The public feud that unfolded last night between Donald Trump and Elon Musk closely resembles a dispute between two children in the playground. For the first term, they were inseparable. Donald invited Elon to play in his castle with all his classmates, and together they ruled the yard. But after a while, Donald decided he didn’t want Elon to stay. Last week, he asked him to leave the castle and hang out with other people for a while.

Elon sulked all weekend. When he came back, he told the whole school how stupid Donald and his friends were. He also claimed the only reason Donald got into the castle instead of that older kid in the first place was because of him. Before long, they were both hurling nasty insults and accusing one another of being naughty. Elon agreed with one pupil who said Donald should be kicked out of his castle. Unfortunately, the two participants in this argument are grown men. One is the leader of the free world, and the other is the world’s richest man. They wrote their insults on separate social media platforms that they own. And one of the statements made amid the war of words alleged that the President of the United States was covering up his links to a convicted paedophile and sexual offender.

Here’s a blow-by-blow account of how the bromance between two titans of American politics and popular culture unfolded. The Trump-Musk relationship at its height was unprecedented in Washington – a sitting president granting a billionaire tech CEO access and influence inside the White House and throughout his government. Musk spent nearly $300 million backing Trump’s presidential campaign and other Republicans last year, and was made a special adviser once Trump returned to the Oval Office. For months, the tech mogul used social media platform X to amplify Trump’s messages while attacking the bureaucracy and federal spending through his self-styled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) . Now, not only has the tech giant left the Trump White House – he became its harshest and perhaps most consequential critic overnight

The public feud was seemingly initiated by Musk just days after he departed DOGE, with the X CEO taking aim at the GOP’s ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ – a tax and spend bill tabled by the Republicans that will also increase the government’s debt ceiling. The controversial bill was passed by the House of Representatives last month and is now being scrutinised in the Senate. On Tuesday, Musk posted on his social media platform that the bill was an ‘abomination’ and went on to urge Senators to ‘kill the bill’ on Wednesday. ‘This spending bill contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history! It is the Debt Slavery Bill,’ he wrote. ‘Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.’

Musk also declared that the planned additional spending and the debt ceiling hike included in the bill ‘more than defeats all the cost savings achieved by the DOGE team’. The blatant attack on the bill raised eyebrows given Musk’s deep connections with the Republican party and personal friendship with Trump. Yet, when the US President met privately with White House officials on Wednesday, there was little to suggest that a public spat was in the offing with Musk, whose financial backing and support on social media were instrumental in sealing his second term in the Oval Office. Two White House officials familiar with the matter told a Reuters reporter that Trump expressed confusion and frustration in the meeting about Musk’s attacks on his sweeping tax and spending bill. But he held back, the officials said, because he wanted to preserve Musk’s political and financial support ahead of the midterm elections. By Thursday afternoon, however, Trump’s mood had shifted. He told his team it was time to take the gloves off – and so began a public squabble that caught the world’s attention.

Sitting next to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters he was ‘very disappointed’ in his former adviser’s criticism of the bill. ‘I’m very disappointed with Elon. I’ve helped him a lot. He knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it,’ he said. ‘All of a sudden he had a problem & he only developed the problem when he found out we’re going to cut EV mandate,’ Trump claimed, in reference to a phasing out of tax credits for purchases of electric vehicles. Musk quickly hit back on social media. ‘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!’ he said.

Trump went on to say during his meeting with Merz: ‘Musk hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I´m sure that will be next.’ He was quickly proven right. Musk vented his anger directly at Trump, saying his tariffs ‘will cause a recession in the second half of this year’ and accusing him of lying. He also said it was ‘very unfair’ that the legislation would eliminate tax incentives for electric vehicles. The back-and-forth devolved from there.

Trump posted again on Truth Social, writing: ‘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!’ Musk immediately retorted on X: ‘Such an obvious lie. So sad.’ Within minutes, he went on to say that it might be time to create a new political party and shared a poll to his followers asking for their opinion. With each post, the spat became yet more virulent – until Musk dropped a new allegation which could one day prove to be the catalyst leading to the downfall of one – if not both – participants. ‘Time to drop the really big bomb : (Donald Trump) is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT! ‘Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out!’

Trump’s commitment to greater transparency in the run up to November’s election had many Americans hoping that he would shed light on the deplorable activities of sexual offender and disgraced financier Epstein – and the litany of rich and famous figures thought to have been involved with him . Epstein died by [self-murder] in 2019 in a Manhattan jail – though there is widespread speculation he may have been murdered. Before he was elected, Trump said he would have ‘no problem’ releasing files related to Epstein, but almost six months into his presidency, no more information has been revealed. Following the wild allegation, Musk endorsed a post on X from Ian Miles Cheong, a right-wing activist and prominent supporter of the tech mogul, calling for Trump’s impeachment. Trump retorted on Truth Social by threatening to cut off Elon’s companies from various lucrative government contracts. ‘The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s government subsidies and contracts,’ Trump posted.

Musk promptly fired back, with the SpaceX chief saying he would begin ‘decommissioning’ his company’s Dragon spacecraft in response. The spacecraft is vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station . By Friday morning, it appeared the spat was over. In a statement, the White House played down the war of words, calling it an ‘unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.’ Musk late last night appeared to extend an olive branch on social media, replying: ‘You’re not wrong’ to a post from hedge fund manager Bill Ackman that called on the pair to reconcile and urged: ‘We’re much stronger together than apart’.

Trump’s aides are reportedly looking to organise a call between the president and his former ‘First Buddy’ later today to smooth over the fallout. Musk also walked back his statement about decommissioning the Dragon rocket. But the consequences of the spat were immediate. Tesla’s stock price plunged 14% on Thursday – wiping hundreds of billions of dollars off Musk’s EV company’s valuation. It also drove uncertainty among Trump’s allies in Congress, who are working to pass the monumental spending package that Democrats and a small number of vocal Republicans oppose. The breakup could go on to drastically reshape both men’s futures.

For Trump, losing Musk’s backing threatens his growing influence among tech donors, social media audiences and younger male voters – key groups that may now be harder to reach. It could also prove a damaging blow to Republican fundraising efforts ahead of next year’s midterm elections. For Musk, however, the stakes are potentially even higher. The spat risks intensified scrutiny of his business practices that could jeopardise government contracts and invite regulatory probes, which might seriously threaten his companies’ profits. A termination of government contracts, including for launching rockets and for the use of the Starlink satellite service, would prove devastating.