Donald Trump’s former “fixer” predicts the president will turn on his richest ally—and he’ll come for Elon Musk’s billions.
Michael Cohen, who spent years as Trump’s personal attorney and confidant, told an MSNBC panel Sunday he had long anticipated that the Trump-Musk “bromance was going to come to an end.”
“I’m going to say Trump will ultimately go after Elon’s money next, because it bothers him that he is the richest man in the world,” Cohen said on The Weekend: Primetime. “Yes, he used him for his money. Now he’s going to go and he’s going to figure out how Elon, with his companies, took advantage of the United States of America.”
Cohen suggested Trump could use the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—which Musk spearheaded until last week—to target the government subsidies that helped build the Tesla founder’s fortune, specifically the electric vehicle tax credit.
“They’re going to turn around, use DOGE to go, ‘right, government efficiency, fraud, waste and abuse. How is it that he got $7,000 as a credit for every Tesla vehicle that was sold? That’s where his billions were made. Why should the United States pay for electric vehicles? Pay your own car if that’s what you want.’ So they’re going to claw it back,” Cohen said.
“He’s going to do to Elon Musk, my prediction, what Mohammed bin Salman did to the other members of the royal family,” he added, referring to the Saudi Arabian ruler’s 2017 crackdown on wealthy relatives.
The White House did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Cohen’s prediction comes amid growing signs of fracture between Trump and Musk, who last week formally ended his time working with the administration at the helm of DOGE.
The break followed a stretch in which Musk–a top donor who was allegedly taking drugs on the campaign trail–reportedly clashed with Trump aides and was viewed increasingly as a loose cannon within Trumpworld.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to multiple federal crimes, including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. His conviction stemmed in part from orchestrating hush money payments during the 2016 election to silence women who alleged affairs with Trump. He served just over a year behind bars before being released to home confinement in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns.
