Trump and Musk alliance melts down in blazing public row

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s unlikely political marriage exploded in a fiery public divorce Thursday, with the US president threatening to strip the billionaire of his huge government contracts in revenge.

Trump said in a televised Oval Office diatribe that he was “very disappointed” after his former aide and top donor criticized his “big, beautiful” spending bill before Congress.

The pair then hurled insults at each other on social media — with Musk even posting, without proof, that Trump was referenced in government documents on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The row could have major political and economic fallout, as shares in Musk’s Tesla car company plunged and the South African-born tech tycoon vowed that he would end a critical US spaceship program.

Speculation had long swirled that a relationship between the world’s richest person and its most powerful could not last long — but the speed of the meltdown took Washington by surprise.

“I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looked on silently.