Donald Trump — Elon Musk’s Worst Investment Yet
Published in Rzeczpospolita
(Poland) on 9 June 2025
by Jędrzej Bielecki (link to original)
The open dispute between the most powerful man in the world and the richest man on Earth reveals the terrifying backdrop of America's power system today.
Donald Trump doesn't forget this kind of insult. “My relationship with Elon Musk is over,” he said in an interview with NBC over the weekend. Hours before, the Tesla founder had suggested on his platform X that Trump was linked to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The billionaire Musk also claimed that the current president owes him for a return to the White House. Musk threatened to create a new party that would marginalize the private political machine that Trump has turned Republicans into and warned that he would block a plan to permanently cut large-scale taxes in the Senate at the expense of further deepening the gigantic debt that weighs on America.
Trump's Policies Strike the Interests of Multibillionaires, including Musk
One of the reasons for Musk's fury is this last point, which is a concern for the nation's finances, as well as the global trade war that the president has caused and which has struck at the interests of the multibillionaire and all the other American tycoons. The White House hired Musk to cut $2 trillion a year in U.S. budget commitments (which he failed to do). Meanwhile, the bill sent to the Senate increases these obligations by an even larger amount. At the same time, Trump's punitive tariffs on U.S. trading partners are dampening the country's economic growth.
But there are also deeper, and even less edifying, reasons for this dispute. After investing more than $250 million in Trump's election campaign — no one spent more — Musk concluded that he owned the president and could do anything he wants. But Musk has suffered a series of disappointments in this regard. The aforementioned budget laws eliminate subsidies for electric cars, which sinks Tesla even deeper. Working closely with NASA, Musk's space company, SpaceX, suddenly faced a formidable competitor: Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos, to whom Trump has grown very close. The same has happened with the promising artificial intelligence market. Naturally, Musk expected AI to grab the lion’s share of the most lucrative contracts. But now it looks like the White House is betting on his rival, Sam Altman's OpenAI company.
America Has Become Some Sort of Plutocracy in Which a Handful of Rich People Decide the Country's Future
Posting on X, Musk acknowledged that, if only because of his age, he is a more promising figure than Trump. But the truth is different. Companies belonging to the world's richest man received nearly $40 billion in subsidies from the U.S. However, the president can easily take these away and introduce regulations that will make it difficult for Musk's business empire to bounce back.
This shows how badly Musk has miscalculated. Perhaps under the influence of psychoactive substances (antidepressants, which he takes), he fantasized about his opportunities. It looks like the money he invested in Trump turned out to be the worst investment of his spectacular business career.
However, this dispute also shows that America has turned into something of a plutocracy in which a handful of ultra-rich people decide the future of the country. In an interview with Rzeczpospolita on Friday, former U.S. ambassador to Warsaw Daniel Fried said that even Secretary of State Marco Rubio doesn't know what Trump will say in the next hour on suc fundamental issues as Ukraine. The feud between the president and Musk shows that this is what the entire decision-making process in the U.S. looks like right now.
Donald Trump doesn't forget this kind of insult. “My relationship with Elon Musk is over,” he said in an interview with NBC over the weekend. Hours before, the Tesla founder had suggested on his platform X that Trump was linked to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The billionaire Musk also claimed that the current president owes him for a return to the White House. Musk threatened to create a new party that would marginalize the private political machine that Trump has turned Republicans into and warned that he would block a plan to permanently cut large-scale taxes in the Senate at the expense of further deepening the gigantic debt that weighs on America.
Trump's Policies Strike the Interests of Multibillionaires, including Musk
One of the reasons for Musk's fury is this last point, which is a concern for the nation's finances, as well as the global trade war that the president has caused and which has struck at the interests of the multibillionaire and all the other American tycoons. The White House hired Musk to cut $2 trillion a year in U.S. budget commitments (which he failed to do). Meanwhile, the bill sent to the Senate increases these obligations by an even larger amount. At the same time, Trump's punitive tariffs on U.S. trading partners are dampening the country's economic growth.
But there are also deeper, and even less edifying, reasons for this dispute. After investing more than $250 million in Trump's election campaign — no one spent more — Musk concluded that he owned the president and could do anything he wants. But Musk has suffered a series of disappointments in this regard. The aforementioned budget laws eliminate subsidies for electric cars, which sinks Tesla even deeper. Working closely with NASA, Musk's space company, SpaceX, suddenly faced a formidable competitor: Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos, to whom Trump has grown very close. The same has happened with the promising artificial intelligence market. Naturally, Musk expected AI to grab the lion’s share of the most lucrative contracts. But now it looks like the White House is betting on his rival, Sam Altman's OpenAI company.
America Has Become Some Sort of Plutocracy in Which a Handful of Rich People Decide the Country's Future
Posting on X, Musk acknowledged that, if only because of his age, he is a more promising figure than Trump. But the truth is different. Companies belonging to the world's richest man received nearly $40 billion in subsidies from the U.S. However, the president can easily take these away and introduce regulations that will make it difficult for Musk's business empire to bounce back.
This shows how badly Musk has miscalculated. Perhaps under the influence of psychoactive substances (antidepressants, which he takes), he fantasized about his opportunities. It looks like the money he invested in Trump turned out to be the worst investment of his spectacular business career.
However, this dispute also shows that America has turned into something of a plutocracy in which a handful of ultra-rich people decide the future of the country. In an interview with Rzeczpospolita on Friday, former U.S. ambassador to Warsaw Daniel Fried said that even Secretary of State Marco Rubio doesn't know what Trump will say in the next hour on suc fundamental issues as Ukraine. The feud between the president and Musk shows that this is what the entire decision-making process in the U.S. looks like right now.
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