Musk, Trump drama is entertaining, but how did things go down,

A no-holds-barred and very public blow-up between the world’s richest man and the President of the United States has had social media agog in recent days, with each making serious accusations against the other.

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And while tech billionaire Elon Musk appears to have cooled the spat somewhat - deleting some of his more incendiary social media posts about Donald Trump — the president still appears to be in no mood to make up, warning Musk of “very serious consequences” if he backs Democrats at the mid-term elections in 2026.

Tensions erupted over Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB). The OBBB proposes extensive tax cuts which could add roughly USD 3 trillion to the US national debt.

After stepping down from his role as advisor to Trump, Musk criticised the OBBB as “disgusting abomination” that would “burden America citizens with crushing unsustainable debt”.

Trump returned fire, suggesting “Elon was ‘wearing thin’, I asked him to leave [...] and he just went CRAZY!”.

In a dramatic escalation, Musk responded by calling for Trump's impeachment.

Musk also tweeted allegations that Trump was implicated in the Epstein files related to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He has since deleted those tweets.

Why has the much-hyped “bromance” between Musk and Trump suddenly ended?

And what was the basis of their alliance in the first place?

Like many billionaires, Musk had previously been hesitant to get involved in frontline politics.

In early 2024, Musk was still claiming to be politically non-aligned, suggesting he would not donate to either presidential campaign.