Tensions between President Donald Trump and his billionaire sidekick Elon Musk continue to rise as Musk called the administration’s plans to drastically slash NASA’s budget “troubling.”
The SpaceX CEO responded to an article by technology news outlet Ars Technica that outlined the agency’s budget cuts Friday.
To explain his position, he highlighted the close ties between his company SpaceX and NASA, the former being one of the government agency’s biggest contractors.
“Troubling. I am very much in favor of science, but unfortunately cannot participate in NASA budget discussions, due to SpaceX being a major contractor to NASA,” he wrote on X.
The proposal, he seemingly admitted, would mean a huge hit to one of his biggest businesses—just the latest hit to his empire in recent weeks.
Tesla, Musk’s electric vehicle company, has suffered a steep decline in its stock price over the past few months, as the billionaire’s popularity craters and Trump’s controversial tariff plans threaten to raise the price of the company’s inputs.
As for NASA, the Trump administration plans to cut the agency in half, reducing NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) budget from $7.3 billion to $3.9 billion and stripping the astrophysics and planetary science departments of billions of dollars in funding.
Trump’s nominee to lead NASA, billionaire Jared Isaacman, has also previously invested in SpaceX. But during his Senate confirmation last week, he explicitly distanced himself from the CEO.
Musk’s comments Friday mark yet another split between him and the Trump administration over policy.
The billionaire is still fresh off a very public hissy fight about tariffs with Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro.
The name-calling began last weekend and carried on into the week. Navarro, one of the architects of the president’s controversial tariffs, kicked it all off by slighting Musk, who has publicly come out against levies on foreign goods.
Navarro called him a “car assembler” rather than a “car manufacturer”—adding that Musk “wants the cheap foreign parts.”
The Tesla CEO quickly fired back, calling Navarro “dumber than a sack of bricks” and “Peter Retarrdo” on separate occasions.
According to The Guardian, Musk also attempted to convince Trump to ease up on his tariffs.
And with reports that Musk might soon be stepping down from his position at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the relationship between the billionaire and the president seems to be on thin ice.
Yet the administration has avoided acknowledging the recent rift. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt brushed off the Musk-Navarro feud Tuesday, insisting that “boys will be boys.”
Trump also continued to praise Musk’s work with DOGE during Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, saying: “Your people are fantastic. Hopefully they will stay around for the long haul, we’d like to keep as many as we can.”
According to a NASA spokesperson, the agency has “begun the deliberative process” after reviewing the 2026 budget proposal, said Politico.
They declined to comment on Musk’s recent remarks and further details about the budget.