Elon Musk has got people wondering about how solid his relationship with Donald Trump is with his latest comments about his future political spending.
Billionaire Elon Musk was one of the most outspoken supporters of Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House and reportedly spent more than $250m in support of Trump’s campaign.
Since returning to the White House, both figures have repeatedly praised one another for their work and this saw Musk land himself a role in the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
A few weeks ago, however, Musk announced that he would be stepping back from this and focusing more on his many businesses.
However, rumors have continued to persist that Musk is stepping away due to a strained relationship with Trump and these have only increased in recent weeks.
Regarding political spending, while speaking virtually at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday (May 20), Musk explained he wouldn’t be dabbling in it in the future.
Musk said: “I think, in terms of political spending, I am going to do a lot less in the future.”
When pressed on why that is, Musk simply replied that he had ‘done enough’.
He was then asked whether the backlash he has received was part of the reason, and Musk sort of sidestepped the question and replied: “Well, if I see a reason for political spending in the future I will do it, I don’t currently see a reason.”
Videos of this snippet from the conversation have begun to spread on social media and viewers have chimed in with their own theories on what could be the reason behind this.
Some suggested Musk wanted to take a step back in order to focus more on his businesses as his union with Trump hadn’t been the success he was hoping for.
Most interestingly, Trump has appeared to stop mentioning Musk on his social media posts, going from an average of four times per week in February to once since the start of April, further fueling rumors their relationship is floundering.
One Twitter user said: “Trump has realized people hate Musk and he's become a liability. The DOGE program has become a joke and a failure. It's time for Elon to go under the bus."
While another argued: “Musks board sent him a clear message. He needs to focus on his business. He's had his fun playing president.”
A third noted: “He's stepping back because his association with MAGA proved toxic to his brand. But we won't forget.”
However, others have insisted the billionaire is simply choosing to reroute his focus after getting all that he wanted out of his support of Trump.
Another user wrote: “Musk got everything he wanted from his foray into politics. Now he’s just deciding what to do with it all. If he realizes he missed a server, he’ll be back."
With another adding: “No, he had been pretty clear on his role and that he wouldn't be involved long. Trump won and DOGE was instituted, those were his goals, so now he's stepped aside. People just keep trying to lie and spin it into something more to create a narrative.”