Trump threatens ‘very serious consequences’ if Musk backs Democrats

US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened “very serious consequences” against Elon Musk if the tech billionaire and former adviser were to fund any Democratic candidates, the latest escalation in rhetoric in the messy breakup between the two former allies.

Since their spectacular falling-out, Musk has floated the idea of launching a new political party and continued to criticise a massive tax and immigration bill that Mr Trump is urging congressional Republicans to pass.

In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, Mr Trump said Musk would “pay the consequences” if he were to start funding Democratic candidates to challenge Republicans who support that bill, but would not describe what those consequences would be.

“If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Mr Trump said in the phone interview, later repeating: “He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that.”

Mr Trump told the network that he assumed his relationship with Musk was over and also continued to insist, as he did in several interviews with media outlets Friday, that he was too busy to reach out to Musk.

“I gave him a lot of breaks, long before this happened. I gave him breaks in my first administration and saved his life in my first administration,” Mr Trump told NBC News, without elaborating on what those interventions were.

“I have no intention of speaking to him.”

Mr Trump also claimed he had not given any further thought to terminating government contracts with Starlink or SpaceX, two of Musk’s companies, an idea the president had first suggested on social media Thursday.

“I think it’s a very bad thing, because he’s very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the president,” Mr Trump told NBC News on Saturday.

Mr Trump ended his interview with the network by suggesting that Musk was “so depressed and so heartbroken,” though it’s unclear if he thought that was a result of their feud or the driving force behind Musk’s sudden public attacks on the Trump White House three days ago.

Little more than a week ago, Musk amicably left his formal role as a special government employee overseeing the U.S. DOGE Service. Mr Trump lavished praise on Musk, saying he was “really not leaving” and hinting that he would actually shuttle back and forth between his tech companies - Musk also owns Tesla and the social media site X - and advising the White House.

However, shortly after he departed, Musk began publicly criticizing Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill legislation that Musk highlighted would drastically increase the national debt.

The rift escalated rapidly. By Thursday, the two were engaged in a full-blown tit-for-tat on their respective social media platforms. After Mr Trump suggested the federal government terminate contracts with SpaceX, Musk said his space company would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft “immediately.”

Musk also appeared to support the idea that Mr Trump be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance and warned that Trump’s tariffs would “cause a recession in the second half of this year.”

On Saturday, Mr Trump also said it was the Justice Department’s decision, not his, to bring Kilmar Abrego García back to the United States and charge him with human smuggling.

The Supreme Court ordered Trump officials in April to facilitate Abrego García’s return from El Salvador, where he was deported in March in violation of a court order.

Mr Trump said he did not speak with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele about returning Abrego García to the United States. The president also bashed Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), who has criticized the Trump Administration for not affording Abrego García and others due process.

“He’s a loser. The guy’s a loser,” Mr Trump said.

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