Global ban

How Donald Trump and Elon Musk swear in social networks and what consequences for them and the rest of the world this quarrel can lead

Last week, Donald Trump and Ilon Musk exchanged wrappers and accusations of social networks. In particular, Trump threatened the businessman with a breakdown of state contracts, and Musk hinted at the connection of the American president with Jeffrey Epstein. The conflict of two influential men turned against the backdrop of disagreements on the budget and tax benefits bill.

A scam of a mask with Trump serves as an example of what many have long talked about: the American president is not shy to use power as an instrument to achieve his own political goals. He can “punish” even the richest person in the world, but there is also something to answer. About what consequences the conflict of Trump and the mask can turn out for both sides-in the material of the New-Europe.

Risks for Trump

A few months ago, the billionaire and the former “special civil servant” Ilon Musk wrote in social networks that he loves Trump as much, “as one heterosexual man can love another.” And last week, the businessman began to pour accusations and threats towards a former comrade.

For the 47th US President Donald Trump, a public skirmish with Ilon Mask is, first of all, the failure of one of the main pre-election promises, says international journalist Alexei Bogdanovsky living in Washington. With the help of a mask and its Department of State Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump administration was supposed to reduce state expenses by $ 2 trillion, but in reality the new department failed to reach such indicators and closely.

“According to the reporting, Doge turns out that they reduced the costs of only $ 175 billion, although these figures also look doubtful,” the expert notes. According to Bogdanovsky, despite the defeat of some institutions and a number of dismissals, Doge did not particularly succeed in saving the budget from embezzlement:

- According to the estimates of the authorities themselves, the volume of ineffective expenses and direct theft can be in the amount of hundreds of billions of dollars a year. This is the main damage for both his reputation and for Trump's reputation. Their quarrel is only a statement of the fact that the initiative to reduce expenses ended in failure.

In addition to the reputation risks associated with ineffective decisions to reduce expenses from the state budget, the press is actively discussing the Mask about the connection of Trump and the financier Jeffrey Epstein. In 2019, Epstein, under mysterious circumstances, committed suicide in a prison cell. At this time, a trial was carried out, the man was accused of trafficking in people. During the skirmish in social networks, Musk said that Trump appears in Epstein files with the names of influential persons allegedly related to his crimes.

It is for this reason, Musk said, Trump still did not publish these files. At the same time, Trump previously spoke in favor of transparency and declassified various kinds of state documents. So, in March 2025, by decree of Trump, the US National Archive published thousands of pages of documents in the case of the murder of the 35th American President John Kennedy.

Bogdanovsky doubts that the Mask about the Mask about Trump's relations with Epstein will entail serious reputational losses for the American president.

“Musk really put forward a series of insinuations that Trump is connected with the infamous banker-pedophile Epstein, but did not bring any confirming facts,” the expert says. - Soon Musk completely removed these tweets. Trump, like the entire political and economic elite, was familiar with Epstein, although as far as close, the information varies. Until now, no facts have been published that would testify that Trump knew anything about Epstein’s criminal activity.

Another “trump card in the sleeve” at the mask is money and a desire to participate in politics. As the American Alexander Filippenko notes,

In order to take revenge on Trump, Musk may well begin to sponsor various politicians, including those Republicans who do not belong to the Maga Trump (Make America Great AGain).

In addition, in his social networks, Musk already spoke out that he supported the creation of a third party in the United States.

“Yes, Musk is already talking about the third party, but it is very expensive and very difficult, although not unrealistic,” says Filippenko. - I would say that Elon Musk as a whole specializes in unreal projects. And Neuralink, and SpaceX, and some other plans, ideas and inventions seem just like that.

Risks for the mask

The skirmish of Trump and the mask began with the fact that the businessman criticized the “great beautiful law” of the president about tax benefits. In response to criticism, Trump threatened the former comrade with the truncation of the State Subsidium and a reduction in contracts, which have been received by different projects for many years. Narimer, only SpaceX, owned by a billionaire, has received state contracts in the amount of at least $ 20.9 billion over the past 18 years.

“The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars is to terminate the government subsidies and contracts of Ilon,” Trump wrote in his own social network Truth Social during the next round of mutual bothering.

However, in reality, Trump is unlikely to decide to break the contracts with SpaceX: the American space program is too much dependent on the development of the Mask company. The Pentagon also actively uses the technologies that supply the company's mask. For example, satellites Starlink.

So, at least in the short term, this conflict of two influential men is unlikely to affect the state contracts of SpaceX, Starlink and other Mask enterprises, the journalist and international journalist Bogdanovsky is convinced.

“The dependence of the mask and the state in the issue of supply is mutual,” the expert is sure. - So Trump is unlikely to cancel the contracts of the mask. But the authorities have many other methods of pressure - for example, state regulation.

A few days ago, the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon announced the option of a slightly more extravagant “punishment” for billionaire Trump. Bannon proposed to deprive the mask of American citizenship: the businessman was born and raised in South Africa.

“You should begin an official investigation of his immigration status, since I am firmly convinced that he is an illegal migrant and should be immediately deported from the country,” Bannon said in an interview with The New York Times.

The Americanist Alexander Filippenko considers such a threat unrealistic.

- It is difficult to imagine that the mask is subjected to deportation. I suppose that he has long received American citizenship. That is, in order to deport it, it will need to be deprived of citizenship. This will be a very large challenge for the administration and PR tragedy.

A more likely script is the state regulation of mask businesses, and not a complete breakdown of contracts or the deportation of an entrepreneur. According to Bogdanovsky, at the moment the US authorities are conducting more than 60 investigations against different Mask companies.

Filippenko also believes that the state regulation of Mask projects may be the first response of the Trump administration to the conflict with the businessman. In particular, restrictions can be introduced along the Ministry of Transport and affect Tesla cars, as well as Taxi robots, the development of which is now in the process.

- Without new permits, the launch of such a taxi is simply impossible, and this is the new interest of Ilona Mask.

“How the state power in relation to the mask will be applied and whether there will be no clarity yet,” Bogdanovsky notes. - But the mask will have to realize the fact that, in spite of any money and influence, he is only a private person and that his possibilities are absolutely incomparable with the state power.

The rest of the world

Experts have no consequences about the consequences of Trump’s conflict and mask in the international arena.

Filippenko notes that this quarrel first of all can somehow affect the use of Starlink satellites owned by Mask. In particular, these satellites are used in the war in Ukraine.

“Maybe Elon Musk will decide that he will support Ukraine [Starlinka] more than before, so to speak, in contrast to Donald Trump,” the expert argues.

The second consequence of the public quarrel may be due to how the Musk will continue to support different right and ultra -right forces in Europe.

- Not being a politician in the traditional sense, Musk still spoke in one way or another in support of various political movements in Europe. We saw this with the example of AFD, ”Filippenko recalls. - Therefore, now he can talk less about it, not talking about it at all, or maybe support not those whom he supported at the moment when he was a political associate of Trump.

Despite some popularity, a mask in Europe, especially among the right-wing voters, the EU still has leverage on a businessman, says international journalist Bogdanovsky. Basically, these are the same mechanisms that the United States has: different business regulation tools, in particular in the field of electric cars.

“The elite becomes more populist, and conflicts become more public and gestured, but this happens far not only in the USA,” Bogdanovsky summarizes. - Many EU countries experience both Trump and Mask a mixed sense of fear and disgust. Someone is probably gloomy that they quarreled. Most will take note. Most likely, there will be no official reaction from the EU. In general, the EU problem is not so much in how its perception of America changes, but that America at this stage does not care at all.