In a pair of items published to his social media platform on Thursday afternoon, Trump wrote:

Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY! The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!

It was, to be sure, a serious escalation. NBC News reported, “Various estimates have been put forward on just how much Musk’s firms, primarily SpaceX and Tesla, benefit from U.S. government contracts and subsidies. The Washington Post has put the figure at $38 billion, with SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell estimating that company alone benefits from about $22 billion in federal spending. Reuters has reported that the true figure is classified due to the nature of many of the contracts Musk’s firms are under.”

Less than an hour later, the GOP megadonor responded with a remarkable rhetorical volley. “Time to drop the really big bomb: [Trump] is in the Epstein files,” Musk wrote on his own platform, X. “That is the real reason they have not been made public." Referencing the president's initials, he added, "Have a nice day, DJT!”.....

That paved the way for the pièce de résistance: the president suggesting that his former DOGE chief is suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.”
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lqupivusue2v

Link to tweet

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

There's no word yet on whether the president will ask for his golden key back.