A star-crossed bromance comes apart at the seams

It had once been a relationship so strong that even a lawsuit couldn't drive a wedge through it.

- Rebecca Ballhaus & Alex Leary

When President Trump and Elon Musk did a joint interview with Sean Hannity soon after the inauguration, sitting so close their knees nearly touched and vigorously nodding at each other's responses, the Fox News host appeared baffled by the recent settlement of a suit Trump had brought against X, Musk's social-media platform.

"He's become one of your best friends. He's working for free for you," Hannity pointed out to Trump. "You just made him pay you $10 million?"

Trump-Musk fever, an improbable union that generated as much attention as any of the dozens of executive orders the new president was firing off.

Seven months after the election, their bromance detonated in spectacular fashion. It was the breakup everyone saw coming—yet the speed and viciousness with which it escalated still stunned White House aides, lawmakers and even Kanye West.

"Broooos please noooooo," the controversial rapper who now goes by Ye tweeted Thursday as the quarrel boomed. "We love you both so much." They went there anyway, like a couple firing off texts with things that felt good to say in the moment but that they knew they would later regret.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Except that both men own social-media platforms and have digital armies that total more than 300 million followers.

Musk suggested Trump should be impeached, alleged he was named in a federal investigation into convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and took credit for Trump's election win. Trump threatened to revoke Musk's government contracts, said he had asked Musk to leave the administration because he was "wearing thin" and claimed he had gone "CRAZY!"

One congressional aide said his phone hadn't blown up this much since the Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the U.S. Capitol. A White House staffer said it was like watching parents fight. Private message threads lighted up with urgent news flashes: the latest White House official Musk had unfollowed on X.