Trump says he will ‘take a look’ at Musk’s government contracts amid feud over tax bill

US President Donald Trump on Friday (Jun 6) said that he plans to “take a look” at billionaire Elon Musk’s government contracts following their public war of words a day earlier.

As the US president and the world’s richest man engaged in a spat over social media, Trump warned SpaceX CEO that the “easiest way” to save billions in the budget was to “terminate” Musk’s government subsidies and contracts.

When asked by a reporter on Air Force One whether he planned to go ahead with his threat to cut Musk’s government subsidies, Trump said he did not rule it out.

“We’ll take a look at everything. It’s a lot of money. It’s a lot of subsidy. So we’ll take a look at that — only if it’s fair for him and for the country ... but it has to be fair,” he said.

Trump said that he was too busy to spend any time thinking about Musk.

“Honestly, I’ve been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran, working on so many things, I’m not thinking about Elon. I just wish him well.”

Musk announces decommissioning of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft

Following Trump's threat, Musk announced on Thursday (Jun 5) that SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft.

“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk wrote on X.

However, he later retracted his statement saying, “Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is currently the only US spacecraft that is certified for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station under a contract worth over $4.9 billion. The gumdrop-shaped capsule flies atop a Falcon 9 rocket and splashes down in the ocean. Its variant, Cargo Dragon, delivers supplies to the ISS for astronauts.

Crew Dragon’s certification in 2020 ended the reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets to carry astronauts to space after the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.

Meanwhile, as the rift between Trump and Musk grows wider, Tesla shares have also plummeted more than 15 per cent on Thursday, recording a loss of over $100 billion in market capitalisation.