Donald Trump, the President of the United States, has broken his silence on the criticism from Elon Musk, who is a former member of his administration.
Recall that 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.
Citing sources, Reuters reported that Musk did not have a formal conversation with Trump before announcing his exit.
But signs of crack, which had manifested before Musk’s departure, became clearer when the billionaire businessman criticised Trump’s marquee tax bill and asked Congress to “kill the bill.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO publicly slammed the GOP proposal for potentially adding trillions to the deficit, and was privately irked by the removal of Biden-era tax credits for electric vehicles, among other grievances.
As if that was not enough, Musk further described Trump legacy legislation, the Big Beautiful Bill, as a bloated mess.
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’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.”
