Elon Musk went off on X this week after President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary, and interim NASA head, Sean Duffy took a public swipe at SpaceX.
Duffy told CNBC on Monday that Musk’s company was falling “behind” on the administration’s timeline to get Americans back to the moon. He said the White House planned to open up the contract to other players in the space race. “We’re not going to wait for one company,” Duffy declared on air. “We’re going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese. Get back to the moon, set up a camp, a base.”
Elon Musk asking @SecDuffyNASA why is he gay? I am bewildered as to why Trump hasn’t nuked Musk yet when Musk will certainly fracture the @GOP in the upcoming midterm elections. It is so predictable. After Musk gets his comp approved Nov 6, game over for Trump. @EricTrump pic.twitter.com/p058tdVtBQ
— rugbylawyer (@Tesler914) October 21, 2025
After the interview, Duffy doubled down with a post on X. “We are in a race against China, so we need the best companies to operate at a speed that gets us to the Moon FIRST,” he wrote. He added that while SpaceX currently builds NASA’s HLS lunar lander, competition from Blue Origin and others was essential to “dominance in space.”
Musk did not take that lightly. The SpaceX founder fired back online, responding to Duffy’s post with a sarcastic “Also, one question,” alongside a meme of a TV host asking, “Why are you gay?” He then turned his fire on Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, writing: “Blue Origin has never delivered a payload to orbit, let alone the Moon.”
By Tuesday, Musk’s trolling had escalated. He started calling the cabinet member “Sean Dummy” and accused him of “trying to kill NASA.” Musk raged, “The person responsible for America’s space program can’t have a 2-digit IQ.”
The billionaire then launched a poll mocking Duffy’s qualifications. “Should someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America’s space program?” Musk asked. The poll’s top option — “Noo, he need moar brainz!” — led with 66.5% of over 100,000 votes, while “Yezz, chimps skillz rūl!” trailed at 33.5%.
The clash is the latest round in their long-running feud. The two first butted heads when Musk was leading the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Trump.
Earlier this year, Duffy told The New York Post the tension started when Musk pushed to downsize government roles. “We are not going to fire air traffic controllers,” Duffy said at the time. “Safety-critical positions are not going to be fired. We can do things more efficiently, but we are not going to fire air controllers.”
Despite their earlier truce, it seems any peace between Musk and Duffy has officially launched itself — straight into orbit.
