds more like Musk posturing to show independence
ReplyDeleteCan we please not let personal beefs derail decades of innovation and taxpayer investment?
ReplyDeleteRetiring Dragon now would be a massive step backward. The thing literally saved NASA’s crew program.
ReplyDeleteCan’t believe people forget how Dragon basically revived U.S. human spaceflight after the Shuttle era. It deserves more respect than being a political casualty.
DeleteTrump messing with SpaceX contracts would backfire hard — jobs, tech, and national prestige are all on the line.
ReplyDeleteExactly. SpaceX is deeply tied into the U.S. space economy. Pulling government contracts would hurt more than just Musk — it affects launch schedules, satellites, defense projects, etc.
DeleteIf this feud is real, then SpaceX might start focusing even more on private missions and international customers
ReplyDeleteI just hope this isn’t another PR stunt. Dragon deserves a better retirement than being caught in a political tantrum.
ReplyDeleteWouldn’t be the first time Musk stirred drama to shift attention or force negotiation. Still, using Dragon as a bargaining chip is risky.
DeleteAmen
ReplyDeleteEverything Trump touches, he ruins. Nice job MAGA voters.
ReplyDeleteFor this alone both of them should be imprisoned for life.
ReplyDeleteDo you want to see a Republican government nationalising a thing? Because that's how you get to see it.
ReplyDeleteTrump and his bs seems more like the end stage cancer than the initial signs of sickness imo.
ReplyDeleteThe roman empire is falling...again. China has already surpassed the US. The US just hasn't realized it yet
ReplyDeleteone lesson learned , and probably next elections US citizens will still vote for trump.. "you get what you voted on" !!! complaining afterwards doesn't help.
ReplyDeleteTrump can't just pull a contract because somebody says something he doesn't like. This is basic 1A protection.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame, I wish Musk and Bezos gtf off to Mars...
ReplyDeleteTime to turn things over to a more responsible country I guess.
ReplyDeleteYet another example of conservatives buying themselves just to hurt others -
ReplyDeleteI wish I could still get excited about space but I just don't anymore.
ReplyDeleteYou elected deeply unserious people and are now experiencing a deeply unserious world. Please learn from it.
ReplyDeleteYou won't, of course, but... I still have to ask.
For the past 4 days, there has been no conversation between the two, nothing has happened... it will stay like this, it seems.
ReplyDeleteThis feud between Musk and Trump is getting out of hand. Retiring the Dragon could seriously hurt SpaceX’s progress.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think this is the best move for SpaceX. The Dragon spacecraft has been a major part of their success.
ReplyDeleteTrump and Musk need to work this out. Space exploration is too important to be bogged down by personal squabbles.
ReplyDeleteThe government contract threat seems like a political move. SpaceX should focus on their mission, not on playing politics.
ReplyDeleteIf the Dragon is retired, how will that affect NASA’s missions? They rely on SpaceX for cargo and crew transport.
ReplyDeleteMusk isn’t one to back down. I wouldn't be surprised if he just finds another way to keep SpaceX going without Trump’s backing.
ReplyDeleteA government contract is important, but at the end of the day, SpaceX could still thrive on private contracts if needed.
ReplyDeleteI really hope they don’t retire the Dragon. It's been such a key player in the space race.
ReplyDeleteBoth Trump and Musk have huge egos. If they can’t make peace, it might actually harm SpaceX and the space program overall.
ReplyDeleteSpaceX’s future might be at stake here. If they lose government contracts, it could change the landscape of private space exploration.
ReplyDeleteThis is just a headline grab. Trump and Musk may clash, but they’ll eventually come to a resolution for the sake of business.
ReplyDeleteMusk should’ve expected some tension with Trump. Both have big personalities, but SpaceX has proven they don’t need to follow the establishment.
ReplyDeleteTrump cancelling government contracts would be a disaster for SpaceX. They might have to pivot fast
ReplyDeleteI can’t imagine SpaceX without the Dragon spacecraft. It’s been their flagship for so long!
ReplyDeleteThe timing of this feud seems suspicious. Could it be a strategy by Trump to regain control of the space race narrative?
ReplyDeleteThe stakes are high now. If the Dragon gets retired, what’s next for SpaceX's plans to send humans to Mars?
ReplyDeleteWhat a mess. This feud between Musk and Trump is dragging SpaceX into a political circus it doesn’t belong in.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, this whole situation seems like a distraction. SpaceX and Musk need to focus on their ultimate goal: exploring space.
ReplyDeleteIf Musk pulls through this, I wouldn’t be surprised if he builds something even better than the Dragon spacecraft.
ReplyDeleteSpaceX can probably handle a few setbacks, but a cancellation of government contracts would make things a lot harder for them.
ReplyDeleteFive days later and still no real progress. It’s like Musk and Trump are waiting for the other to blink, but nothing’s moving.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, this is getting weird. Five days with no updates, and the silence makes it feel like this feud is just fizzling out.
ReplyDeleteFive days of radio silence—no talks, no developments. Either they’ve reached a secret deal, or this whole thing was just a media stunt.
ReplyDelete🤔
DeleteIt’s been five days since the article dropped, and we’ve heard nothing more. Maybe both sides are playing the long game here.
ReplyDeleteNothing has changed in five days. At this point, I think Musk and Trump are just letting the story die on its own rather than making a big move.
ReplyDelete