Bromance over: Musk says Trump should be impeached in social media brawl

Washington: Tensions between Donald Trump and his former “first buddy” Elon Musk have erupted into open warfare: the US president says Musk has a version of “Trump derangement syndrome”, and Musk has sensationally claimed, without evidence, that Trump is named in the Jeffrey Epstein files and he said the president should be impeached.

As the falling out intensified, playing out on social media, Trump for the first time said he had asked Musk to leave his government post and he said the government should terminate contracts with and subsidies for Musk’s companies.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump speak in the White House on March 14.Credit: AFP

“Elon was ‘wearing thin’, I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Musk responded via a post on X: “Such an obvious lie. So sad.”

He later said: “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Musk has a history of making or amplifying false claims and allegations. He offered no evidence to support his claim about the unreleased Justice Department files, the subject of conspiracy theories, which the far-right has been pressuring the White House to release. The White House has been contacted for comment.

It is no secret that Trump was an associate of Epstein before the pair had a falling out. The New York financier died by suicide in 2019 while incarcerated to face charges of sex trafficking. Epstein had been convicted of procuring an underage prostitute after pleading guilty in 2008.

Donald and Melania Trump with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in 2002.Credit: Getty

Musk’s company Tesla lost $US150 billion ($230 billion) in market value as the spat played out. Soon after the market closed, Musk was asked on X if he thought Trump should be impeached, to which he replied, “Yes”.

Musk then threatened to stop the use of his Space Exploration Technologies Dragon spacecraft, which ferries cargo and people to the International Space Station for the US.

But as the night wore on in the US, and social media users began calling for someone to take Musk’s phone, the world’s richest man agreed there needed to be a cooling-off period between himself and Trump, after an X user with just 200 followers wrote in a reply to Musk: “This is a shame this back and forth. You are both better than this. Cool off and take a step back for a couple days.”

“Good advice,” Musk responded. “Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”

In a separate reply to billionaire Bill Ackman, an ally of both Trump and Musk who said they should “make peace for the benefit of our great country”, Musk responded: “You’re not wrong.”

The friendship between the world’s most powerful man and its richest has crumbled swiftly since Musk officially left his White House post last week and proceeded to unleash a campaign against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which extends Trump’s first-term tax cuts and raises the US debt ceiling by trillions.

While predicted by some from the outset, the breakdown in the relationship is significant because of the Tesla chief’s continued reach and influence and his clear desire to tank Trump’s top domestic priority.

“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday (Friday AEST).

“He was here for a long time. You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval [Office] desk ... He said wonderful things about me. He’s worn the hat, ‘Trump was right about everything’. And I am right about the great big beautiful bill.”

Trump said he was surprised by Musk’s barrage of criticism, but he said the Tesla boss was upset because the bill cut a Biden-era electric vehicle incentive that was a boon for his business.

Bromance over: Elon Musk and Donald Trump in March.Credit: AP

“All of a sudden, he had a problem, and he only developed a problem when he found out we were going to have to cut the EV mandate,” Trump said.

“I can understand that, but he knew every aspect of this bill; he knew it better than almost anybody, and he never had a problem until right after he left.

“He hasn’t said bad [things] about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. But I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”

Trump went on to say Musk might be suffering withdrawal symptoms from the prestige and power of being in the White House and close to the president.

“I think he got out and all of a sudden he wasn’t in this beautiful Oval Office. He’s got nice offices too, but there’s something about this one,” Trump said.

“He’s not the first. People leave my administration and they love us. And then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it, and some of them actually become hostile.

“I don’t know what it is, it’s sort of ‘Trump derangement syndrome’. They leave, and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour’s gone, the whole world is different, and they become hostile.”

Trump also suggested Musk was upset because the administration had withdrawn its support for Jared Isaacman, a fintech billionaire and former Democratic donor, to become the head of space agency NASA.

Elon Musk, pictured in the White House last week, has been a vocal critic of the Republicans’ spending bill.Credit: Getty Images

‘Without me, Trump would have lost’

Musk was reacting to Trump’s remarks in real time on his social media platform X. In response to the president saying Musk knew the One Big Beautiful Bill Act better than anyone, Musk posted: “False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it.”

Musk spent nearly $US300 million campaigning for Trump and Republican candidates at last year’s election, either directly or through his political action groups.

On Friday (AEST) he said: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election. Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate ... Such ingratitude.”

Since formally departing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency with a friendly Oval Office farewell, Musk has been raging against the budget bill, saying it increases the deficit and is fiscally irresponsible.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would add $US2.4 trillion to the deficit, its $US3.7 trillion in tax cuts offset by $US1.3 trillion in spending reductions.

The bill, Trump’s key domestic policy priority, must be passed by both houses of Congress before he can sign it. It passed the House of Representatives by a single vote, 215-214, and though the Republicans have a majority in the Senate, its passage is not guaranteed.

Musk has this week urged his 220 million followers on X to lobby their senators to “kill the bill”, and said any members of Congress who voted for it should be turfed out of office at next year’s midterm elections.

As the fighting devolved, Trump suggested the US government should cancel billions of dollars worth of contracts with and subsidies for Musk’s companies, Tesla and SpaceX.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

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