Trump-Musk goes nuclear: President and Tesla mogul trade Epstein barbs and billion-dollar threats as friendship implodes

The high profile bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk finally imploded on Thursday, with the president claiming the world’s richest man had gone “CRAZY” and threatening to terminate his multi-billion dollar government contracts.

“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!“ the president wrote.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

Over the course of a few hours, two of the world’s most powerful men traded blows from their respective social media platforms – Truth Social and X – as their partnership came to an abrupt and extremely public end.

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The spat culminated in a bombshell claim from Musk, that the president was “in the Epstein files.” “That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk wrote, signing off: “Have a good day, DJT!”

Ten minutes later, he added: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

Days after leaving his role as Special Advisor to the Trump administration, as a figurehead of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk lashed out at the president’s “big beautiful bill,” calling it “pork-filled” and an “abomination.” Trump had previously taken the high road on the issue.

Earlier on Thursday, during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the president told reporters he was “very disappointed,” with his former “first buddy.” Trump was asked about his former adviser’s recent comments against the spending bill working its way through Congress.

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“Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than anyone... and he only developed a problem when he found out I would cut the EV (electric vehicle) mandate... And it really is unfair,” he replied.

Trump also claimed that during the presidential election he could have won the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania without Musk’s help.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk shot back on X minutes later. “Such ingratitude,” he added in a separate post.

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The broadsides continued throughout Thursday, with Musk resharing a post calling Trump’s tariffs “super stupid,” then adding in his own prediction that, “The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year.”

For its part, the White House took a more diplomatic tone through official channels.

“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”

The barbs came after Musk’s departure as a special adviser to the government, where he served as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Since leaving the role late last month he has continued to criticize Trump's "big, beautiful bill" as a "disgusting abomination.”

“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong,” he wrote on X.

From there Musk continued to ramp up his attacks on the legislation, using the poster from Quentin Tarantino’s bloody classic Kill Bill to urge his immense following to voice their displeasure at the proposal. “Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL,” Musk posted, sharing a picture of the famous film, starring Uma Thurman.

The abrupt 180 on his stance and the comments reportedly caught White House advisors “off guard” and left the president "confused.”

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Later on Thursday, after a bombardment of X posts from Musk, Trump responded again, defending the bill. “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn’t pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that. I didn’t create this mess, I’m just here to FIX IT. This puts our Country on a Path of Greatness. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Musk's opposition stems from the bill's cut to an electric vehicle tax credit, Trump claims, and also has reported roots in Trump’s decision to scrap Musk ally Jared Isaacman's NASA nomination. The tech billionaire said that his decision to step back from his work with DOGE was, in part, so that he could refocus his efforts on his EV company.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Musk's opinion didn’t change the President's stance on the bill, while Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and other fiscal conservatives have supported Musk's concerns about the bill adding trillions to the national debt.

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According to Axios, the main reason why Musk came out so forcefully against the measure is that he was “frustrated at failing to win favorable treatment in the bill and the administration at large.”

“Elon was butthurt,” a source told the outlet.

The falling out between two of the world’s most powerful men may still be less surprising than the rapid and intense relationship that preceded it.

Way back in 2016, Musk publicly stated that Trump was not fit to run for the nation’s highest office, telling CNBC at the time: “He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.” He did, however, join an economic advisory council, alongside Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, the next month following Trump’s first election win.

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But in 2017 Musk tendered his resignation from his positions on presidential advisory board, declaring. “Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world,” he wrote on X, then-Twitter, and not yet under his ownership.

Five years later, the pair sparred once again after Musk’s claims that he would purchase the social media platform were written off as “bulls***” by Trump. Such a slight was seemingly forgotten in November 2022, when Musk did take control of the platform and reinstated the president’s account.

Musk, who previously voiced support for the Democratic party, stayed politically ambivalent until July 2024 and the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The tech boss endorsed Trump as a candidate seconds after he was rushed off stage by secret service agents, and it was later reported that he said Musk would commit around $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump super PAC called America PAC.

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He went on to appear at multiple rallies for Trump, both with and without the president, and reportedly sank over $250 million of his own money into supporting Trump and his allies.

On November 4, Musk spent the evening with Trump and other MAGA die-hards at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to watch the vote returns and the sweeping Republican victory.

Shortly after, Trump announced that Musk and his former presidential candidate rival Vivek Ramaswamy would lead a new "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE – a tongue-in-cheek reference to an internet meme favored by Musk), which will operate as an independent advisory group to cut government spending and streamline bureaucracy.

The fight between Trump and Musk may only just be beginning, with the Tesla billionaire teasing he might continue in politics, just not with the GOP.

In yet another X post on Thursday afternoon, Musk polled his followers, asking, “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”

The tech founder also boosted a post arguing Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance, and said he would decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spaceships, a linchpin of the U.S. space program.

Former Trump aide Stephen Bannon, a longtime critic of Musk, is urging the administration to go after the SpaceX billionaire with a series of investigations.

“They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status, because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately,” Bannon told The New York Times.

Musk worked illegally while on a student visa in the United States in the mid-1990s, according to reporting fromThe Washington Post, though Musk insists he remained and worked legally in the country, first on a student visa then a specialized worker visa.

Bannon also called on Trump to investigate Musk’s alleged drug use and reported attempt to get a Pentagon briefing on top-secret war scenarios for a hypothetical conflict with China.

Musk has said the reports about the planned briefing were “false” and “propaganda.”

If there is a coming Musk versus the GOP war, some in the Republican Party are already throwing in their lot with Trump.

"Nobody elected Elon Musk, and a whole lot of people don't even like him, to be honest with you, even on both sides," Representative Jeff Van Drew told Axios.

Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, meanwhile, told reporters, addressing Musk directly, “You’ve lost your damn mind.”