By Costas Pitas
(Reuters) -President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to cut off government contracts with Elon Musk’s companies, as the once-close relationship between the world’s most powerful man and its richest unraveled publicly on their rival social media platforms.
Here’s how it happened:
– JUNE 3: Musk attacks Trump’s top legislative priority: a sweeping tax-cut and spending bill.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” he wrote on his X platform.
– JUNE 5, around noon ET: Trump says he anticipates Musk criticizing him personally.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “He said the most beautiful things about me, and he hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. But I’m, I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
– JUNE 5, 12.10pm ET:
Musk posts on X: “Slim Beautiful Bill for the win.”
– JUNE 5, 12.25pm ET:
Musk responds to a clip of Trump from the Oval Office saying Musk knew the inner workings of the bill.
“False. This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” Musk wrote on X.
– JUNE 5, 1.57pm ET:
Musk launches a poll on X with the question: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”
– JUNE 5, 2.37pm ET:
Trump hits back on his social media platform, Truth Social:
“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
(Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Scott Malone and David Gregorio)
