Trump-Musk relationship unravels amid taunts and threats

Tensions between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk escalated publicly on Thursday, as a dispute over Trump’s multitrillion-dollar bill led to allegations involving Jeffrey Epstein and threats of financial and electoral retaliation.

The Trump-Musk bromance "took off like one of SpaceX's rockets" a year ago, The Associated Press said. "It was supercharged and soared high. And then it blew up," News.Az reports citing foreign media.

Thursday's "spectacular flameout" started when Trump said Musk only opposed his "big, beautiful bill" because it hurt his former adviser's Tesla business. After that, the "speed of the fallout was breathtaking," The New York Times said, and "every bit as lowdown, vindictive, personal, petty, operatic, childish, consequential, messy and public as many had always expected it would be."

Musk, on X, accused the president of "ingratitude," saying without his hundreds of millions in donations, "Trump would have lost the election" and the House. Trump, responding on Truth Social, said the "easiest way to save money in our budget" would be to "terminate Elon's governmental subsidies and contracts." Musk then said it was "time to drop the really big bomb," that Trump "is in the Epstein files" and that's "the real reason they have not been made public." He followed that up by warning that Trump's tariffs "will cause a recession" and agreeing with a post saying Trump should be impeached.

News.Az