For those who think government should be run like a business, the messy social media spat that played out last week between President Trump and billionaire CEO Elon Musk suggested that business could be doing a lot better.
That may help to explain why shares of Musk’s company Tesla dropped 14 percent Thursday, falling for the second straight day as the spat between the richest man in the world and the most powerful man in the world oozed into a meltdown. Tesla shares recovered a bit on Friday, but are down by 12% over the week.
Ironically, the fight played out on the social media platforms Truth Social, majority-owned by the president, and X, formerly Twitter, which Musk bought and renamed in 2023 and subsequently turned into a megaphone for far-right politics and Trumpism.
The table for the breakup was set in late May when the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a domestic policy spending bill, which among other things would eliminate subsidies for electric vehicles such as those Tesla makes.
Musk began grousing about the bill early last week, but he mostly confined his criticism to the amount by which the bill would increase the deficit.
Trouble began in earnest on Thursday, while Trump was meeting in the Oval Office with Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany. A reporter asked Trump about Musk’s criticism of the bill. Trump pointedly referred to the relationship in the past tense and cast doubts on its happy future.
Musk was upset and responded on X about the unfairness of rolling back subsidies for his electric vehicles. Later, he slipped in a jab, suggesting that Trump and the Republicans could never have prevailed in last year’s elections without the $288 million that Musk spent to put them over the top.
The exchange became more heated as Musk lashed the legislation as a “disgusting abomination” that would bankrupt the country. He then rallied his online followers to “Kill the Bill” and things only got nastier.
“Time to drop the really big bomb,” Musk tweeted. “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That’s the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
The reference is to the late registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who can be seen in widely circulated video footage partying with Trump.
Musk later replied “Yes” to a post that suggested Trump should be impeached and replaced with Vice President JD Vance.
By Thursday afternoon, White House staff were mocking the fracas as “the one big, beautiful breakup,” a reference to the legislation that ignited Musk’s fury.
A poll taken by YouGov asked respondents whose side they were on in the feud and found 52 percent said, perhaps sensibly, neither one. Only 28 percent picked Trump and a meager 8 percent, perhaps tech bros, picked Musk.
Frankly, in a country loaded with people who have serious concerns about government and feel weary over such shenanigans, I hear a message in the polls: Make it stop!
What happened to all the people who say government should be run like a business?
The answer I hear is another question: Whose business?
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Clarence Page is a member of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board.
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