Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie has weighed in on President Donald Trump’s new feud with his billionaire former ally, Elon Musk.
This week, the two men experienced a very bitter falling out. Musk, who infamously joined Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and quickly dubbed himself “first buddy,” became the head of the Department of Government Efficiency. The department was tasked with slashing the federal budget. However, Musk soon found himself ousted from the President’s inner circle after clashing with Trump over his proposed spending bill.
Addressing their online back-and-forth on Friday’s episode of the Today show, Guthrie quipped: “First of all, to just use TikTok language, it’s giving 7th-grade girl.”
Meet the Press anchor Kristen Welker wholeheartedly agreed, saying: “Savannah, you hit the nail on the head.”
While Trump and Musk initially appeared to be on good terms following the latter’s April exit from government work, things became rocky when the tech mogul openly criticized the tax and domestic policy bill, nicknamed the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” during a CBS News interview.
He later doubled down on his critiques on his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), labeling the bill “a disgusting abomination.” “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong,” Musk wrote Tuesday. “You know it.”
The president responded by lashing out at his former adviser while speaking from the White House on June 5, telling reporters: “I’m very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here… He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it.”
Trump and Musk have since continued trading blows from their respective social media sites — Truth Social and X — as their high-profile bromance came to an abrupt and extremely public end.
Guthrie’s comments come after Musk appeared to raise the stakes, claiming on X that Trump “is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
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He also credited himself with Trump’s second presidential win. “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” he declared.
Shorly after Musk’s explosive claims, Trump had posted to Truth Social: “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
Speaking to CNN on Friday, Trump said he is “not even thinking about Elon… The poor guy’s got a problem.” NBC News quotes White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as saying there are no plans for a call between the two.
