Elon Musk: I went 'too far' with Donald Trump posts
Once viewed as close friends and confidantes, the 'bromance' between Elon Musk and Donald Trump recently disintegrated in the midst of a public fallout and war of words on social media.
Musk, who was granted special US government employee status to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, recently saw his role at the White House come to an abrupt end.
As part of his 'special' role at the helm of DOGE, he oversaw major cuts to the federal workforce as Trump administration's sought to reduce federal spending. However, the relationship between the South Africa-born tech billionaire and US leader fell apart after Musk raised concerns about his sweeping tax and spending cuts package.
As Musk went on the offensive, he urged Americans to call their representatives in Washington to 'kill the bill', alleging it would 'cause a recession in the second half of the year'.
In another particularly evocative claim, he also alleged – without evidence – that Trump appears in unreleased government files linked to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In response Trump said Musk had 'lost his mind' and threatened to cancel his government contracts which have an estimated value of $38bn (R674,965bn), while the US leader told NBC in an interview: 'I think it's a very bad thing, because he's very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the president.'
Musk appeared to have deleted many of his posts over the weekend, and on Wednesday he then commented: 'I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far.'
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