From allies to adversaries: Trump-Musk feud hits Georgia GOP

“It disturbs me to see them at odds, but I believe that President Trump is working for all Americans,” she said. “I’m praying they work out their differences — but if not, Trump is my president.”

Debbie Dooley, a former tea party organizer and longtime conservative activist, also made clear her loyalties are with Trump, because he’s “working hard to keep his campaign promises like no other president has.” Still, she mourned the unraveling of the alliance.

“It’s unfortunate because both men love America — and together, they can do great things,” she said.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a fierce Trump ally, pushed back on the notion that Musk’s cash infusion put the president over the top.

“I stood shoulder to shoulder with so many Americans across the country,” she said. “And it was not one rich man who got him elected.”

Musk spent about $275 million to help elect Trump last year and was rewarded with a post leading the administration’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency, part of the president’s effort to gut the federal bureaucracy.

But their swift falling out began earlier this week when Musk publicly denounced Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill, a massive tax-and-spending plan that would sharply increase the deficit, calling it a “disgusting abomination.”

By Thursday, their split had escalated into a full-blown feud, with threats from Trump to cancel government contracts with Musk’s companies and barbed exchanges over who deserved credit for the president’s 2024 victory.

For Josh Stanley, a west Georgia activist, the breakup was especially stinging. He said Musk’s pledge to tackle the deficit was a key reason he was enthusiastic about Trump’s return to power. On Friday, he said he was proudly “on Elon’s side.”

“I believe the national debt is the number one issue for the federal government,” he said. “That’s part of the reason I’m disheartened. That debt bubble will burst — and when it does, we’re sunk.”

Others crowding the convention hall were more optimistic. David Hamrick, a gun rights advocate, predicted the relationship would recover.

“It’s just two very powerful and influential leaders having differences in opinion,” he said with a shrug. “It happens all the time.”

Diane Jackson, who ran for a Smyrna-based House seat last year, chalked up the rift to outside meddling.

“It’s all a game of chess. We’ll see what really happens, but I think it’s really a Democratic distraction.”

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

Then there is Bannon, the keynote speaker at the party’s convention. A longtime Musk critic and architect of Trump’s MAGA movement, Bannon once labeled the billionaire a “truly evil person” and a symbol of elite excess.

As the feud intensified, Bannon urged Trump to block Musk’s companies from securing future federal contracts and even seek to deport him.

But at the gala Friday, he struck a more restrained tone, limiting his criticism of Musk largely to his opposition to the president’s signature legislation.

Musk, he said, shouldn’t be trying to “kill the bill.”

“All of you in the room, myself included, we have issues with the ‘big beautiful bill’ coming out of the House,” Bannon said of the Trump-backed tax-and-spending proposal. “We’ll figure it out. It’s not going to be perfect.”