Trump-Musk feud explodes in threats, accusations - National & International News - THU 5Jun2025 -

Trump – Musk feud explodes in threats, accusations.

Trump issues new travel ban on 12 countries.

Israel supporting ISIS-linked gangs of aid looters in Gaza.

Trump – Musk feud explodes in threats, accusations

Since before Trump took office this year, his alliance with Elon Musk has been a central feature of his new administration. Donations from Musk, one of the world’s richest men, during Trump’s 2024 presidential bid bought him an incredible amount of access and influence in the administration.

Despite months of criticisms of Musk, and the actions of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Trump has largely stood by Musk. However, many wondered how long the bromance between two wealthy, powerful and ego-driven men could really last. It now appears we have the answer.

Cracks appear

Last week, Musk’s tenure as a special government employee ended with a White House press conference in which Trump and Musk appeared to still be on good terms. However, earlier this week Musk took aim at the budget bill, which Trump has referred to as his “one big beautiful bill”. Calling the bill a “disgusting abomination”, Musk criticized the bill’s price tag and said that the proposed spending undermined the government cost-cutting efforts of DOGE.

Musk has from time to time criticized the members and policies of Trump’s administration, this criticism appears to have been a bridge too far for Trump. Today, Trump responded that he was “very disappointed” in Musk’s criticism of this bill. He told reporters in the Oval Office “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore”.

The floodgates open on social media

This has now sparked an open feud which has played out over The course of the day on the social media platforms owned by Trump (TruthSocial) and Musk (Twitter/X). The beef between them has quickly escalated with insults, threats, and accusations.

After Trump’s Oval Office comments, Musk tweeted “without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate”. In a reply, he added, “Such ingratitude”.

On TruthSocial, Trump fired back, “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”. Trump was referring to the budget bill’s repeal of Biden era subsidies for purchases of American-made electric vehicles- which would have massively benefited Musk’s EV company Tesla.

Shortly thereafter, Trump followed up with, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Government Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

Musk: Epstein files haven’t been released because Trump is in them

In reply to Trump’s comment about Musk “wearing thin”, Musk wrote on Twitter “Such an obvious lie. So sad”. Responding to Trump’s threat to cancel Musk’s government contracts, Musk tweeted that his company SpaceX would “Begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately”. NASA relies on SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsules to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station and back to Earth.

He also wrote: “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”. In a follow-up he wrote, “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out”.

He then followed up with several posts resurrecting images and clips of Trump with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is known to have trafficked underage girls for years. Trump’s past friendship with Epstein is no secret, but nothing has come out publicly to tie Trump to Epstein’s criminal activities. Musk did not elaborate on whether there was any such evidence against Trump in the still unreleased FBI files on Epstein.

In reply to a tweet from another user suggesting that Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance, Musk replied “Yes”.

As a result of today’s war of words between Musk and Trump, the value of both SpaceX and Tesla stocks dropped significantly.

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon says Trump should deport Musk.

Trump issues new travel ban on 12 countries

President Trump is revisiting a controversial policy from his first term by imposing blanket bans on citizens from 12 countries from entering the United States. The 12 countries are: Afghanistan, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Seven other countries will also face partial bans, meaning their entry into the United States is not banned but heavily restricted. Those countries are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

Trump said he targeted these particular countries because of “terrorism-related and public safety risks”. He also accused the countries of “insufficient vetting” and said that the rate of citizens of those countries overstaying their visas in the United States was “unacceptable”. Some of the states also regularly decline to accept the return of their nationals from the United States, according to the proclamation issued by Trump.

This proclamation included several exceptions, many of which were not included in Trump’s previous blanket bans. The exemptions apply to:

Lawful permanent US residents and dual nationals
Recipients of Afghan special immigrant visas (awarded to Afghan nationals who worked alongside US troops during the 20-year long occupation of Afghanistan).
Adoptees
Diplomatic staff
Iran’s “ethnic and religious minorities”
Dual nationals traveling with passports from unrestricted countries
Members of athletic teams traveling to the US for the 2028 Olympics (in Los Angeles) and the 2026 World cup, which the US will be hosting jointly with Canada and Mexico.

The announcement was met with dismay in many countries. There are between 10,000 and 15,000 Afghans residing in Pakistan as they await the processing of their visas. Many of them are applying through the special immigrant visa program after working with US forces and organizations in Afghanistan. Others are applying as refugees, many of whom are women who have found their rights severely curtailed since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan following the US withdrawal. For now, these applicants remain in limbo with their future uncertain.

Israeli media confirms Israel supporting ISIS-linked gangs of aid looters in Gaza

Former Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is currently a member of the Knesset, admitted today that Israel has been providing weapons to an ISIS-linked salafi-jihadist group in Gaza. Lieberman told a public radio station that Israel is providing what he called a “clan” of “lawless criminals” with light weapons and assault rifles. “Ultimately, these weapons will be turned against us,” Lieberman said.

Amazingly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not deny this accusation, instead saying that “Israel is working to defeat Hamas in various ways, on the recommendation of all heads of the security establishment”.

Yassir Abu Shabab, a Bedouin with links to ISIS, operates a gang of about 100 armed men in an area of Rafa which is directly controlled by the Israel Defense Forces. As far back as November 2024 and as recently as May 2025, it has been reported that Abu Shabab’s gang has been responsible for looting aid convoys and robbing food warehouses and distribution sites within the Gaza Strip, all apparently under the auspices of the IDF. The gang then sells the food on to starving civilians at extortionate prices.

Once a gangster…

In recent weeks, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (a US-led group of mercenaries) has taken over all aid distribution in Gaza, recently resulting in massacres which have killed over 100 people. Since the arrival of the GHF, Abu Shabab’s gang have been even more visible. The gang has essentially been given control of several aid routes and have been put in charge of distributing aid in some areas of Gaza. They can be seen in videos sporting new uniforms and Kalashnikovs, all presumably provided by Israel.

Earlier this week, the labor union representing truck drivers in Gaza called a strike after several of its truckers were shot dead by gunmen. It’s not clear who the gunman were, but the vice president of the union said that “it wouldn’t surprise me if [Abu Shabab] was involved in these attacks. He’s a gangster”.

NGOs say Hamas not looting aid

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of looting aid, using this as a justification for their weeks-long total blockade of Gaza, which pushed many there to the brink of famine. However, no credible international organization that has worked in Gaza agrees with this assessment. Even Cindy McCain, widow of Sen. John McCain and head of the World Food Program, has said that there is no evidence that Hamas has stolen aid. In fact, Israel has repeatedly targeted policemen (working for Gaza’s Hama-run government) who were trying to protect the aid.

Last month, Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in occupied Palestine, said: “Israel has probably claimed that the UN and NGO aide is being diverted by Hamas. But this doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces”. Whittall later confirmed he was referring to the Abu Shabab gang.

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