WASHINGTON—This is exactly what President Trump and his advisers were trying to avoid. Just six days ago, senior Trump aides swallowed their irritation with Elon Musk and planned a chummy Oval Office send-off for him.

Trump had attempted to stay quiet over the bill – which is now treading water in the Senate – but finally broke Thursday during an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, saying Musk “never had a problem” with the bill “until right after he left.”

President Donald Trump’s relationship with former “First Buddy” Elon Musk has devolved from well-wishes to war of the roses on the heels of the Tesla billionaire’s blitzkrieg against the MAGA president.