Former CIA Agents Blame Obama-Era Officials For Creating Mistrust of Agency<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nMusk\u2019s proposed party, which he\u2019s calling the America Party, is the latest sign of a public falling out between the two men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two were once close, with Musk pouring hundreds of millions into Trump\u2019s campaign and being rewarded with a major role overseeing government spending cuts as he was named the unofficial head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That relationship began to unravel last month when Trump\u2019s sweeping domestic policy bill passed Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk slammed the legislation, which was known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, as a \u201cdisgusting abomination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said he would back primary challengers against any Republican who voted for it. The bill still passed with overwhelming Republican support. Musk has not shared much about what the America Party stands for or who is involved in building it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBacking a candidate for president is not out of the question, but the focus for the next 12 months is on the House and the Senate,\u201d Musk wrote on X Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has also threatened to slash federal contracts and tax subsidies that benefit Musk\u2019s companies. On Sunday night, Trump said Musk only turned on him because the bill eliminated electric vehicle tax credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have campaigned on this for two years and, quite honestly, when Elon gave me his total and unquestioned Endorsement, I asked him whether or not he knew that I was going to terminate the EV Mandate \u2014 It was in every speech I made, and in every conversation I had,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe said he had no problems with that \u2014 I was very surprised!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk had previously supported ending EV tax credits, but changed his position this year as Tesla\u2019s sales declined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump also said Musk was furious over his decision to pull the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a close friend of Musk\u2019s and a SpaceX astronaut, to head NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump withdrew the nomination after a White House official pointed out that Isaacman had made donations to high-profile Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isaacman had disclosed the donations during the transition and before the nomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as Trump\u2019s ties with Musk frayed, the issue was brought up again behind the scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon\u2019s corporate life,\u201d Trump added on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Musk\u2019s previous work to cut waste in government had been popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Bessent said Musk himself was not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies, which he is better at than anyone,\u201d Bessent said on CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo I imagine that those board of directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Trump took direct aim at Elon Musk on Sunday night and said the billionaire had gone \u201coff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1316,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions\/1316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}