As insults have turned to threats, Trump has suggested he'd hit Musk where it could hurt most: His wallet. Musk's SpaceX has spent years positioning itself at the center of American civil and military spaceflight – a profitable relationship that has made the company's CEO incredibly wealthy.

The more significant surprise over the past decade has been the shift in Musk’s politics and his controversial rise to prominence in that sector, from his purchase and pivot of Twitter to X to his chainsaw-wielding antics at the head of the Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year.