The Rift Between Elon Musk And The President Is Hurting His Favorite Cryptocurrency

Dogecoin plummeted as its most famous supporter disagreed with Donald Trump over the budget bill. Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that Elon Musk has praised and created memes about on social media for many years, has seen its price plummet this week as Musk and President Donald Trump exchanged barbs over the Republican party's tax and spending bill, marking the first public rift in their friendship. The price of Dogecoin on Friday dropped 6% in 24 hours and the meme token has decreased 12% over the past week. The decline last weekend coincided with the moment Musk officially stepped down from his role as "special government employee" of the Office of Government Efficiency. Losses accelerated on Thursday as Musk and Trump posted about each other on their social media platforms. Cryptocurrency traded around $0.18 on Friday.

The plummet of Dogecoin began on Tuesday when Musk called the tax bill a "disgusting abomination" and posted "let's get rid of the bill" on X. The conflict escalated on Thursday after Trump told reporters that he was "very disappointed" with Musk's response to the tax bill, and expressed his disappointment with the Tesla CEO on Truth Social. "Elon is 'exhausted', I asked him to leave, I rescinded his electric car mandate, which forced people to buy electric cars that no one else wanted ( and he has known for months that I would do this!), and he went CRAZY!", Trump wrote on the social media platform on Thursday evening. "I don't mind if Elon turns his back on me, but he should have done it months ago," he added in another post. People hoped that Musk and Trump would mend their rift on Thursday night, but on Friday morning, a senior White House official told NBC that Trump was not interested in a call with Musk.