‘Who gets JD Vance?': Whole world laughing at Trump and Musk as wild feud erupts
It's the messy public break-up taking the internet by storm.
After a brief and unlikely bromance, Elon Musk and Donald Trump's relationship has hit rock bottom, with the US President and the world's richest man trading blows in a bitter social media feud on Thursday (US time).
Tensions broke out earlier in the day after Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he was 'very disappointed' in the South African-born billionaire, who has repeatedly criticised his 'big, beautiful' spending bill.
'Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore,' Mr Trump said.
Mr Musk, who wrapped up his time leading the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last week, swiftly hit back with a barrage of posts on social media, including one in which he claimed the Republican 'would have lost the election' without him.
'Such ingratitude,' he wrote.
As tensions escalated, Mr Trump took to Truth Social to take his own swipes. He claimed Mr Musk 'went crazy' and threatened to cut his government contracts – a major move which was met with swift retaliation from Mr Musk, who said his company SpaceX would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft.
Amid the heated back-and-forth, Mr Musk took a moment to 'drop the really big bomb' and claimed Mr Trump 'is in the Epstein files' – a reference to US government documents on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial for sex crimes.
The spat has drawn reaction from social media users around the world, public figures and Mr Musk's ex Ashley St. Clair, with whom he shared a nine-month-old son.
Here are the best reactions to the dramatic fallout.
hey @realDonaldTrump lmk if u need any breakup advice
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) June 5, 2025
Who gets JD Vance in the divorce
— PointlessHub (@HubPointless) June 5, 2025
dammit, now what am I gonna do with this? pic.twitter.com/zJCergppLR
— Rory Johnston (@Rory_Johnston) June 5, 2025
— Whale Psychiatrist â'¢ï¸� (@k_ovfefe2) June 5, 2025
Another child of this divorce pic.twitter.com/yzT0Eu1cAe
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) June 5, 2025
The funniest possible outcome is definitely Trump deporting him.
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) June 5, 2025
Who gets custody of Joe Rogan?
— Olivia Julianna 🇰🇸🦅🗳ï¸� (@0liviajulianna) June 5, 2025
pic.twitter.com/zHVP9o6TWx
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) June 5, 2025
Rest of the world right now: pic.twitter.com/21lEyad827
— Mando (@rektmando) June 5, 2025
Are men maybe too emotional for positions of leadership?
— Sam Stein (@samstein) June 5, 2025
My brother is not enjoying this pic.twitter.com/9ynFlwaOyp
— Zack Voell (@zackvoell) June 5, 2025
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She said she wasn't attracted to Weinstein and initially refused his first sexual advance, but eventually succumbed to him performing oral sex because Weinstein said he would not let her leave until she let him "do something." Although she felt confused and "defiled," she then agreed to consensual encounters with the then-married man, she said. Partly, she worried about the professional consequences of alienating a powerful producer who had just dangled the prospect of movie roles. She also recalled thinking that "if I was in a relationship, maybe it would feel different," and that "maybe he did like me." In March 2013, she travelled to New York with a friend. After they made plans for breakfast with Weinstein, he showed up early and got a room at Ms Mann's hotel, over her protests, she said. Weeping on the witness stand, she said she went upstairs with Weinstein to try to avoid a public argument and told him, "I don't want to do this," but he shoved the door shut as she tried to leave. After Weinstein demanded she undress and grabbed her arms, she said, she "just gave up." Ms Mann said he then had sex with her — after, she believes, injecting himself with an erection-promoting drug that she later found in the bathroom trash. Ms Mann described Weinstein grabbing, dragging, forcefully undressing and raping her in a Beverly Hills, California, hotel room around the beginning of 2014, after she told him she was dating someone else. After leaving he defence table Ms Mann aimed a finger at her eyes and then at him. It prompted lawyer Arthur Aidala to request a mistrial, also complaining she shouldn't have been asked about the LA rape as Weinstein wasn't charged with it. During questioning, Weinstein's lawyer Arthur Aidala noted she accepted party invitations, dinners and rides from Weinstein and underscored the fact that she continued to see the producer after he allegedly raped her. Mr Aidala also zeroed in on her testimony that she tried to reject Weinstein's first sexual advance but ultimately pretended to enjoy it. Ewa Sokola Ewa Sokola arrives to Harvey Weinstein's court case in New York, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. ( AP: Seth Wenig ) Kaja's Sokola sister Ewa Sokola met with Kaja and Weinstein the day of the alleged assault, she told jurors. Prosecutors have said it happened after Weinstein arranged for Ms Sokola to be an extra in the film The Nanny Diaries and met her visiting older sister, whom she was trying to impress. "She was proud of knowing him," her sister, cardiologist Dr Ewa Sokola, told jurors. She said the three of them met in a hotel lobby, chatted about Italian movies and the heavy-set Weinstein's heart health, and then he and the model left the table together. Kaja Sokola was tense when she returned about a half-hour later — "like somebody waiting for the result of an exam" or the Oscars — but didn't say anything about the alleged sexual assault, Dr Sokola told jurors. She said she was shocked to learn about the claim over a decade later, when she read about it in a magazine article. Christine Pressman