The short-lived political alliance between the US leader and the world’s richest man has exploded in an extraordinary public spat. Donald Trump threatened to cut Elon Musk’s government contracts and suggested he would use federal powers to financially damage the billionaire as tensions erupted overnight. Musk responded by alleging that the US president hadn’t released the full records of those linked to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein because he himself was implicated in the documents.
The confrontation, which comes almost five months after the Tesla owner was appointed head of the US Department of Government and Efficiency (DOGE), was sparked by Musk’s criticism of Trump’s spending bill. Less than a week after stepping back from his DOGE role, Musk called the president’s “Big Beautiful Bill” a “disgusting abomination”, provoking a war of words on social media that appears to mark the end of the pair’s short-lived bromance.
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As well as claiming that Trump was “in the Epstein files”, Musk shared a post on X calling for his impeachment and renewed his criticism of the US leader’s sweeping tariffs, predicting a recession this year.
Trump, who was scheduled to discuss bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz when the argument erupted on Thursday, took to his own social media platform Truth Social to issue a scathing response.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” he wrote.
Musk, whose electric vehicle company has plunged in profits by nearly 50% since his involvement in US politics, donated around £184 million ($250 million) to Trump’s election campaign after jumping onboard following an onstage assassination attempt at a rally last July.
Among a slew of other insults levelled at the president on X, the multi-billionaire said: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election.”
