WASHINGTON — If historical past is any information, and there’s a lot of historical past, the explosive new falling out between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk just isn’t going to finish effectively for the previous White Home advisor and world’s richest man.
The political battlefield is affected by the scorched stays of a few of Trump’s earlier allies who picked a combat with him or had been on the receiving finish of 1.
Lawyer Michael Cohen. Political advisor Steve Bannon. Lawyer Common Jeff Periods, Protection Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. John Bolton, John Kelly and Chris Christie, to call only a few.
“If what occurred to me is any indication of how they deal with these issues, then Elon goes to get decimated,” mentioned Cohen, the previous long-term Trump lawyer and fixer who as soon as mentioned he’d “take a bullet” for his boss. Musk, he mentioned, “simply does not perceive how you can combat any such political guerilla warfare.”
“They will take his cash, they are going to shutter his companies and they are going to both incarcerate or deport him,” Cohen mentioned of what he thinks Musk will undergo by the hands of Trump and his administration. “He is in all probability bought the White Home working time beyond regulation already, as we converse, determining how you can shut his entire rattling factor down.”
Cohen had maybe probably the most spectacular blow up, till now, with Trump. He served time in jail after Trump threw him below the bus by denying any information of pre-election funds Cohen made to a porn actress to maintain her alleged tryst with Trump quiet earlier than the 2016 election.
Extra: President Trump threatens Elon Musk’s billions in authorities contracts as alliance craters
Cohen felt so betrayed by Trump that he titled his memoir “Disloyal,” however the Trump administration tried to dam its publication. Cohen finally fought again, turning into a star witness for the federal government within the state “hush cash” case and helped get Trump convicted by a Manhattan jury.
Extra: Impeachment? Deportation? Loopy? 6 takeaways from the wild feud between Trump and Elon Musk
Some suffered related authorized assaults and different slings and arrows, together with Trump taunts and his trademark nasty nicknames. Trump vilified others, casting them into the political wilderness together with his MAGA base.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk greets U.S. President Donald Trump as they attend the NCAA males’s wrestling championships in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 22, 2025.
When Periods recused himself from the Justice Division’s investigation of Russian meddling within the 2016 election, Trump savaged him, calling his appointment a “mistake” and lobbing different epithets.
Periods resigned below stress in 2018. When he tried to resurrect his political profession by working for his outdated Senate seat in Alabama, Trump endorsed his opponent, who received the GOP major.
After firing Tillerson, Trump referred to as the previous ExxonMobil chief lazy and “dumb as a rock.” Trump nonetheless taunts Christie, an early supporter and 2016 transition chief, particularly about his weight.
Trump additionally had a falling out with Bannon, who was instrumental in delivering his presidential victory in 2016 after which joined the White Home as particular advisor.
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency,” Trump mentioned in 2018, a yr after Bannon’s ouster from the White Home. “When he was fired, he not solely misplaced his job, he misplaced his thoughts.”
Ambassador John Bolton mimics pictures of President Donald Trump holding a Bible. John Bolton
Trump’s Justice Division even indicted Bannon in 2020 for fraud, although the President pardoned him earlier than leaving workplace.
One in all Trump’s largest feuds was with Bolton, whom he fired as his nationwide safety advisor in 2019.
Trump used each means potential to stop his ebook, “The Room The place it Occurred,” from being revealed, Bolton instructed USA TODAY on Thursday. That included having the U.S. authorities sue his writer on the false premise that Bolton violated a nondisclosure settlement and was leaking categorised data, Bolton mentioned.
Bolton mentioned Musk is in contrast to most others who’ve crossed swords with Trump in that he has limitless quantities of cash and management of a strong social media platform in X to assist form the narrative. Musk additionally has billions in authorities contracts that even a vindictive Trump could have a tough time killing, as he threatened to do on Thursday, with out vital authorized challenges.
Even so, Bolton mentioned, “It will find yourself like most mud fights do, with each of them worse off. The query is how a lot worse the nation goes to be off.”
This text initially appeared on USA TODAY: Why the Trump-Musk feud may not finish effectively for the world’s richest man