The public blowout between Musk and President Trump is threatening the tech billionaire's businesses, some of which have billions of dollars' worth of federal contracts.
Musk's aerospace company SpaceX alone reportedly has at least $22 billion in federal contracts — which Trump had threatened to revoke at the peak of his feud with his former adviser.
"Trump goes after people, companies and organizations he doesn't like," said Peter Loge, a political science professor at George Washington University and former senior FDA adviser during the Obama administration.
"As a real estate developer, politician and president, he has used every tool at his disposal to punish people he thinks have wronged him," Loge added. "Unless Musk expresses contrition, Trump is likely to hurt him in every way he can think of. If Musk is contrite, he can be welcomed back into the Trump tent."
While the two could reconcile in the future, observers agree the dramatic turn of events leaves Musk's business empire vulnerable to Trump's wrath.
Trump, at one point during Thursday's back-and-forth, threatened to cut Musk's government contracts as he called his former adviser "crazy."
"The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Musk, in turn, said he would decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, which is responsible for ferrying astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station. He later backed off, after an X user urged him to "cool off and take a step back."
The public exchange underscored how Musk's business ventures could get caught in the crosshairs of any feud with the president, who is known to have a proclivity for retribution.
"If this turns into a hot war, certainly, the consequences for Musk's business relationship with the federal government could be in peril, or at least significantly complicated," said GOP strategist and Trump campaign alum Brian Seitchik.
Read more in a full report Saturday morning at TheHill.com
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