The bromance between the US President and the world’s richest man has blown up spectacularly, with a social media war of words leading to Donald Trump warning of “serious consequences” and more than $50 billion being wiped off Elon Musk’s net worth.

The rift between Trump and Musk came to a head on Friday, culminating with Musk accusing Trump of being “in the Epstein files” and the President threatening to cut all government subsidies and contracts with Musk’s companies.

By the weekend, Musk had deleted the most controversial of his social media posts, but Trump said he has “no intention” of reconciling or even speaking with his once close ally and funder.

The relationship disintegrates

Musk was a significant financial backer of Trump’s election campaign and has been a close confidante of the President while helming the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

But issues between the pair began around Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, which includes major tax cuts and will increase America’s national debt by $US2.4 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Musk has been highly critical of the bill and labelled it an “abomination” on his X platform.

Trump on Thursday spoke in the Oval Office and referenced a black eye that Musk was sporting earlier in the week.

“You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk,” Trump said.

“Even with a black eye. I said, ‘Do you want a little makeup?’ He said, ‘No, I don’t think so.' Which is interesting.

“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.”

Trump also said Musk was opposing the bill as it would impact electric vehicle (EV) subsidies and his company, Tesla, and also pulled the billionaire’s preferred nominee to lead NASA.

“I’m very disappointed with Elon,” Trump said.

“He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out we’re going to cut the EV mandate.”

Musk appeared to be watching, and posted on X claiming that Trump was lying about the tax cuts bill and accusing him of being ungrateful for his support doing the election campaign last year.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election…such ingratitude,” Musk posted.

The 'really big bomb'

Half an hour later, Musk dropped what he labelled the “really big bomb”.

“Donald Trump is in the Epstein files,” Musk posted.

“That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Soon after this, Trump made another post, this time threatening to strip Musk’s companies of government support.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s government subsidies and contracts,” he said.

“I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

As the feud escalated, Musk also agreed with a social media post by another user that Trump should be impeached, before deleting some of his posts on X over the weekend.

In an interview with NBC News aired over the weekend, Trump said there would be “very serious consequences” if Musk provided financial support to Democratic candidates who opposed the tax cuts bill.

Trump also said that he has “no intention” of speaking to his one-time close ally.

Markets react

The implosion of the relationship has had a major financial impact already.

On the day it all kicked off, shares in Tesla fell by 14 per cent, wiping $US150 billion ($230 billion) from its market valuation.

This served to slash Musk’s personal net worth by $US34 billion ($52 billion).

Tesla shares recovered slightly on Monday, rising by just over 3 per cent.

A White House official over the weekend added that Trump was considering selling or giving away the Tesla that he bought for full price from Musk during rosier times in their relationship.

Soon after the relationship disintegrated, long-time Trump ally Steve Bannon took things further and claimed that Musk should be deported.

“I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately,” Bannon said.