Musk signals he is open to a cooling-off period in Trump feud

Differences between the two explode into public bickering

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Mr Elon Musk signaled he would move to cool tensions with US President Donald Trump, after differences between the two exploded on June 5 into an all-out public feud.

Earlier in the day, Mr Musk called for Mr Trump's impeachment, and insinuated the President was withholding the release of files related to disgraced New York financier Jeffrey Epstein because of his own presence in them.

Mr Trump, in turn, proposed cutting off the billionaire's government contracts, following his one-time adviser's repeated exhortations for Republicans to vote against the President's signature tax legislation.

Mr Musk's olive branch came after Tesla shares tanked 14 per cent and his personal wealth dropped by US$34 billion (S$43.7 billion). That might not encompass the full hit since it does not reflect any damage to the value of his private enterprises such as Space Exploration Technologies, popularly known as SpaceX.

On June 5, hours after saying he would end use of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, Mr Musk reversed course and signaled there could be a cooling-off period between Mr Trump and the world's richest man.

"This is a shame this back and forth. You are both better than this. Cool off and take a step back for a couple days," an X user who had just 200 followers on the platform wrote in reply to Mr Musk's post about Dragon.

"Good advice," Mr Musk responded. "Ok, we won't decommission Dragon."

In a separate reply to billionaire Bill Ackman, an ally of both Mr Trump and Mr Musk who said they should "make peace for the benefit of our great country", Mr Musk responded: "You're not wrong."

The acrimonious back-and-forth between Mr Musk and Mr Trump represented a remarkable falling out between two men who spent months working together to reshape the federal government.