Christine Pressman, a friend of Miriam Haley, testified she was told long ago about the sexual assault. "She had zero interest in dating him or sleeping with him," Ms Pressman said, describing Ms Haley as "distraught" when she later disclosed the alleged sexual assault. Ms Pressman said she advised against turning to police. "I said, 'Harvey Weinstein is the king of New York. He's extremely powerful. You are not. You're here on a tourist visa. Just let it go,'" the former model, musician and actor recalled. She teared up as she added that she now knows her guidance "was wrong." Under questioning from Ms Bonjean, Ms Pressman acknowledged that at some point before the alleged assault, she suggested Ms Haley date Weinstein. Ms Pressman later explained that she had been frustrated by her friend's taste in men — guys who were lanky, cerebral "and broke," as Ms Pressman put it. Elizabeth Entin Elizabeth Entin, pictured at the 2020 trial. ( AP: Craig Ruttle ) Elizabeth Entin, Ms Haley's former roommate, said a shaken Ms Haley told her that month that Weinstein had forcibly performed oral sex on her. Echoing her testimony at the first trial, Ms Entin said she suggested Haley call a lawyer, but her friend seemed disinclined. Elizabeth Perz Elizabeth Perz, an ex-aide for Weinstein, told the jury she kept a list of female "friends of Harvey" to invite to events and sometimes considered them a special category for guest lists. "A 'friend of Harvey' was a woman that he'd meet at events or parties or festivals or — somewhere," she said. The then-married Weinstein asked his assistants to invite these women to events, Ms Perz said. Jurors were shown a roster of well over a dozen names, which Ms Perz said was kept in the office at Weinstein's company. The names were broken down by geography, such as "LA Friends" or "Cannes/Etc/all invites." One "LA Friends" entry was Jessica Mann. Helga Samuelsen Helga Samuelsen shared a New York apartment with Kaja Sokola. Ms Samuelsen testified one evening the doorbell rang, Ms Sokola answered it and there was Weinstein. Ms Sokola previously said Weinstein had not spent time at their apartment. Ms Samuelsen recalled Weinstein and Ms Sokola went into a bedroom, closed the door and emerged about a half-hour later, when Ms Sokola saw Weinstein out. Ms Samuelsen said she never spoke to Ms Sokola about the visit. Having met Weinstein briefly in summer 2005, she later sought his help as she tried to launch a music career. He made some introductions and invited her to write a never-used movie score, Ms Samuelsen said, and she formed a New York-area cabaret act around 2019 with a woman close to him. Ms Samuelsen now works in insurance in her native Denmark. Talita Maia Talita Maia pictured at the 2020 trial. ( AP: Seth Wenig ) Talita Maia gave testimony via transcript read by court employees. Ms Maia and Ms Mann were roommates and friends in 2013 but later fell out. According to Ms Maia, Ms Mann never mentioned in those days that Weinstein had hurt her in any way. Both Ms Maia and another witness, Thomas Richards, met up with Ms Mann and Weinstein shortly after Ms Mann has said she was raped. Both witnesses testified that they saw nothing amiss. The two sides took very different tones in their closing arguments. Weinstein's lawyer, Arthur Aidala, veered into folksy jokes and theatricality — sometimes re-enacting witnesses' behaviour — as he contended that his client engaged in a "courting game," not crimes. Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg, as direct as Mr Aidala was discursive, urged jurors to focus on Weinstein's accusers and their days of gruelling testimony. "This was not a 'courting game,' as Mr Aidala wants you to believe. This was not a 'transaction,'" she told jurors. Mr Aidala argued everything that happened between the ex-producer and his accusers was a consensual, if "transactional," exchange of favours. The attorney accused prosecutors of "trying to police the bedroom" and zeroing in on the man seen as "the poster boy, the original sinner, for the #MeToo movement." Mr Aidala depicted the former studio boss as a self-made New Yorker, while painting Weinstein's accusers as troubled and canny "women with broken dreams" who plied him for movie opportunities and other perks, kept engaging with him for years and then turned on him to cash in on his #MeToo undoing. All three received compensation through legal processes separate from the criminal trial. Ms Blumberg countered that Weinstein interpreted a sexual "no" as a cue to "push a little bit more, and if they still say no, just take it anyway." She argued that his accusers stayed in friendly contact with Weinstein because they were trying to work in entertainment, and they feared their careers would be squashed if they crossed him. "He chose people who he thought would be the perfect victims, who he could rape and keep silent," the prosecutor said. "He underestimated them." Although Weinstein did not take the stand, he spoke out in an interview aired by FOX5 television on Friday as the jury considered six weeks of testimony. "But never illegal, never criminal, never anything." Weinstein pointed to comments from Mr Aidala, who suggested the three women who testified against him at trial "had four million reasons to testify, as in dollars." The jury is made of seven women and five men who began deliberating on Thursday. After two days they are yet to reach a verdict. One juror has been replaced with an alternate after they fell ill. Another juror asked to be removed because he felt his fellow jurors were treating a member of their panel in an "unfair and unjust" way, but the judge told him he had to keep deliberating. Judge Curtis Farber later denied a defence request for a mistrial, saying he believed the juror was simply expressing discomfort in the deliberation process, noting that he was the youngest on the 12-person panel. Deliberations will continue on Monday.
