ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
What happens after two of the most powerful men in the world publicly tear each other apart on social media? Well, today, the answer seems to be awkward silence. President Trump and Elon Musk created a lot of drama yesterday, flinging accusations at each other from the social media platforms they each own. NPR's Stephen Fowler is here to tell us about the fallout. Hey there.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Yesterday afternoon, it was like Godzilla versus King Kong stomping across X and Truth Social. What's it looking like today?
FOWLER: Well, to continue your pop culture references, if yesterday's theme was, the girls are fighting, today, it's more like new phone, who this?
SHAPIRO: OK.
FOWLER: Trump made the rounds, calling reporters at prominent mainstream media outlets, basically saying he's moved on from Musk and won't speak to him. And Elon Musk has been uncharacteristically quiet online, just a few posts here and there about his companies. The main pain point has been Trump's so-called One Big, Beautiful Bill that's a reconciliation measure chock full of Trump's agenda items, including tax cuts, but that experts say would increase the federal deficit by trillions over the next several years.
SHAPIRO: The House passed that bill. It was looking dicey in the Senate even before Musk called it an abomination. So what are you hearing from Republicans in Congress about what the Musk-Trump breakup means for them and for this bill?
FOWLER: Well, in the immediate aftermath, there's been a lot more diplomacy among those in congressional leadership positions. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he exchanged texts with Musk but gently pushed back at the billionaire's core criticism about the reconciliation bill. He talked about that in an interview with CNBC this morning.
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MIKE JOHNSON: I don't tell my friend Elon how to - I don't argue with him about how to build rockets, and I wish he wouldn't argue with me about how to craft legislation and pass it. But, you know, we've had some good discussion. I thought it was helpful, fruitful, but, you know, it's just disappointing. I hope it all resolves today.
FOWLER: It is worth pointing out that much of this discourse about the drama is just taking place online and on the airwaves for now.
SHAPIRO: From the beginning, Elon Musk and Donald Trump have had priorities that overlap in some ways and diverge in others. And at the Oval Office yesterday, Trump pointed out that his former aides and allies have often turned against him.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They leave, and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour's gone. The whole world is different, and they become hostile. I don't know what it is.
SHAPIRO: So Stephen, do you think this was inevitable?
FOWLER: I mean, one way or another, yeah. Musk seemed to just now discover that the push to cut taxes but not cut spending on some things like Social Security and the military has been the vibe for Trump and congressional Republicans all along. Trump and congressional Republicans have touted Musk's DOGE initiative to cut federal spending without acknowledging that effort never really focused on big ticket items. And while Musk and Trump do both have business backgrounds, the former has never really shown remotely the same level of understanding of how government or politics works the way Trump does. Elon Musk doesn't have a lengthy background of conservative views, socially or fiscally. And the pairing has always been one more about personal convenience and power more than this ideological alignment.
SHAPIRO: And also about money. Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars in last year's election to help Trump and other Republicans get elected. He posted on X that Republicans would have lost the election and seats in Congress without him, and he accused Trump of ingratitude. So what does Musk believe Trump owes him as a return on investment?
FOWLER: Well, Musk has already gotten a lot out of this relationship with Trump, more than just a ceremonial key to the White House. There are federal agencies that were investigating Musk companies, that they've been prime targets of the DOGE dismantling effort. Musk has traveled with Trump on overseas trips that have also seen business deals come out of it, and those businesses are still federal contractors receiving billions of taxpayer dollars.
SHAPIRO: And just briefly, what do you see as the future consequences of this falling out?
FOWLER: Well, Musk was already on his way out of Trump's political sphere in orbit. He spent a lot of money in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race that backfired. He said he was pulling back from spending to focus on his business empire, and he's become the face of the unpopular parts of dismantling the federal government. This falling out could be a catalyst for sweeping DOGE under the rug, for Republicans to distance themselves from it and Musk in the coming year.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Stephen Fowler, thank you.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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