They’re the Washington couple at the center of power in the Trump administration. They’re also straddling opposing sides of an explosive breakup between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.

Musk and Trump, ostensibly political allies over cuts to federal spending, publicly clashed on June 5 in a series of exchanges across social media and in comments to reporters. The origin of the dispute is the impact Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill has on U.S. public debt.

It remains to be seen whether President Donald Trump and Elon Musk can patch things up after their ugly break-up this week – as many around them are hoping.

The president tried to give his billionaire benefactor a dignified exit. It didn’t work.

Musk is not about to overtake Trump himself as the dominant figure in the party, to be clear. But the jilted former “special government employee” is uniquely suited to become a chaos agent who could terrorize the GOP — potentially wreaking havoc on Trump’s legislative agenda and the party’s midterm election plans.