The alliance between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk exploded like a SpaceX rocket launch: powerful, flying high, then exploding.

The controversy came to a head on June 5 when President Donald Trump threatened to cut government contracts with Elon Musk’s companies.

Meanwhile, billionaire Musk announced that the Donald Trump administration did not release all files related to pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein because they mentioned Donald Trump.

Billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. Photo: AP

Billionaire Musk also shared a post on social media calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump and criticizing the US president’s tariff policies, while predicting an economic recession this year.

The heated debate between the US President and the world’s richest man took place on social media platforms after Mr. Donald Trump was asked about Mr. Musk’s criticism of the spending bill during a meeting with the German leader at the White House.

Donald Trump has largely remained silent as Musk has repeatedly attacked the White House boss’s so-called “big and beautiful” bill on social network X.

But on June 5, from the Oval Office, Mr. Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed in billionaire Musk.” Billionaire Musk responded immediately on social media.

The controversy escalated when Donald Trump took to social media site Truth Social to threaten to use the government to financially harm Musk by targeting the Starlink and SpaceX contracts.

Donald Trump wrote: “The easiest way to save the budget, billions of dollars, is to end subsidies and government contracts for Elon Musk.” Musk responded on X: “Go ahead, try it!”

Donald Trump said Musk “only had a problem” with the bill because it cut the electric vehicle tax credit. Musk responded on X that was false: “This bill was never shown to me once and was passed so quickly in the middle of the night that hardly any congressman had time to read it.”

Hours later, Mr. Musk announced that SpaceX would begin decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft, which carries astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Mr Musk also said that Mr Donald Trump “was on the Epstein files” but did not provide evidence: “That’s the real reason they’re not public. Have a nice day, Donald Trump!”.

The fallout was as swift, acrimonious and public as it began, and the blow quickly took a toll on Musk’s finances.

The extent of Mr Musk’s support for Mr Trump — spending at least $250 million on his campaign — and the free rein Mr Trump gave Mr Musk to reform the government through his “Department of Government Efficiency” are overshadowed by the speed at which their relationship has fallen apart.

“Without me, Donald Trump would have lost the election,” Musk wrote on social network X. “How ungrateful,” the Tesla electric car company founder added.

Mr. Musk continued his attacks on social media, retweeting posts from Donald Trump from more than a decade ago, when he was a billionaire, criticizing the Republican Party over spending.

“Where is the person who wrote these words? Was he replaced by a body double?” Musk quipped.