The very public and nasty feud between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump has garnered major reactions and elicited much fodder—and jokes—on television and social media timelines.
“The girls are fighting, aren’t they?” said U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in a now-viral reaction to Musk and Trump trading barbs online.
While Democrats say they are hardly surprised by the crash and burn of Trump’s bromance with Musk, they make clear nobody wins when the world’s most powerful man and the world’s richest man are feuding—because the lives of Black Americans and millions of others remain in jeopardy.
“I know it’s easy to focus on these two megalomaniacs with their superficial, vacuous relationship, but what’s important to remember is what actually hangs in the balance,” said Joel Payne, a longtime Democratic strategist.
“I think it is just another kind of indignity that voters who trusted Donald Trump to do better and to grow and voters who absolutely saw this coming,” he said, adding, “The indignity of having to watch the things that they care about, critical services, the type of support they need from government reduced to this type of food fight. I mean, it’s really embarrassing.”
As Trump raged against Musk on Truth Social, just miles away on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, Congress is working on legislation that stands to shave hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicaid, SNAP, and other critical services that Black Americans disproportionately rely on.
“I mean, you’re talking about health care for 16 million people,” Payne said of the cuts to Medicaid, a trade-off to pay for the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that experts say will overwhelmingly benefit wealthy Americans.
“Even though they are feuding right now, they still have the same interests to line the pockets of millionaires and billionaires,” said Reecie Colbert, a political analyst and host of “The Reecie Colbert Show” on Sirius XM. She told theGrio, “They still have the same interest in snatching health care away from millions of people, of snatching food security away from millions of people. These are two villains and two enemies of the advancement and citizenship of Black people in this country.”
Musk has slammed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” legislation as a “Debt Slavery Bill” because it would add more than $2 trillion to the national deficit over the next 10 years. The owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and X, formerly Twitter, has made it clear he wants Republicans to kill the bill. Others speculate Musk is also not happy with the bill not including tax credits for electric vehicles, which would impact his business.
But Payne says the “beef” between Trump and Musk (and some Republican lawmakers) is really that the bill doesn’t cut enough.
“There’s not enough that’s going back to the top 1%. The wealth transfer is not enough,” he said of Republicans.
While there are provisions within the Big Beautiful Bill that may be popular, like eliminating taxes on tips and establishing a savings account for newborn children, Democrats and advocates point out that much of the bill would do more harm to Black households than good.
The legislation cuts more than $300 billion in student loan spending, including Pell Grants, which Black Americans disproportionately rely on to pay for higher education. It also reduces or eliminates clean energy funding and tax credits that were signed into law by former President Joe Biden–some of which were tailored to address environmental racism that has plagued Black communities for decades.
Yemisi Egbewole, former chief of staff for the White House Press Secretary’s Office during the Biden administration, said the agenda of Trump and Republicans gives “little promise” of meaningful “economic opportunity” for Black communities. She told theGrio the administration is instead focused on attacking all things it considers to be diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI.
“We’re living in a time where the Secretary of Defense [Pete Hegseth] is talking about taking Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, all these names off of ships, things that don’t affect our day-to-day national security,” said Egbewole, referencing a report about Hegseth ordering the U.S. Navy to review and potentially rename several ships named after Black historic figures.
“They’re just targeting it because they can,” she told theGrio. “I think this administration is showing exactly what they think about African Americans, and I think Black people should listen.”
Egbewole said Democrats have an opportunity to use the Trump-Musk implosion and divide within the Republican Party to kill the Big Beautiful Bill. She says the consequences could not be more serious.
“Economic security is top of mind for every American right now; wages, housing, health care, student loans,” she explained. “These are beyond policy points now. They’re personal. People don’t think about building a future, building a family, or buying a home when they are struggling economically. We are stunting America’s growth.”
As for Black Americans, Payne recalls the 2016 election when Trump told Black voters, “What do you have to lose?” — a plea he flirted with again in the 2024 presidential campaign cycle.
“It’s an implicit critique of the status quo…the status quo deserves critique, but it was his appeal to populations of voters who are not his natural allies because they don’t see themselves represented in his vision of the world,” said Payne. Pointing to the threat against health care and funding for programs Black Americans heavily rely on for survival, Payne added, “I think we have an answer to that question. Now, this is what you have to lose.”
