Trump threatens Musk with "serious consequences" if he donates to Democrats

preCharge News POLITICS — President Trump threatened Elon Musk with “serious consequences” should he decide to fund Democrats in upcoming elections, the latest in the ongoing public spat between the world’s richest man and the world’s arguably most powerful one.

Mr. Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker in a phone interview on Saturday that he has no desire to rebuild his relationship with Musk after the billionaire criticized the budget bill passed by House lawmakers last month. When asked by Welker if his relationship with him was over, the president said, “I would assume so, yeah.”

“I’m too busy doing other things,” Trump continued. “You know, I won an election in a landslide. I gave him a lot of breaks, long before this happened, I gave him breaks in my first administration, and saved his life in my first administration, I have no intention of speaking to him.”

The president also issued a warning amid chatter that Musk could back Democratic lawmakers and candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.

“If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC, though he declined to share what those consequences would be. Musk’s businesses have many lucrative federal contracts.

The relationship between Mr. Trump and Musk broke down publicly last week, with the president threatening to cancel Musk’s lucrative government contracts and Musk claiming that Mr. Trump could not have won the presidency without him.

Musk, the world’s richest person, had spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to back Mr. Trump and other Republican candidates, preCharge News previously reported. He had posted several jabs against the president on X over the past week, including saying that Mr. Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance.

Vance says Musk’s attacks were a “huge mistake”

Vance expressed his support for Mr. Trump, saying Musk was making a “huge mistake” going after Mr. Trump in a storm of bitter and inflammatory social media posts after a falling out between the two men.

But the vice president, in an interview released Friday after the very public blow-up between the world’s richest man and arguably the world’s most powerful, also tried to downplay Musk’s blistering attacks as an “emotional guy” who got frustrated.

Musk attacked Mr. Trump in a torrent of social media posts, first criticizing the president’s spending package and then targeting him with more direct attacks. Mr. Trump then portrayed Musk as disgruntled and “CRAZY” and threatened to cut the government contracts held by Musk’s businesses. Trump ally Steve Bannon called for an investigation into Musk’s immigration status and alleged drug use.

During an interview with comedian Theo Von, Vance said he hopes that “eventually Elon comes back into the fold,” but said it might not be “possible now because he’s gone so nuclear.” The interview was taped on Thursday as Musk’s posts were unfurling on X, the social media network the billionaire owns.

“Look, it happens to everybody,” Vance said in the interview. “I’ve flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours.”

The vice president told Von that as Musk for days was calling on social media for Congress to kill Mr. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the president was “getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon, but I think has been very restrained because the president doesn’t think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk.”

“I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine,” he added.

Vance’s comments come as other Republicans in recent days have urged the two men to mend fences. Just weeks ago, Mr. Trump and Musk were close allies, spending significant time together while the billionaire served as a special advisor to the president and led the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE.

Vance called Musk an “incredible entrepreneur,” and said that DOGE, which sought to cut government spending and laid off or pushed out thousands of workers, was “really good.”