Source: International Financial News
The relationship between US President Trump and the world's richest man Musk is breaking down at an alarming rate, with verbal abuse escalating on their respective social media.
The two just stood together in the Oval Office last week to declare their enduring friendship, but on Thursday they ridiculed and insulted each other in real time. The sadness, ingratitude and disappointment that the two initially showed quickly turned into mutual threats.
The rift between the two has continued to widen since Musk publicly opposed Trump's "Big and Beautiful" bill on Tuesday. Musk called the bill a "disgusting, ugly move" that would destroy the US finances. On Thursday afternoon Eastern Time, Musk posted on his X platform that Trump would never win back the White House without his help.
Trump called the billionaire "crazy" and threatened to cancel his company's federal contracts. Musk fought back by retiring the vital Dragon spacecraft that supports the International Space Station. Tesla's stock price plummeted.
As a front-row spectator, Gulu Hui has sorted out the timeline of their breakup.
10:37 a.m. Eastern Time
Musk kicked off his "X" campaign on Thursday by retweeting a "report" from the Christian news satire website The Babylon Bee. The headline is Congress warns that failure to pass spending bill could delay nation's destruction
11:20 a.m. EST
The billionaire took a direct swipe at the president, retweeting a 2013 Trump tweet criticizing Republicans for raising the debt ceiling. "That makes a lot of sense," Musk said.
11:46 AM EST
Musk retweeted another message from Trump’s past, this one from 2012, saying that no member of Congress should be re-elected if the U.S. budget is not balanced.
Around noon, Trump began responding to Musk’s criticism. “Elon is mad because we accepted the electric vehicle mandate, which, you know, is a huge amount of money for electric vehicles,” he said. "They're making it hard for the electric car industry and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidies. And, Elon knew this from the beginning."
He went on to say that Musk understood the inner workings of the bill. He said he and Musk had a good relationship - but that relationship may be over.
"I'm very disappointed in Elon, and I've helped Elon a lot."
12:11 PM ET
Musk paused his criticism and praised the president's decision to cut funding for California's high-speed rail, calling it a smart move.
But eight minutes later, Musk seemed to respond immediately to Trump's statement about the EV mandate: "Whatever." The Tesla CEO said he agreed to keep the EV subsidy cuts in the bill, but pointed out that oil and gas subsidies were not affected (which is "very unfair!!"). He also criticized the large amount of "political baggage" in the bill.
12:25 PM EST
Then the posts kept coming. Musk said he had never seen the bill.
12:46 PM EST
Musk replied to X user Autism Capital touting his role in the election, saying that without him, Trump would have lost and the Democrats would have controlled the House. He then added: "So ungrateful."
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Musk retweeted a post by an X-user named Wall Street Mav, who expressed hope that the dispute would not damage the billionaire's relationship with Trump.
Musk then showed a video of Trump touting Tesla in front of the White House. "Remember this? ” Musk said, pointing at the president.
2:37 p.m. ET
Trump joined the debate on his "Truth Social" platform. He said he asked the billionaire to leave and that Musk was "crazy."
The president then issued a huge threat to the world's richest man's business. He said the easiest way to save money would be to cut government contracts for Musk's company. According to Bloomberg Government data, SpaceX and Tesla have earned a total of $22.5 billion from federal unclassified contracts since fiscal 2000.
2:48 PM EST
Musk responded to Trump's post: "This is a lie. How sad. ”
He then retweeted a tweet suggesting that the termination of the government contract would lead to the dismantling of the International Space Station, and added a smiley face emoji. "Come on, make my day..." he said.
3:10 p.m. EST
Musk said "it's time to drop a real bombshell," suggesting that Trump's refusal to release documents related to disgraced New York financier Jeffrey Epstein was because the president himself was among them.
4:09 p.m. ET
Musk then threatened to retire SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, which is responsible for transporting cargo and personnel to the International Space Station for the United States.
As the argument continued into the afternoon, Tesla's stock price plummeted as investors panicked about the Tesla X platform.
Ross Gerber of Gerber Kawasaki Inc. urged someone to take Musk's phone away. By the close of trading, Tesla's stock price had fallen 14%, the biggest drop since March.
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