Billionaire Elon Musk fueled renewed tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday when he declared an immediate decision to start dismantling SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft—before making a full retraction several hours later, expressing allegiance to "Team America."
The dramatic declaration was made in reaction to a threat by President Trump to cancel federal contracts held by Musk's firms, as tensions escalated over a controversial tax and spending bill opposed by Musk.
Musk, whose ventures include the aerospace company SpaceX and satellite internet provider Starlink—both major government contractors—wrote on his social media site X:
"In response to the President's announcement of cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will initiate the decommissioning of its Dragon spacecraft forthwith."
NASA relies significantly on the Dragon capsule to carry astronauts back and forth from the International Space Station (ISS) under a $4.9 billion contract. The ship is currently the only working U.S. system to carry people into orbit.
Removing Dragon from service would risk major disruption to the ISS program, a multinational collaboration formalized over 20 years ago. Currently, Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft is the only other vehicle that can carry astronauts to the ISS, according to Reuters.
But Musk's move soon attracted criticism on the internet. One X user criticized both Musk and Trump for their ongoing spat, calling it "shameful" and asking them to take a break for a couple of days. Musk replied:
"Good advice. Ok, we won't decommission Dragon."
Soon after that, he tweeted a picture of the American flag with the Dragon spacecraft behind it, captioned:
"Team America."
The first invitation to decommission Dragon was made minutes after President Trump fired at Musk in a harsh post on Truth Social, where he threatened to stop funding Musk's enterprises:
"The simplest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to end Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that (his predecessor Joe) Biden didn't do it.
The feud between Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, and Trump, the world’s most politically powerful, escalated rapidly following remarks from the President on Thursday. From the Oval Office, Trump criticized Musk’s sudden opposition to the administration’s marquee legislation:
“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem.”
Ironically, the altercation came only days after Trump had thrown a lavish sendoff for Musk, toasting his resignation as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an assignment he had accepted as part of the President's budget-cutting initiative.
Musk, who was born in South Africa, retaliated within minutes. He rejected Trump's assertion that he had received advance knowledge of the bill as "false," appending a brusque
"Whatever"
over a video of Trump complaining Musk was angry about the planned reductions in electric car subsidies.
The CEO of Tesla then escalated the battle, recalling his campaign funding for Trump:
"Without me, Trump would have lost the election," he said, stating he had donated nearly $300 million to the cause.
Tesla shares fell instantaneously, dropping 8% on Wall Street, in response to investor jitters over the tensions between the two high-profile individuals and the impact they could have on Musk's businesses.
The row escalated further when Musk targeted Trump's new tariffs, which shook financial markets worldwide.
"The US President's tariffs. will lead to a recession in the second half of this year," Musk threatened on Thursday.
With both egos and economic stakes hanging in the balance, the rivalry between Musk and Trump seems to be shifting out of backchannels and into the limelight—laying the groundwork for yet more political and economic upheaval.
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