The moment had finally come, and it was every bit as lowdown, vindictive, personal, petty, operatic, childish, consequential, messy and public as many had always expected it would be.
“One thing’s for sure,” Elon Musk posted on X midway through his relentless hourslong attack on Donald Trump, “it ain’t boring!”
The clash of the titans was upon us, and the gloves were off.
The speed of the fallout was breathtaking. Up until about 14 seconds ago, Mr. Musk was flying on Mr. Trump’s planes, staying at his homes, socializing with his children. On Friday, Mr. Trump celebrated him with an Oval Office farewell address and gave him a novelty, oversize key to the White House.
But all was not well. Mr. Musk had been stewing about the sweeping domestic policy bill that the White House was pushing through Congress. By Thursday afternoon, he started spitting venom.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” Mr. Musk wrote on X. “Such ingratitude.”
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is!
Usually, when Mr. Trump has a big, messy falling-out in public, it is with someone who needs him, a lesser being who lives in fear of a primary challenge or somehow being ruined. But now he was beefing with the rare person who has leverage over him — political and financial leverage and perhaps even some emotional leverage. When Mr. Trump said on Thursday that he was “very disappointed in Elon,” he sounded as if he meant it.
But Mr. Trump, being the president of the United States, had some leverage of his own.
He mused on Truth Social that the “easiest way to save money in our Budget” would be to wipe out Mr. Musk’s government subsidies and contracts. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” Mr. Trump added, causing Mr. Musk to erupt further.
There was a screwball element to their back-and-forth: Because Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk are each the masters of their own social media platform, neither one was directly replying to the other. Anyone following along at home (which is to say, everyone) had to toggle between platforms to keep up with these keyboard cowboys as they aimed shots at each other.
“THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTING” was a top trending topic on Mr. Musk’s platform Thursday. There was a schoolyard aspect to their scrap as many on the playground rushed to jump in. “SPICY,” Laura Loomer posted. “hey @realDonaldTrump lmk if u need any breakup advice,” posted Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Mr. Musk’s children. Mr. Musk began to hit the “unfollow” button on accounts belonging to close Trump allies such as Charlie Kirk and Stephen Miller.
Four hours into the shootout, a peacekeeper emerged in the form of Kanye West. “Broooos please noooooo,” he posted on X with an emoji of two people hugging. “We love you both so much.”
But they seemed far beyond the point of hugging it out. A line had been crossed that probably could never be uncrossed. “Time to drop the really big bomb,” Mr. Musk wrote shortly after 3 p.m., “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” The implication that Mr. Trump is somehow connected to Mr. Epstein’s crimes was an especially explosive one to make, given that large swaths of Mr. Trump’s base remain so animated by the sordid details of that particular case.
“Some food for thought,” Mr. Musk wrote in another especially cutting post. “Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years.”
Questions swirled above the fray: Just how hard might Mr. Trump, who has been shown to have no qualms about weaponizing government, actually go after Mr. Musk? Are Tesla and SpaceX about to get DOGE’d?
What would happen to that red Tesla that Mr. Musk parked at the White House, the one that Mr. Trump’s young aides love to drive around and post pictures from?
And would Mr. Musk have to send back his key to the White House?
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
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