DealBook: “CRAZY!”
Also, a scoop on opposition to a big crypto bill.
DealBook
June 6, 2025

Good morning. Andrew here. Wow. The Musk-Trump relationship detonated in spectacular fashion yesterday. We have the full play-by-play below — but more important, we take a look at the real-life implications of the rift, even if the two eventually reach a truce.

While Tesla’s market value dropped over $150 billion yesterday, Musk’s businesses and their investors could be further hammered if Trump uses his administration to inflict further retribution. And what if Musk tries to withhold SpaceX and Starlink technology from the government? Meanwhile, Musk rivals, including Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, are probably breathing a sigh of relief, while prominent allies of both men, such as the crypto czar David Sacks and Katie Miller, the wife of the senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller, might get caught in the crossfire.

And here’s something I’ve been thinking about overnight (and would love your feedback on): Does Musk’s outburst open a floodgate of pent-up criticism from other C.E.O.s who have held their tongue? Or is the possibility of retribution, as seen with Tesla’s share price, just more reason to stay silent? (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)

Elon Musk, left, in dark clothing and a black baseball cap, and President Trump in a blue suit, standing in front of a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the White House.
Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Can the alliance be fixed?

The world was riveted yesterday when President Trump and Elon Musk clashed — repeatedly, bitterly and sometimes pettily — online and in the Oval Office, in a dramatic rupture of their alliance that many believed was inevitable.

There were signs of a cool down today. There’s a lot at stake in Musk and Trump making amends, including for Musk’s businesses, his rivals and perhaps Republicans’ fortunes. No matter what happens, one of the most consequential political alliances in decades may be irrevocably damaged.

The highlights: After days of Musk assailing the Republican budget bill, a centerpiece of Trump’s economic agenda, the president let loose yesterday: “I’m very disappointed in Elon,” he said, adding that he would have won Pennsylvania in the 2024 election without the Tesla chief’s millions.

Things then got more heated:

  • “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote on X.
  • “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
  • Musk responded that he was prepared to decommission the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that NASA uses to get astronauts to the International Space Station, though he later backed off.
  • “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, 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 added.
  • Musk claimed that there were references to Trump in government documents about the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Have a nice day, DJT!” Musk wrote.

Observers of all political persuasions weighed in. “BBB actually stands for Big beautiful breakup,” the conservative activist Laura Loomer wrote on X, referring to the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, said, “The girls are fighting, aren’t they?” (It’s an allusion to a meme.)

Even Kanye West weighed in: “Broooos please noooooo