Elon Musk’s feud with Sam Altman has sparked conflict in Trump World

Elon Musk, already the world’s richest man, has secured himself an unelected position at the right hand of the US president, complete with office space in the West Wing… and he just might throw out for a petty dispute. After the announcement of the Trump administration of the $500 billion Artificial intelligence infrastructure project “Stargate”.Musk took to X to trash the inclusion of OpenAI – a move that reported pissed off some members of Trump’s staff.

According to Politico, White House staffers think Musk overreached by publicly accusing OpenAI of not having the money needed to hold up its end of the bargain for a $100 billion investment in the Stargate initiative.

A Trump ally told Politico that “It’s clear that he abused the closeness of the president” in his attack on Altman — who quickly turned from “they don’t have the money” to presenting Altman as a flip -spineless flopper who overlooked Trump. during his first term, but he is sitting now. And, you know what? Right hit. Musk could be a pot calling the kettle black, given him leave the first Trump administration on a position of principle that apparently no longer holds, but Altman is also a worm. Sometimes you just need to know one.

Unfortunately for Trumpworld, they don’t seem to have a mechanism to stop Musk from doing things like this, even when it’s at the expense of the administration’s accomplishments. A Trump ally told Politico: “The problem is the president has no leverage over him and Elon doesn’t give a damn.”

Trump himself seemed to meet the incident, telling the press that it does not bother him that Musk criticized the project because “I hate one of the people in the agreement.” But around him, it seems patience for Musk’s antics might be wearing thin. Even Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, avoided directly invoking Musk during a Fox News interview that “the American people should take President Trump and those CEOs’ word for it,” regarding their investments in Stargate.

Musk is something of a unique problem for Trumpworld — a guy who arguably has as much, if not more, reach than the president himself, and who controls the levers of the same platform that Trump once had. dictates his policy directly. Between the pettiness and nonstop tweet bombings that can control media cycles, it’s a bit like having to deal with another Trump — if that other Trump was a lot richer and a lot worse than a poster.

Trump might not have a ton of leverage over Musk at the moment, as he probably still feels as though he owes him some loyalty for the massive amount of money Musk has spent boosting Trump’s campaign. But to suggest that he has none could mean that Trumpworld is subject to his hand. Musk’s empire is built on it government subsidies and federal contracts. It wouldn’t be too hard to cause some pain if they really wanted to. If Musk continues to overplay his hand, we will see how strong this partnership is.