Trump-Musk relationship implodes in taunts, threats

What happened

Simmering tensions between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk burst into the open Thursday as a dispute over Trump's multitrillion bill snowballed into accusations of involvement with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and threats of financial and electoral retribution.

Who said what

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." 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.

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"Underneath the drama is genuine political and financial risk for both billionaires," The Wall Street Journal said. When Trump has a "big, messy falling-out in public," it's usually with "someone who needs him" or fears him, the Times said, but Musk is the "rare person who has leverage over him — political and financial leverage and perhaps even some emotional leverage." Musk's companies, meanwhile, rely heavily on billions in federal contracts.

What next?

Tesla's stock fell 14.3% yesterday and Trump Media shares slid 8%, but by Thursday night, "signs of a truce" were emerging in the "increasingly bitter clash," Politico said. Musk posted "you're not wrong" to hedge fund manager Bill Ackman's X post pleading for "peace" because "we are much stronger together than apart," and White House aides, after "working to persuade" Trump to "temper his public criticism of Musk," scheduled a call today between the two feuding men "to broker a peace."