Elon Musk's Election Burn Against Donald Trump Hits The Bullseye Of His Ego

It appears the gloves have finally come off now that the bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk is officially over. While doing his favorite thing — speaking to a group of friendly reporters and cameras in the Oval Office — Trump put Musk on blast for his post-White House meltdown. The Tesla CEO had recently left the White House to return to being a normal, billionaire citizen, but has been unable to keep his disdain for how things ended at bay. Musk has been railing against Trump's "big, beautiful bill," which, of course, has caused Trump to respond in kind.

In a video posted to X, Trump can be seen saying that even though Musk "endorsed me very strongly, he actually went up and campaigned for me" and that the president thought he "would have won Pennsylvania easily anyway." This jab at Musk, who donated millions to Trump's presidential campaign, caused the SpaceX CEO to respond with, "Without me, Trump would have lost the election." Not feeling satisfied, Musk followed this up with another post simply stating, "Such ingratitude."

While the two duel it out in the public square, it seems that both know how to hit each other where it hurts. Musk's retort that he, alone, is responsible for Trump's victory is sure to bruise the president's ego. Just as it most likely rubbed Musk the wrong way when Trump belittled his contributions to the campaign. It appears this cycle of them exchanging barbs is not going away anytime soon.

Considering all the red flags in the friendship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk it's surprising it took them this long to go after each other. With Musk sulking and taking to social media to nurse his wounds by lashing out, Trump is taking a more direct approach. In the video posted to X, Trump continues to admit that he's upset with Musk's sudden and public disapproval of the president's fiscal agenda currently sailing through the Senate. "He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he has a problem," Trump said of Musk.

Per CBS News, Musk has gone on the record saying he's "disappointed to see the massive spending bill." Trump fired back, using similar language, saying, "I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot." Considering that Musk is apparently looking for a big, beautiful thank you from the president, this response might not go down well.

When a reporter asked Trump if Musk ever brought up "any of these concerns with you privately," Trump responded with an interesting take. "I'll be honest, I think he misses the place," he said, before rambling about how wonderful the Oval Office is. Considering just how codependent Musk and Trump's relationship often felt, the drama unfolding reads more like a bad breakup than the end of a business partnership. Which tracks, as it seems Trump is already on the rebound, regardless of how hard Musk tries to bruise his ego.