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Late-night hosts from Kimmel to Colbert, Meyers, Fallon and the Daily Show look into how and why the seemingly tight relationship between "two narcissistic megalomaniacs" like Musk and Trump could possibly fall apart.
In many ways, it was perhaps inevitable, or as Stephen Colbert put it, "Yesterday in Washington, the thinkable happened."
That's right, it's the end of one of the strangest political pairings of all time as Elon Musk is out of the White House, and immediately critical of President Donald Trump's most MAGA initiative of all time, his "Big Beautiful Bill."
And with all that drama comes late-night television digging in and mining for jokes.
"We've got a big, beautiful brouhaha titled Trump Versus Musk that is trouble in Scamelot, folks," said Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, keeping the wordplay going by calling Musk the former "DOGEbag in Chief."
According to Kimmel's analysis, Musk was ultimately "butthurt" -- a term actually used to describe his feelings -- because he was booted from the White House, despite wanting to stay on beyond the 130-day period legally allowed for a special position like the one he held.
"That's how you know they hate him," Seth Meyers weighed in from Late Night. "They actually followed a rule. 'Our hands are tied, Elon. A rule's a rule.'"
"Washington's a lot like high school," Michael Kosta added on The Daily Show. "When a friendship ends, it explodes. And right now, we are drenched in the fallout."
And he agreed with the strange reason Musk was reportedly given. "Trump is literally defying court orders as we speak. But with this, he's like, sorry Elon, rules are rules," Kosta marveled. "Now I understand why he's mad. It doesn't matter how rich you are, getting fired sucks."
Even so, he still couldn't believe that this was the straw that broke Musk's loyalty.
"Let's review all that Elon Musk has gained from his $288 million investment into this presidency," he said. "$100 million in NASA contracts. He got to freeze 40 investigations against his companies, fired anybody who could regulate or tax him, and he got the president of the United States to plug his car company -- and Trump almost pronounced its name correctly!"
In his "A Closer Look" segment, Meyers broke down the downward trajectory of Musk and Trump's relationship, showing how "Elon's been resigned to his fate and we've just been watching him go through the five stages of grief in real time."
He then broke it down with clips of Musk, calling him jumping up and down on stage "denial," then him roaring into a mic on stage representing "anger," and then he reached bargaining, "in this case, literally bargaining with Trump to buy a Tesla from him."
From there, Meyers said we saw depression, with the interview where Musk stammered that he was running his other businesses with "great difficulty" while at the White House.
And now? "We're watching him slowly realize in real time that he might have f--ked up," Meyers explained. "Then you shouldn't have made yourself the administrations' mascot. This is like Tony the Tiger doing a tell-all interview with 60 Minutes and saying, 'I don't know where everybody got the idea that Frosted Flakes are so great. I mean, they're fine.'"
And all of this led to Musk's most shocking turn, when he lashed out against Trump's "Big Beautiful Bull" calling it a "disgusting abomination" in a tweet calling for Congress to reject the massive bill that would add trillions to the deficit, throw millions off of their health care coverage, and more provisions even House members who voted "Yes" have since said they knew nothing about.
After Marjorie Taylor-Greene publicly admitted she hadn't read one section preventing states from regulating AI for a decade, Stephen Colbert asked on The Late Show, "Isn't your job knowing what's in there? That's like a paramedic saying, 'I wouldn't have cracked open his chest if it was all gonna be gooey in there. I thought it was like a pinata filled with candy. Where's the nougat?'"
He then looked at other House members who've admitted not knowing what was in the bill that passed by just one vote. "Does anyone in Congress read anything before they vote on it?" he asked. "Are we being governed by Apple user agreements? 'Click I agree. I just wanna download Baby Shark, come on! Hold on, wait a second. Did I just defund Medicare? Whatever. Baby shark doo-doo!'
As for Musk's surprising blast just days after leaving his position in the Trump administration, Colbert likened it to an awakening ... of sorts. "Apparently, the ketamine has worn off. That's gotta be a helluva hangover," he said. "'Oh my god, I spent $300 million dollars to elect who? I have how many children? That can't be their names!'"
Musk, we should note, has denied using drugs. "I tried *prescription* ketamine a few years ago and said so on X, so this not even news," he said following a New York Times report.
And then there are those Democrats, like minority leader Chuck Schumer, who are saying they surprisingly agree with Musk. "Of course, the Democrats are jumping on this like he's on their side when it comes to all the terrible affects this bill will have on poor and middle class people, not to mention trillions of dollars it would add on to our national debt," said Kimmel.
"But the real truth is Musk is mad about the things that would affect him," he continued. "like cutting the electric vehicle tax credit, not using his company Starling for air traffic control, and that they pulled his friend's nomination for head of NASA."
To put it bluntly, according to Kimmel, "What Elon Musk cares about is Elon Musk." And while he's been very quiet about all of it -- almost too quiet, according to Kimmel -- insiders at the White House have described Trump's reaction as "furious."
"'I hear he is furious,' is the safest bet anyone can make when describing Donald Trump's reaction to criticism," quipped Meyers.
"Trump said he hasn't felt this betrayed since McDonald's started putting apple slices in Happy Meals," joked Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. "Trump and Elon's relationship blew up faster than a SpaceX rocket."
Kimmel said of this unexpected quiet from the president that it's "very unlike him to show restraint, so this must be serious. I mean, between Elon and Melania, Trump now has two foreigners who won't sleep with him."
"Right now Americans are watching like, 'Guy, guys, both of your social media companies stink, okay?" added Fallon.
But Colbert found himself deep in contemplation about this perhaps expected fallout between the world's richest man and the president so early in Trump's second term.
"I'm starting to worry that two narcissistic megalomaniacs with a total inability to see value in other humans might have a hard time making friends," he said.
