THE richest man in the world going toe-to-toe with the most powerful man on the planet . . .  what could possibly go wrong?

And has the most outlandish politician in American history finally met his match?

From the moment the uniquely minded Elon Musk threw his support behind New York’s real estate mogul Donald J. Trump for a White House return, it was anticipated that these two colossal egos would eventually clash.

Word is that their conflict extends beyond our world, though more on that later — as last night Washington buzzed with talk that Musk’s efforts to establish a rapport with Kai Trump, the 18-year-old aspiring golf star and granddaughter of the President, significantly contributed to their explosive disagreement.

‘Bankrupting America is not OK – kill the bill’

Indeed, these influential figures have certainly parted ways, exchanging public barbs on their preferred social media platforms — the same tech arenas that have been essential to their rise and might ultimately contribute to their downfall.

Asked if they could reconcile yesterday, Trump slammed Musk as “the man who has lost his mind”.

In the end, the most famous bromance in political history lasted less than a year, and the fallout risks dragging them both down.

Musk claims credit for his $300million in donations swinging the election Trump’s way, while the White House says that’s fake news and the car salesman is sulking because he’s not getting much bang for his buck.

The pair clashed publicly over Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” — legislation that he says will deliver a slew of campaign promises like banning taxes on tips for millions of American workers.

But Musk — appointed to the administration to cut eye-watering federal expenditure — baulked at the increase in government spending tacked on to the law by Congress, branding it an “abomination”.

He irked Trump by urging senators to vote it down, adding it could be “big or beautiful but it cannot be both”.

Musk raged on social media: “This spending bill contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history! It is the Debt Slavery Bill… Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.”

It’s a long cry from when Musk toured the swing states at last year’s election telling the world that Trump was the greatest thing since sliced bread and organising well-oiled get-out-the-vote operations.

But behind the scenes I’m told Trump was already at the end of his tether with Musk who some sources accuse of “gurning away” on the campaign trail and in meetings.

Brought in to help slash costs through his Department of Government Efficiency, tensions reached a head after the New York Times ran a well-sourced hit piece accusing Musk of enjoying recreational drugs such as ketamine and ecstasy throughout his brief foray into politics.

Those claims were not denied when Musk was confronted by Fox News in an Oval Office press conference last week.

Musk’s coterie of love-children and his stated desire to help repopulate the planet with, what his former lovers have claimed, he calls genius offspring have also rubbed Trump up the wrong way.

Teetotal Trump wanted rid of him but also wanted to give his big donor a decent goodbye, so lavished praise on him after he departed as special government employee last week.

Yet despite all the niceties, the former allies are locked in a Cold War stand-off this weekend.

Will they both retreat to their bunkers and realise mutually assured destruction is in neither of their interests, OR will they be unable to help themselves and launch a thermonuclear blow-out that burns them both up?

Musk came close to that on Friday night, with his outlandish allegations that the President was sitting on files about billionaire deceased paedo-financier Jeffrey Epstein — because Trump himself is named as a murky connection.

White House sources say that is nonsense and were that bombshell evidence to be sitting in a government file somewhere, surely previous Democrat governments would have leaked it by now.

Musk ended his online diatribe with calls for Trump to be impeached, adding a menacing suggestion he could back the Democrats.

It’s a mess, but one that was very obviously cooking

Harry Cole

Yet even some of his closest allies and supporters were left begging any friend possible to strip Musk of access to his own X platform before he caused any more damage.

It’s a dangerous game for the mercurial billionaire to play — because the President hit back that he was going to suspend US subsidies and government contracts for the entrepreneurs’ many, many firms.

Musk’s electric car firm Tesla shares were down 14 per cent yesterday — the biggest one-day drop since the company went public, wiping $152billion off its value.

And that’s before the $3billion personal hit to Musk on the back of an evening of lively tweeting.

In a further snub, Trump was last night considering selling his own Tesla which has spent weeks parked outside the Oval Office, in a move which could spark a wave of similar fire sales across the US amongst his fans.

‘Musk is an illegal alien and should be deported’

The Tesla Cybertruck gifted to the President’s granddaughter Kai is presumably for the chop too.

Meanwhile, the row threatens to spark a wider war between various right-wing camps that run Washington, with implications felt in Congress and across the political spectrum.

Devout Trump-backer Steve Bannon called for South African-born Musk to be deported from the US, saying yesterday: “They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien and should be deported from the country immediately.”

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed autistic automaker said he could launch a new political party — an idea backed by 80 per cent of the millions of respondents to his social media poll yesterday.

But this wasn’t just a political knife-fight but also a brawl in the casino of capitalism.

In short, it’s a mess, but one that was very obviously cooking. Musk is a libertarian, free-marketeer who has his sights on the moon and Mars and beyond.

Trump is the tariff-loving protectionist who believes it’s America First and everyone else can fall in line behind that.

Prior to SpaceX, they couldn’t even transport their own astronauts to the International Space Station and had to rely on outdated Russian rockets

Dr Rainer Zitelmann

Add to that their tensions on China that Trump sees as an existential threat to the US, while Musk views it as an opportunity to produce his electric cars on the cheap.

It’s amazing that things took so long to come to a head.

And then it came down to space, where Musk obviously has a major financial interest as the boss of SpaceX — the rocket firm hat has all but colonised America’s space projects.

As top economist Dr Rainer Zitelmann puts it: “Without SpaceX, the US does not currently have much to offer.

“Prior to SpaceX, they couldn’t even transport their own astronauts to the International Space Station and had to rely on outdated Russian rockets ­— and paid exorbitant prices to do so.

“SpaceX is responsible for 86 per cent of all US launches.”

But things were coming to a head when Trump blocked a Musk ally to take over Nasa last month, infuriating his former “First Buddy”.

Moment of maximum danger

Insiders say Musk’s attempts to take over Nasa were a step too far that left America’s future security beholden to a private company run by a wildly unpredictable boss.

Sources claimed Musk recently had his high-level security clearances revoked by the White House as tensions mounted, leading to Friday’s pyrotechnics.

What happens next is a moment of maximum danger for Trump.

Brits will be familiar with what happens when a leader and their dangerous right-hand man fall out.

Boris Johnson found out the hard way that if the snubbed guru bears enough of a grudge, it is fatal.

The White House will be hoping this weekend that Elon holds less resentment than equally unstable Dominic Cummings — who spent the year after his No10 ousting doing all he could to unseat and destabilise his former boss.

I wonder whether that might be a bit of wishful thinking . . .