Donald Trump has said Elon Musk has “lost his mind”, according to US media, as the White House reveals the president is not interested in speaking to him.

In a phone interview with ABC News, the US president was asked about reports that a phone call was scheduled on Friday between Musk and himself.

“You mean the man who has lost his mind?” he is said to have responded.

A White House official has said Mr Trump is not interested in talking to his former ally amid a bitter feud between the two, adding that no phone call is planned for the day.

It comes as a source familiar with the situation has told Sky News the president is considering selling his Tesla, in a further sign that no resolution to the explosive bust-up is in sight.

Mr Trump purchased a Tesla earlier this year, describing the company as Elon’s “baby”.

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The pair’s relationship broke down publicly on Thursday, just days after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk left his role as a special government employee.

In a fiery exchange, Musk posted a series of messages on X criticising the president’s signature tax bill as a “big ugly spending bill”.

President Trump posted on Truth Social that Musk had been “wearing thin” and claimed he “asked him to leave” his government position, something Musk denied.

Elon Musk then hit back, alleging the president “is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.”

He gave no evidence for the claim, and it was dismissed by the White House.

In a statement, it called the bust-up an “unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.”

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The bill at the centre of the spat was passed by the House Republicans in May and has been described by the president as a “big, beautiful bill”.

The president said to reporters in the White House on Thursday that Musk “knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here”.

“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 have to cut the EV mandate.”

Musk then denied this, saying: “False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”

The spat hit Tesla shares, which closed down 14.3% on Thursday, losing about $150bn (£111bn) in value.

Musk also said SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft “immediately” after Mr Trump threatened to cancel government contracts with Musk’s businesses.

Hours after issuing his threat, however, Musk heeded advice from X users telling him to “cool down” and posted: “Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon”.

The row between two of the most powerful men in America comes a week after Musk left his position in the government, where he spearheaded a controversial cost-cutting department, DOGE – the Department of Government Efficiency.

They were once the best of friends, but last night that came to an end – and it all unfolded online as people across the world looked on… and retweeted.

Tension between Elon Musk and Donald Trump had been building for several days after the SpaceX billionaire criticised the US president’s signature tax bill.

While initially it remained cordial, the president suggested his former backer and adviser missed being in government and suffered from “Trump derangement syndrome”, leading to a sudden and dramatic deterioration in relations between the pair.

They have two of the largest platforms in the world, and last night, they turned them on each other. While much of Europe slept through it, here is every insult and barb as it happened… so far.

6.39pm: ‘Big ugly spending bill’

Musk tells Trump his “big ugly spending bill” will make the economic situation worse.

Five minutes later he retweets a video in which he says the bill will increase the US’s deficit to $2.5 trillion (£1.85 trn).

AT 6.48pm he shares a post about the bill’s popularity, simply saying: “Kill bill”.

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6.49pm: Trump’s ‘body double’

Earlier in the evening, Musk reshares a series of posts (dating back to 2012) from Trump’s X account, including ones saying deficits should not be allowed.

He then reshares a post of someone praising him, adding: “Where is the man who wrote these words? Was he replaced by a body double!?”

He then retweets a meme, making light of Trump’s plan, which links to a poll he had run the previous day.

7.23pm: Back to the bill

Musk starts tweeting about the “big ugly spending bill” again, saying members of Congress didn’t even have time to read it before it was passed.

He continues to tweet about this for most of the night, including accusing the government of “spending America into bankruptcy”.

7.30pm: Who is right?

Musk retweets a poll that shows 76% of 1.5 million voters think he is right in his spat with the president.

7.37pm: Elon was ‘wearing thin’

Trump shares a post on his Truth Social site that accuses Musk of going “crazy” after the president took away his EV mandate.

Musk responds by sharing a number of former interviews, including a video from 2021 where he says the industry does not need EV tax credits.

Trump then shares a post in which he writes the “easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts”.

8.10pm: The Epstein ‘bomb’

Arguably the largest moment in their fight – Musk accuses Trump of being in the Epstein files.

He gives no evidence for the claim. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismisses the comment.

9.06pm: Musk ‘turning against me’

Trump says he doesn’t mind Musk turning against him, but adds that “he should have done so months ago”.

He then goes on to voice continued support for his bill, calling it “one of the greatest bills ever presented to Congress”.

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9.09pm: Decommissioning Dragon

Following Trump’s statement about terminating his contracts, Musk tweets: “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”

Dragon is the only US spacecraft available to deliver crew to and from the International Space Station.

Two minutes later he retweets a post calling on Trump to be impeached, adding simply: “Yes.”

9.29pm: Trump’s tariffs

Musk hits out at Trump’s tariffs, resharing a tweet from someone who called them “stupid”.

“The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year,” he adds.

For the rest of the evening, Musk reshares posts from other users, often adding a laughing face emoji, or the occasional comment, including the words: “If America goes broke, nothing else matters.”

2.20am: Musk says he won’t decommission spacecraft

Just after 2am, an account with a few hundred followers tweets Musk: “This is a shame this back and forth. You are both better than this. Cool off and take a step back for a couple days.”

In response, Musk agrees he won’t decommission the Dragon spacecraft.

Elon Musk posted in February that he loved his president, patron and personal friend, “as much as a straight man can love another man.”

And they had so much in common: colossal egos; mercurial political views; compulsive social media habits.

Yet, it was clear to almost all but the most hopeless MAGA romantics that this rocket-fuelled megastar bromance was doomed to fail.

But who would have predicted an end this spectacular – their relationship undergoing a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” to rival the most explosive of Mr Musk‘s test rockets.

Their hysterical tit-for-tat on social media might be the stuff of Hollywood tabloids, but its consequences could be grave.

The break-up has already had a major impact on Mr Musk’s wealth, with Tesla shares sliding 15% on the news.

But Mr Musk’s social media platform and $250m of political donations played no small part in getting Mr Trump and his supporters into the White House.

If that money and influence were to turn against them, it could see them out.

And in terms of strategic significance, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is no ordinary company.

In 2024, it averaged a rocket launch every three days, accounting for nearly 90% of the US orbital launch market and took more cargo into space last year than the rest of the world combined.

Read more:
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Elon Musk already appears to have backed down on his threat to decommission the SpaceX Crew Dragon that ferries astronauts to the International Space Station.

Doing so would have risked the lives of the crew on board, leaving the US and its international partners reliant on Russian hardware to take them in and out of orbit.

Nor is it likely Mr Trump would, or even could, take down a company as necessary to US interests as SpaceX.

Although the souring of relations will be good news for his up-and-coming rivals like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin launch company.

SpaceX is heavily reliant on government contracts from NASA and the US military. But it could be years before a competitor can rival its near-monopoly on space launches.

The two men could, of course, patch things up. It wouldn’t be the first time either has said outrageous things on social media that they later shrugged off.

But in one way, the damage has already been done.

The world has witnessed two of its most powerful people row like teenagers with no evidence of the wisdom, restraint or cool-headedness most would expect of reliable businessmen and heads of state.

Given the state of the world right now, what the lurid details of their row says about the two men is more terrifying than titillating.