Impeachment, Epstein and bitter acrimony: Trump and Musk joust in astonishing social media duel
Elon Musk called for Donald Trump's impeachment and mocked his connections to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as the US president threatened to cancel federal contracts and tax subsidies for Musk's companies, in an extraordinary social media feud that erupted between the former allies on Thursday.
The deterioration of their once close relationship into bitter acrimony came over the course of several remarkable hours during which the president and the world's richest person hurled deeply personal insults over matters significant and insignificant.
The direct shots at Trump were the latest twist in the public showdown over a Republican spending bill that Musk had criticized. Trump and Musk had been careful not to hit each other directly, but on Thursday the pair discarded restraint as the feud escalated on their respective social media platforms.
In the most churlish moment of the astonishing saga, Musk said on X the reason the Trump administration had not released the files into Epstein was because they implicated the president. He later quote-tweeted a post calling for Trump to be removed and said Trump's tariffs would cause a recession.
'Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!' Musk wrote, after Trump threatened to cut subsidies for Musk's companies as it would save 'billions'.
Related: Trump says he is 'very disappointed' in Elon Musk after attacks on tax bill
It was a bizarre drama that served to underscore the degree to which Trump and Musk's relationship has been one of mutual convenience, despite the White House claiming for months that they were simply ideologically aligned.
It also caused the rightwing writer Ashley St Clair, who gave birth to Musk's 14th known child and sued Musk for child support, to weigh in. 'Let me know if u need any breakup advice,' she posted on X, tagging Trump.
Shares in Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company, fell almost 15% on Thursday afternoon with the decline timed to when Trump's remarks began. Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, is not publicly traded, but competitors to SpaceX rose on the news.
For weeks, Musk has complained about the budget bill, and used the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimating the bill would add $2.4tn to the deficit over the next decade as an opening to condemn the legislation as a 'disgusting abomination'.
On Thursday, Trump appeared to finally have had enough of Musk's complaints. Speaking in the Oval Office as the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, looked on in bemusement, Trump mocked Musk's recent black eye and questioned why he didn't cover it up.
'You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk. Even with a black eye. I said, do you want a little makeup? He said, no, I don't think so. Which is interesting,' Trump said. 'Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will any more.'
Trump then ratcheted up his barbs against Musk, accusing him of turning against the bill solely out of self-interest, as the bill did not benefit Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company. Trump also pulled the nomination of Musk's preferred candidate to lead Nasa.
'I'm very disappointed with Elon,' Trump said. 'He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut the EV mandate.'
Musk then went on the warpath.
Within minutes of Trump's comments appearing in a clip on X, where Musk was responding in real time, Musk accused the president of lying about the bill, and accused Trump of being ungrateful for the millions he spent to get him elected.
'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk said in a post on X. He added: 'Such ingratitude.'
Musk taking credit for Trump's election win initially threatened to be the touchpoint for their relationship, given Trump had made a point to say that Musk's contributions had no effect on him winning the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
But then Trump posted on Truth Social that he had fired Musk from his role as a special adviser because he was 'wearing thin' at the White House, and Musk responded: 'Such an obvious lie. So sad.'
Related: Elon Musk calls Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax bill a 'disgusting abomination'
It was less than a half an hour later that Musk fired off his Epstein tweet, in effect accusing him of being part of an alleged child sexual abuse ring linked to Epstein, using a dog whistle for the Maga movement to try to set them against the president.
In doing so, Musk ignored his own connections to Epstein. In 2014, like Trump, Musk was photographed at a party with Ghislaine Maxwell, a former Epstein girlfriend who was convicted in 2021 on charges that she helped the financier's sex-trafficking activities.
The public feud comes after a remarkable partnership that lasted longer than many Democrats on Capitol Hill and in Trump's orbit predicted.
Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Trump's re-election campaign through his specially created America Pac, which shouldered a large portion of Trump's door-knocking campaign, although the actual impact of that ground-game effort is unclear.
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