(
The Hill
) — President Trump on Saturday said tech billionaire Elon Musk will face “serious consequences” if he moves to support Democratic political candidates in any upcoming elections, following a
public rift
between the two in recent days.
In
a phone interview
with NBC News, Trump said Musk “will have to pay the consequences” if he backs opponents to GOP lawmakers who support the GOP’s “
big, beautiful bill
.”
“He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” he told the outlet.
The president’s remarks comes after he
signaled his bromance with Musk is over
as a tiff about the
GOP megabill
spiraled into an
all-out brawl
on social media. Musk went so far as to allege that Trump is named in
the Jeffrey Epstein files
, backed
a call for impeachment
and suggested he would have
lost the presidential election
without his support.
Trump in response
threatened
to cancel federal
government contracts
for Musk’s companies while calling the Tesla and SpaceX CEO “crazy.”
Prior to the implosion of the duo’s relationship, the tech mogul indicated he would
roll back
his political spending in upcoming elections.
“In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said last month.
“If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it,” he added. “I do not currently see a reason.”
The billionaire became one of the
most powerful forces
in U.S. politics after he threw his support behind Trump’s reelection bid last summer, spending
at least $250 million
.
He soon became a central figure in the White House as he advised the
Department of Government Efficiency
and the administration’s efforts to
reduce the size and scope
of the federal government. Musk
left the administration
late last month as he
voiced opposition
to the House-crafted GOP spending bill over its potential impact on the national debt.
When asked by NBC on Saturday if the president intends to reconcile with Musk, Trump replied in the negative. But he reiterated his confidence in his budget bill despite some
GOP concerns
in the upper chamber.
“The Republican Party has never been united like this before. It’s never been. It’s actually more so than it was three days ago,” Trump said, stating
Musk’s outburst
benefited his push to get the bill passed before July 4.
“I think, actually, Elon brought out the strengths of the bill because people that weren’t as focused started focusing on it, and they see how good it is,” the president added. “So in that sense, there was a big favor. But I think Elon, really, I think it’s a shame that he’s so depressed and so heartbroken.”
Some of Musk’s social media posts that intensified the feud on Thursday have since been deleted.
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