Rocket Man loses ground: are days of peak Musk over?

Donald Trump’s first buddy finds himself entangled in trade wars, political feuds and flailing tech ventures it might not be long before he falls back to Earth, writes Sean O’Grady

- Sean O’Grady

The wording of the statement issued by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was typically forthright. Responding to a Politico exclusive claiming that Donald Trump had told his inner circle and cabinet members that Elon Musk would be stepping back from his White House role in the coming weeks,

Leavitt took to X to brand the “scoop” as “garbage”, adding: “Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at Doge is complete.”

That’s what’s known in the trade as a “non-denial denial”. The decision on the “incredible work at Doge” could equally come tomorrow morning or at the conclusion of Trump’s putative third term in January 2033. It’s vague. There has been talk of a May departure, and it remains to be seen how Musk’s spat with Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro will play out.

He has called him a moron, “dumber than a sack of bricks” before apologising to some bricks. Musk’s comments about the US and Europe moving towards a zero-tariff situation may have also irked his boss, while his brother Kimbal has also weighed in, calling Trump’s tariffs a “permanent tax on the American consumer”, adding that the China-US standoff is “not a game that should be played by C-minus students like Peter Navarro”.

When asked about the Musk-Navarro feud in a briefing yesterday, Leavitt said: “Look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue.”