Trump and Musk enter bitter feud - and Washington buckles up

The world is finding out – and it's not a pretty picture. Donald Trump and Elon Musk have two of the biggest megaphones, and they have now turned them on each other, as a disagreement has ballooned into a war of words. BBC reported.

Trump has threatened Musk's voluminous business dealings with the federal government, which form the lifeblood of his SpaceX programme.

"The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's governmental subsidies and contracts," Trump posted menacingly on his own social media website.

If Trump turns the machinery of government against Musk, the tech billionaire will feel pain. Tesla's stock price plunged by 14% on Thursday.

It's not a one-way street, however. After that volley, Musk called for Trump's impeachment, dared him to cut funding for his companies and countered that he was accelerating the decommissioning of his Dragon spacecraft, which the US relies on to carry American astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.

Musk has near limitless resources to respond, including by funding insurgent challengers to Republicans in next year's elections and primaries. And late on Thursday afternoon, he said he was dropping the "really big bomb" – suggesting without evidence that Trump appears in unreleased files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, offered only a tepid pushback to Musk's allegations and accusations.

"This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted," she said.