Dogecoin Has Been Tumbling as Its Most Famous Backer Spars with Donald Trump over the Budget Bill

Dogecoin fell on Friday as the crypto's most famous backer, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, saw his role in helping to broker a deal between the White House and Department of Government Efficiency come to an end.

Musk's departure from the role, which began in February and was focused on aiding in negotiations for a potential agreement to keep the government funded and avert a shutdown, culminated last Friday.

The billionaire CEO's efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and the two sides failed to reach an accord before the deadline. Consequently, a government shutdown went into effect on Thursday.

However, the crypto community was focused on another unfolding drama: the spat between Musk and President Donald Trump over the Republican-led Congress' tax and spending bill.

The spat began on Tuesday, when Musk called the bill a “disgusting abomination” and said “kill the bill” on X, formerly Twitter.

The conflict escalated on Thursday after Trump expressed his disappointment with Musk's response to the bill and voiced his frustration with the Tesla CEO on Truth Social.

“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!,” Trump said on the social media platform Thursday night.

“I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,” he added in a separate post.

A senior administration official later told reporters that Trump wasn't interested in a call with Musk.

Hope grew for the two figures to repair the rift Thursday evening, when an administration official said the president was open to a phone call with Musk to discuss the government shutdown and the implications of the crypto exchange Binance being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, on Friday morning, a senior White House official told NBC that Trump wasn's interested in a call with Musk.

The two figures previously met at Camp David in April to discuss a potential agreement that would have kept the government funded and averted a shutdown.