Donald Trump-Elon Musk blow-up: How it unfolded

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A timeline in quotes of the public meltdown of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s relationship over several astonishing hours on Thursday.

“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore. I was surprised,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The US president was responding to comments made by Musk two days earlier in which Musk had called his “big, beautiful bill” on tax and spending a “disgusting abomination”.

‘Fired back’

Responding on X to Donald Trump’s comments on Thursday, Musk fired back at 12:19 local time:

“ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill… Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.”

In the Oval Office, Trump continued: “I’m very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here… All of a sudden, he had a problem.”

To this, South Africa-born Musk responded: “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!” (12:25)

And then in a fresh post 21 minutes later: “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.”

Just over an hour later, at 13:57, Musk carried on, with a post that he pinned to the top of his timeline: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”

Donald Trump fired back on Truth Social under an hour later, as the spat got increasingly bitter.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” (14:37)

US media have put the value of the contracts at $18 billion.

‘Really big bomb’

At 15:10 Musk referred to US government documents on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial for sex crimes.

“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!”

“I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.” (Trump, 16:06).

“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately” (Musk, 16:09).

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is currently the only US spacecraft certified to carry crew to the International Space Station under a contract worth more than $4.9 billion.

Later in the day, Musk appeared to walk back his earlier comment on this subject, replying to a user on X: “OK, we won’t decommission Dragon,” though his tone was unclear.