The simmering tension between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk exploded Thursday into a public brawl between the most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world, filled with personal attacks and financial threats.

Axar.az reports, NBC news, the spat began when the president criticized the Tesla CEO’s recent attacks on the Republican policy measure winding its way through Congress — which Trump has dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” — and quickly escalated into social media volleys. Trump suggested the U.S. government could cut its significant ties with Musk’s businesses. And Musk shot back, alleging a link between the president and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and promoting a post that called for Trump’s impeachment.

“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” he said. “Such ingratitude,” Musk said on X.

Trump fired back later Thursday on Truth Social, his rival platform, claiming that Musk “went crazy” after the president “asked him to leave” his White House role. Trump also suggested the federal government could sever ties with Musk’s companies, which have billions of dollars in contracts with the federal government.

In response, Musk claimed that the president was in what are known as the “Epstein files” — a reference to a trove of documents and files spread across a number of investigations and lawsuits. The Justice Department released hundreds more pages of documents this year related to the Epstein investigations.

Though Trump and Epstein knew each other, there have been no new revelations about their relationship in any of those files. Trump has never been implicated in Epstein’s abuse of underage girls. He denied any wrongdoing, saying in a post last year, “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island.”

The White House responded to Musk's claim Thursday night with press secretary Karoline Leavitt calling it "an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted."

She added that Trump "is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation."

The back-and-forth between Trump and Musk included the president saying, “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.” Soon after, Musk shared a post that said he would win in a fight over Trump and that the president should be impeached and replaced with Vice President JD Vance. “Yes,” Musk posted, quoting that post.