Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s post-DOGE exit feud has hit the social media mudslinging phase, with extremely serious accusations, contract termination threats, and petty name-calling erupting on Trump’s Truth Social and Musk’s X.
Late night show hosts like Stephen Colbert and (in the clip above) Seth Meyers have been unpacking each step in the break-up of the year. The political backscratcher duo of the U.S. president and the richest man in the world has quickly and publicly crumbled, with Musk and Trump now throwing barbs at each other within press conferences and on social media — including Trump threatening to terminate Musk’s government contracts, Musk threatening to retire SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, and Musk publicly claiming, “Donald Trump is in the Epstein files.”
“Holy shit! In the span of three hours, they went from Elon criticising the bill, to Trump threatening to take Elon’s contracts away, to Elon suggesting that Trump might be a pedophile,” Meyers said in his “A Closer Look” segment on Thursday’s Late Night. “Also, if we were to take you at your word, Elon, you already knew that — and it wasn’t a dealbreaker.”
Meyers wrapped up by taking a broader look at the bigger picture.
“It’s as clear as ever that neither of these guys really believed in anything. Elon spent nearly $300 million to get Republicans elected, and now he’s shocked that they’re doing the thing everyone said they would do. And in the process, Trump used Elon to get back into power. You know, in a way, they were right. Watching these guys destroy each other is both big and beautiful,” Meyers said (using a clip of Trump saying “beautiful” to finish his sentence).
