Musk: Trump was involved in child sexual abuse.
According to Reuters, the public conflict between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the world’s most powerful man and richest person, reached its peak on Thursday. Trump threatened to cut government contracts with companies owned by the billionaire.
The US president and the world’s richest man launched a wide-ranging verbal attack on each other.
The Reuters report states that the conflict, which escalated significantly in a matter of hours, caused a sharp fall in shares of Tesla, the electric car company managed by Musk. The company’s value fell by 14.3 percent at the end of the day, reducing its market value by about $150 billion.
Trump attacked Musk in remarks in the Oval Office of the White House. The billionaire, who was considered one of Trump’s close advisers until two days ago, strongly criticized the tax cut and government spending bill, which is Trump’s main priority, saying that the plan would increase the US debt by $36.2 trillion.
Trump then wrote on the social media platform Truth Social, “The easiest way to save billions of dollars is to cut Elon’s subsidies and government contracts.”
Earlier this year, Trump appointed Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency to cut government spending by streamlining the federal bureaucracy.
“I was very disappointed in Elon,” Trump told reporters. “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if that relationship will continue.”
The president had been silent this week as Musk attacked his bill, a criticism that some Republicans in the Senate have also raised. Musk quickly responded to Trump’s criticism on X Network, writing, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election. That’s how anonymous he is.”