President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off Elon Musk's government contracts as their fractious alliance quickly turns into open warfare, with Mr Trump hinting he intends to use US government resources to financially harm his fellow billionaire.
The row between the US president and the world's richest man has erupted on their social media pages after Mr Trump first raised the issue at a White House meeting with Germany's new chancellor.
The row comes less than a week after they appeared together at the White House, where Mr Trump thanked Mr Musk for his brief but turbulent time in the US government.
Mr Trump has largely kept a low profile while Mr Musk has been vocal in recent days on his social media account X about the president's tax and spending bill.
Still, Mr Trump responded with applause in the Oval Office on Thursday, expressing regret over the deteriorating relationship and saying he was “very disappointed in Musk.”
Mr Musk responded on social media in real time.
Mr Trump upped the ante when he took to his social media platform Truth Social to threaten to use the US government to damage Mr Musk's revenue from his internet company Starlink and space firm SpaceX.
“The easiest way to save billions of dollars in our budget is to end Elon’s government subsidies and contracts,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media account.
“I always wondered why Biden didn't do this!”
“It keeps getting better and better,” Mr Musk instantly responded in X.
“Come on, make my day.”
The deepening rift developed as quickly as their relationship had begun – fast, intense and very public.
It also took a toll on Mr Musk's finances long before Mr Trump's threats.
After Trump began talking about Musk, shares of his electric car company Tesla fell 9%, their last notable move since the election.
The stock doubled in the weeks after Trump's election, retraced and even surpassed that gain during Musk's tenure at the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), and then surged after he pledged in April to focus on Tesla and his other companies.
Mr Musk later made a particularly stinging remark to a president sensitive to his status with voters: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election.”
“What ungrateful behavior,” Mr Musk wrote in a subsequent post.
Politicians and their donors rarely agree.
But the scale of Mr Musk's support for Mr Trump, spending at least $250m (£184m) on his election campaign, and the level of latitude the president has given him to criticise and interfere in the government alongside Doge, are dwarfed only by the speed of their spat.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
