Trump and Elon Musk expected to speak Friday amid public feud: Live updates

Trump’s former White House chief strategist has long hated the “globalist” billionaire and wasted no time yesterday in calling for him to be booted out of the United States and his space venture confiscated by the U.S. government.

Here’s more from James Liddell.

The two warring parties have scheduled a call on Friday in the hope of clearing the air after yesterday’s verbal fireworks, according to White House aides cited by Politico, who did not reveal the time of the call.

Trump sought to downplay the feud in a brief call with the same outlet last night, saying only “Oh it’s okay” and “It’s going very well, never done better.”

He then pivoted to his customary bluster, boasting that his “numbers are through the roof, the highest polls I’ve ever had and I have to go.”

As you might have expected, America’s nightly comedy shows had an absolute field day with the Trump v Musk bout.

Here’s James Liddell with the best of the reaction.

After Trump suggested yesterday that he could cancel Elon’s numerous government contracts, the billionaire hit back by saying “SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”

Musk’s craft, which first launched in 2012, has been used to get astronauts to and from the International Space Station for years.

In March, a pair of Nasa astronauts who had been in space since last summer used it to return home.

This was probably the billionaire’s most damning slur yesterday, designed to stir up the hornet’s nest of conspiracy theorists within Trump’s base.

He followed it up by recirculating old footage of the president talking with Epstein and oggling girls at a party in 1992, part of an attack strategy intended to paint the president and his supporters in Congress like House Speaker Mike Johnson as unprincipled hypocrites through-and-through.

Here’s more from Rhian Lubin.

Here’s yesterday’s social media war in post form, beginning with the president, who said Musk’s company was “wearing thin”, that he had been asked to leave the administration and that he had since gone “CRAZY.”

He also threatened to cancel his ally’s numerous lucrative government contracts.

That’s just a selection from the angry deluge currently constituting his X feed.

Here are Mike Bedigan and Josh Marcus on the moment Musk went scorched earth.

Let’s recap yesterday’s astonishing blow-up between President Trump and Elon Musk, which began when the Republican was asked about the world’s richest man’s recent attacks on his “big, beautiful bill” during a White House sit-down with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and said this:

Musk then hit back in spectacular style, claiming that Trump would have lost last year’s election without his generous financial support (at least $288m in donations to his campaign), to allege that the government’s files on paedophile Jeffrey Epstein are being withheld because they mention the president and to call for his impeachment and replacement with Vice President JD Vance.

You can see a full highlight reel here:

Here’s John Bowden’s analysis on an afternoon of stinging personal insults.

This is just too perfect.

You will be happy to hear that normal service has since been restored over at Truth Social.

Musk said he would like to see Trump impeached and replaced with JD Vance.

“President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him,” Ian Miles Cheong wrote on X.

Elon Musk further responded to Trump’s comments on Thursday after the president expressed disappointment in Musk’s opposition to his primary congressional legislation, which aims to advance his agenda.

Musk wrote on X on Thursday, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

“Such ingratitude,” he added.