Why did you do that to me?... 'Catastrophic' Trump-Musk, will talk on the phone tonight

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who previously participated in the Trump administration but parted ways and have since openly criticized and debated each other, are scheduled to have a phone call on the 6th (local time) through mediation by White House aides.

According to Politico, in an interview with the outlet, Trump was asked whether he had parted ways with Musk. He replied, "Oh, it’s fine," adding, "Things are going very well; they’ve never been better." Politico reported that despite his ongoing feuds with Musk on social network services (SNS), Trump appeared unfazed.

White House aides have arranged for the two to have a phone call that day to mediate a reconciliation. Prior to this, it was reported that in order to prevent their relationship from ending on bad terms, President Trump was persuaded not to publicly criticize Musk.

Earlier, Musk posted on SNS about Trump’s tax cut proposal, urging, "Call your Senator and Representative. Bankrupting the United States is not right. Kill the bill." On the 4th, he harshly criticized the tax cuts that Trump called a "big, beautiful law," calling them "disgusting and repulsive."

In response, President Trump said, "Elon and I had a good relationship. I don’t know if that will continue. I was surprised," adding, "It’s very disappointing. Elon knows more about the inner workings of this bill than anyone else sitting here. Suddenly, he has an issue with it."

Trump further pointed out that Musk changed abruptly when he found out the bill included reductions in EV subsidies, implying that Musk’s attacks on the bill were intentional. He also mentioned that Musk was upset because the nomination of a person Musk supported was withdrawn.

Musk immediately countered. Minutes later, he posted again on SNS, calling it a "lie" that Trump characterized the bill as if Musk had seen it, and insisted, "He never once showed me the bill."

He also posted "whatever" over a video of Trump saying Musk was angry about the termination of EV subsidies. Later, he posted another message, asserting, "If it weren’t for me, Trump would have lost the election."

Trump then posted on his own SNS, "The easiest way to cut the budget is to end government contracts with Musk." Musk responded, "As the President has declared the termination of government contracts, SpaceX will immediately begin decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft." He also posted, "Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year."

Musk even alluded to Trump’s impeachment. In reply to a post by an SNS user stating, "Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President J.D. Vance," Musk simply responded, "yes."

As Trump and Musk publicly argued, Tesla’s stock price plunged 14.26% from the previous day to close at $284.70. Its market capitalization fell to $917 billion, evaporating $152 billion (about ₩20.6 trillion) in a single day.

Jungdong Noh, Hankyung.com journalist dong2@hankyung.com