Late-night hosts relish the dramatic fallout between Donald Trump and his erstwhile pal and ally Elon Musk.
Stephen Colbert
After per week of simmering pressure, “a full-scale flame warfare has damaged out between the world’s most well-known besties, Donald Trump and Elon Musk”, mentioned Stephen Colbert on Thursday’s Late Present. “Or as they’re recognized by their superstar couple title, Two Large Jagoffs.”
Musk, the previous head of Trump’s “division of presidency effectivity” (Doge), had spent the week criticizing Trump’s so-called “Huge Stunning Invoice”, which might dramatically enhance the federal government’s deficit. And on Thursday, after Trump claimed that Musk was simply upset that the brand new Huge Stunning Invoice does away with mandates for electrical automobiles, Musk posted a tweetstorm to X, writing partially: “With out me, Trump would have misplaced the election. Dems would management the Home and the Republicans can be 51-49 within the Senate.”
“Yeah, you suppose we’ve forgotten that?” Colbert fumed. “Buddy, have you ever been to a Tesla dealership currently? As a result of no person else has!”
Trump then posted on his social media platform that he requested Musk to go away the White Home as a result of he had been “sporting skinny”, and that he went “CRAZY” after he lower the electrical automobiles mandate, as a result of “nobody wished” them. “I’m sorry, went loopy?” Colbert mused. “Elon has all the time lived on the geographic heart of insanitude. He’s not the mayor of Loopy City! He’s the governor of Off-his-meds-sylvania.”
Trump then threatened to finish authorities subsidies for Musk’s firms. Musk responded that he’d instantly decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, used to ferry astronauts to and from the Worldwide Area Station. “So to any astronauts at present in orbit, don’t get too hooked up to your present bone density,” Colbert quipped.
Then Musk claimed that Trump was within the Epstein information, a topic of many conspiracies, and that “is the true cause they haven’t been made public”.
“Is that this Twitter warfare a tacky gordita crunch wrap supreme?” Colbert puzzled. “As a result of it’s drippy sizzling messy filth and I’m consuming up each sloppy chew.”
Colbert additionally famous that Musk was “a bit late on that intel – ‘Donald Trump is a sexual predator that preyed on younger ladies, which is one thing I solely determined to inform you as a result of he damage my emotions.’”
Regardless, he loved the drama between two of probably the most highly effective males on the planet performing like “Actual Housewives on the ladies’ journey”.
Seth Meyers
The fallout between Trump and Musk was “all so unhappy”, joked Seth Meyers on Late Evening. “One other male friendship destroyed. Because of this males are so lonely. These two was inseparable – on stage, on international journeys, at rocket launches, within the Oval Workplace. Simply final week Trump gave him a ceremonial golden key he stole from the Pirates of the Caribbean journey at Disneyland.”
That was earlier than a fiery back-and-forth on their respective social media platforms, X and Fact Social. “I don’t learn about DJT, however I’m having a fairly good day!” mentioned a bemused Meyers.
“Within the span of three hours, they went from Elon criticizing the invoice to Trump threatening to take Elon’s contracts away to Elon suggesting that Trump could be a pedophile,” he added. “Additionally, if we’re to take you might be your phrase, Elon, you already knew that, and it wasn’t a dealbreaker.”
The entire blow-up has made it clear that “neither of those guys actually believed in something”, Meyers concluded. “Elon spent practically $300m to get Republicans elected and now he’s shocked that they’re doing the factor everybody mentioned they might do. And within the course of, Trump used Elon to get again into energy.
“In a method, they have been proper: watching these guys destroy one another has been each massive and delightful.”
Jimmy Kimmel
“I knew today would come, and but by some means it’s even higher than I imagined,” mentioned Jimmy Kimmel of the feud. “It’s like coming down the steps on Christmas morning and discovering a second tree.”
Kimmel significantly loved Musk’s tweet about Trump allegedly being within the Epstein information. “Man oh man, Vader activates the emperor once more,” Kimmel laughed. “That’s a severe accusation. What does Elon know? What proof may there probably be that Trump was in league with Jeffrey Epstein?” Apart from, as Kimmel identified, many photographs and movies of the 2 socializing collectively.
“Only a few days in the past Elon was within the Oval Workplace, Trump gave him a key to the White Home, he mentioned all these good issues,” Kimmel marveled. In February, Musk tweeted: “I really like Donald Trump as a lot as a straight man can love one other man.”
“They couldn’t give up one another! It was like Wokeback Mountain with these two,” Kimmel joked. “And now it’s all gone.”
The Every day Present
And on the Every day Present, Michael Kosta marveled at how “the chief of the free world versus the breeder of the free world” escalated right into a “full world warfare douche”.
“Oh my god I can’t imagine it! The factor that was all the time going to occur is now occurring,” Kosta deadpanned. “I believed these two billionaires with the world’s largest egos would work it out amicably.”
“This fully predictable factor predictably unfolded” over the Huge Stunning Invoice, which might enhance the federal government’s deficit and “clearly undercuts all of the onerous, patriotic work Elon has carried out gutting funding for most cancers analysis and ravenous youngsters”, Kosta mentioned.
Trump was uncharacteristically subdued in response to Musk’s criticism at first. Musk then escalated the feud on X, calling Trump’s criticism “such ingratitude” and taking credit score for his election. “Elon taking credit score for profitable the election is a bit impolite to the Democrats, isn’t it?” Kosta puzzled. “I imply, you’re completely erasing all of the work they did to blow the election.”
Trump fired again, threatening to cancel Musk’s authorities subsidies, and all of it spiraled from there. “Can we simply level how loopy 2025 is?” mentioned Kosta. “Most individuals can’t afford to eat eggs any extra; in the meantime, these two billionaires are attacking one another from completely different social media platforms that they every personal. Possibly we should always eat the wealthy?”