Washington, 6 June 2025 (dpa/MIA) - The collapse of the relationship between US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk was out in full force on Thursday in what some pundits have labelled the bromance that was bound to fail.

But it wasn't like the conflict hadn't been brewing for days - starting with Musk's caustic condemnation of Trump's "big beautiful budget bill," which Musk had labelled an "abomination."

The bill would add trillions to the US deficit, an independent budget office had estimated.

Still, it exploded in full force during what was an unexpectedly cordial press conference between Trump and his German guest, Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"I'm very disappointed with Elon," Trump said at the Merz press conference.

Later in the day, the US president threatened to cut federal government subsidies and contracts to Musk's many businesses, which include SpaceX, the e-car firm Tesla and the social media platform X.

"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!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

That prompted a Musk comment on X saying he would "immediately" start to decommission its Dragon spacecraft - one of which brought two stranded US astronauts back to Earth earlier this year.

Trump blamed the bad blood in part to his policy changes.

"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.

Not to be outdone, Musk posted on X that he is the reason Trump became the 47th president of the United States.

"Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate" - a claim Trump wholly rejects.

Musk, who had donated more than $250 million to Trump’s election campaign and personally campaigned for him, was the single largest donor to the Republican's campaign. Musk had also campaigned for him in the key state of Pennsylvania, which Trump now claims he would have easily won without Musk.

'Trump Derangement Syndrome'

During the Merz press conference, Trump lamented that some people, when they leave their posts in Washington, end up suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome."

"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, I guess they call it," the president said with Merz at his side.

"They leave and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour is gone. The whole world is different, and they become hostile."

Musk did not make any comments on that allegation in his posts on X but he did note that Trump is a temporary phenomenon.

"Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years."

Tesla stock drops after Trump’s threat

Following Trump's threats to pull government contracts and subsidies, Tesla's stock temporarily dropped by more than 14%. For the first time, Trump also claimed that he had asked Musk to leave his post. Both had previously referred to a rule limiting external government employees to 130 days of work per year.

Musk retaliated by making further accusations, claiming that Trump's name appeared in documents related to the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!" Musk wrote.

Epstein died in 2019 in a New York prison cell in what was officially labelled a suicide. There has been rampant speculation online and in some circles that it was not a suicide, though New York authorities have consistently said it was. Former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino recently reaffirmed the official version that Epstein committed suicide.

Photo: Screenshot