--- title: "Trump’s Staff Have Had It With Elon Musk’s Insubordination" description: "Spilled Tea Party More cracks are showing in the testy alliance between president Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Behind the scenes, some of Trump's staffers are incensed at Musk for breaking ranks and blasting the president's $500 billion AI deal, Politico reports. Speaking anonymously, one White House official said that the self-styled \"First Buddy\" jumped the gun by criticizing the infrastructure project. In fact, the whole camp may be beginning to sour on their attention-seeking billionaire talisman; a Republican close the administration said Trump's staff — implying this is the prevailing sentiment among the president's confidantes — is \"furious\" at […]" date: "2025-01-24" modified: "2025-01-24" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-staff-furious-elon-musk" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "the digest" --- # Trump’s Staff Have Had It With Elon Musk’s Insubordination ![Behind the scenes, some of Trump's staffers are incensed at Musk for breaking rank and blasting the president's $500 billion AI deal.]() *\Image: Christopher Furlong via Getty / Futurism\* ## Spilled Tea Party More cracks are showing in the testy alliance between president Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Behind the scenes, some of Trump's staffers are incensed at Musk for breaking rank and [blasting]() the president's $500 billion AI deal, [*Politico* reports](). Speaking anonymously, one White House official said that the self-styled "First Buddy" jumped the gun by criticizing the infrastructure project. In fact, the whole camp may be beginning to sour on their attention-seeking billionaire talisman; a Republican close to the administration told the outlet that Trump's staff — implying this is the prevailing sentiment among the president's confidantes — is "furious" at Musk for his tirade against the deal just after it was announced. "It's clear he has abused the proximity to the president," a Trump ally told *Politico*. "The problem is the president doesn't have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks." ## What About Me? Trump's exorbitant Stargate project plans to raise half a trillion dollars of private capital toward building AI data centers across the United States over the next four years. It's being funded by some big names in tech, including OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank — not to mention the [Emirati investment firm MGX](). Musk's own AI startup, xAI, was notably left out of Stargate, while his arch nemesis, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, practically [gets to be its poster child](). It appears that these perceived slights led him to undermining the deal almost immediately. "They don't actually have the money," Musk accused the project's backers of [in a tweet]() replying to OpenAI's announcement. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured," he added. "I have that on good authority." Altman was forced to defend his honor. "I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put \[the US\] first," he replied to Musk. ## Billionaire Brawl Presenting a unified front is key to any administration that doesn't want to ooze total incompetence. As such, for someone so close to the president to trash one of its biggest initiatives out the gate is kind of extraordinary. It sounds like Musk has plenty of his own ideas in mind regarding AI. "We are now working with him to make sense of his ideas — ideas are innovative. Execution not so much," the White House official told *Politico*, adding that staffers are still hearing out Musk about his concerns over the tech. Publicly, Trump himself seems mostly [unbothered by the catty infighting](), merely commenting that, like Elon, he harbors "certain hatreds of people too." Still, if the president's staff have resentments towards Musk, those simmering tensions could hit a boiling point in the future. In any case, it shouldn't be surprising that Musk, a guy who tweets deranged conspiracy theories all day, isn't a master of statecraft — or of simply knowing when to shut his trap. To be fair, Trump isn't known for his demure demeaner**,** either. But that's his whole brand, and there's only room for so many motormouths in one administration. **More on Musk:** *[Elon Musk's Grok AI Analyzes His Nazi Salute]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()