Clash of the Titans: What happens when the US President clashes with the richest man in the world?

The moment finally came, and it was exactly as many had expected: low-key, vindictive, personal, petty, theatrical, childish, consequential, messy, and public.

“One thing is for sure,” Elon Musk posted on X in the middle of his relentless, hours-long attack on Donald Trump, “it’s not boring at all!”

The clash of the titans has begun and the gloves have been removed.

The speed of the crash was dizzying. Until about 14 seconds ago, Mr. Musk was flying on Mr. Trump’s planes, staying in his homes, hanging out with his children. On Friday, Mr. Trump honored him with a farewell speech from the Oval Office and presented him with a giant symbolic key to the White House.

But not everything was fine. Mr. Musk had long been seething with anger over the sweeping domestic policy bill the White House was pushing through Congress. On Thursday afternoon, he began to publicly vent his venom. “Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” Musk wrote on X. “What ingratitude.”

How piercing is the pain of infidelity!

Usually, when Mr. Trump has had a big, messy public clash, it has been with someone who needs him — a lesser being who lives in fear of an internal challenge or public destruction. But now he is clashing with a rare man who has influence over him — political, financial and perhaps even emotional influence. When Mr. Trump said on Thursday that he was “very disappointed in Elon,” he sounded as if he meant it.

But Mr. Trump, being president of the United States, has some leverage in his hand.

He suggested on Truth Social that “the easiest way to save money in our Budget” would be to cancel Mr. Musk’s government subsidies and contracts. “I’ve always wondered why Biden didn’t do that!” Mr. Trump added, further fueling Mr. Musk’s reaction.

There was an element of absurdity to this clash: Because Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk are each masters of their own social platform, neither was responding directly to the other. Anyone following them at home (that is, everyone) had to switch from one platform to the other to follow these keyboard cowboys firing statuses at each other.

“THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTING” was the trending topic on Musk’s platform on Thursday. The clash had a schoolyard atmosphere, with many people rushing to get involved. “HEAT,” Laura Loomer tweeted. “Hey @realDonaldTrump let me know if you need any breakup advice,” wrote Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children. Musk began unfollowing accounts belonging to close Trump allies like Charlie Kirk and Stephen Miller.

Four hours after the duel began, a peacemaker appeared on stage in the form of Kanye West. “Oh brothers, no please,” he posted on X with an emoji of two people hugging. “We love you both so much.”

But they seemed far from the point of reconciliation. The red line had been crossed — and there was no turning back. “Time to drop the big bombshell,” Musk wrote shortly after 3 p.m. “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. This is the real reason they haven’t been made public. Have a great day, DJT!” The implication that Mr. Trump is somehow connected to Epstein’s crimes was particularly explosive, given that large swaths of Trump’s electorate remain highly sensitive to the sordid details of the case.

“For reflection,” Musk wrote in another scathing post. “Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be here for 40+ years.”

Many questions hang over this arena of conflict: How far can Trump, who is known to have no qualms about using state power as a weapon, go against Musk? Will Tesla and SpaceX suffer a DOGE-style blow?

What would happen to that red Tesla that Musk had parked at the White House, the one that Trump's young aides loved to post photos of?

And will Musk be forced to return his White House key?/ New York Times