Donald Trump has attacked Elon Musk as “crazy” and threatened to rip up his government contracts, as the spat between two of the world’s most powerful men erupted into an all-out public feud.
In a flurry of bitter comments in the Oval Office and online on Thursday, the US president said he was “very disappointed” in Musk for criticising his signature tax bill, suggested he had “become hostile” after being turfed out of government, and accused the billionaire of intervening in politics to serve his business interests.
Musk, who spent more than $250mn bankrolling Trump’s re-election bid last year and said in February that he loved the president “as much as a straight man can love another man”, returned fire on X.