There is no greater example than Musk’s relationship with now-President Donald Trump. Everyone knew the richest man in the world would fall out with the most powerful, but few predicted it would happen so quickly — just six months after the inauguration.
“He is prone to lash out,” admitted Faiz Siddiqui, author of “Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk,” to The Post. “He is insulated and can make his point.”
Regardless of how sharp the point may be, Musk can shed a friend and walk away unscathed.
“He has an army, the largest following on X [the social media platform], that will back him.”
Here then is a sampling of former friends, colleagues and loved ones who once embraced Musk, only to later feel the burn.
Google co-founder Larry Page and Elon Musk were so chummy Musk routinely crashed at Page’s home. Fortune included the pair in a story about “eight business leaders you didn’t know were BFFs.”
But things fell apart when Musk hired a top scientist away from Google in 2015. Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, paid Ilya Sutskever $1.9 million to head up its new lab.
According to “Musk,” by Walter Isaacson, the poaching ended their friendship. “Larry felt betrayed and was really mad at me,” Musk told Isaacson in the book. “He refused to hang out with me anymore.”
It’s hard to imagine the world’s richest man in a childish spat with an online gaming streamer. But that was the situation with Musk and Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt.
Like other professional gamers, Asmongold watched Musk playing “Path of Exile 2” on a livestream. Following common sentiment, he alleged Musk paid other people to play for him, which is called “boosting.”
Apparently insulted by the allegation, Musk unfollowed Asmongold and removed his blue checkmark from X. In response, Asmongold posted a YouTube video called “Elon Musk has Lost It.”
Musk went on to push out private direct messages between them. Forbes summed up the fallout by noting about Musk, “He may not really have time to beef with Twitch streamers … Yet, here we are.”
Justine Wilson was married to Musk from 2000 to 2008. She watched him become a billionaire and bore six children (one of whom died tragically at 10 weeks due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). She later described herself as a “starter wife.”
Musk went on to push out private direct messages between them. Forbes summed up the fallout by noting about Musk, “He may not really have time to beef with Twitch streamers … Yet, here we are.”
Musk, according to Wilson, told her, “If you were my employee, I would fire you.”
After eight years and three sessions of couple’s counseling, Musk filed for divorce. During two years of litigation – which Musk said cost him $4 million – she rallied for their house in Bel Air, 10 percent of his Tesla shares, 5 percent of his SpaceX shares, $6 million and a glacier blue Tesla Roadster.
But thanks to a prenup, Wilson said, “I had effectively sold away all my rights as a married person.” She wound up with far less than the billions won by other tech divorcees like Bill Gates’ ex Melinda French and Jeff Bezos’ firs wife, MacKenzie Scott.
While Forbes estimates Wilson’s wealth at $18 million, they also estimate she would have $17.3 billion had she received the settlement requested.
Originally name Zavier, Vivian Jenna Wilson was born male, to Musk and Justine, along with a twin sister, in 2004. Responding to Vivian’s transgender identity, Musk publicly maintained that his offspring was “not a girl” and described them as being “dead” to him.
Vivian went to a California court to change their name and distance themselves from their father. “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form,” Vivian stated in the filing.
After meeting Elon Musk socially in 2011, neuroscientist Philip Low, who had been a test subject for Stephen Hawking, became fast friends with the Silicon Valley mogul.