Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s unlikely bromance imploded in spectacular fashion Thursday as the US president and his billionaire former aide tore into each other in a very public, real-time divorce.Trump said in a televised Oval Office diatribe that he was “very disappointed” with criticisms from his top donor of a “big, beautiful” spending bill before Congress, before threatening to tear up the tycoon’s multi-billion-dollar US government contracts.The South African-born Musk hit back live, saying that the Republican would not have won the 2024 election without him and slamming Trump on his X social media platform for “ingratitude.”As the spat got increasingly bitter, Musk also posted that Trump “is in the Epstein files,” referring to US government documents on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial for sex crimes.Shares in Musk’s Tesla electric vehicle manufacturer plummeted about 15 percent as the astonishing row escalated — wiping off more than $100 billion of the company’s value.Questions had long swirled about how long the extraordinary alliance could last between the world’s richest person and the most powerful.The world got the answer from Trump in a 10-minute rant after he was asked about Musk calling his tax and spending mega-bill a “disgusting abomination.””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.”Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.”His comments came less than a week since Trump held a grand Oval Office farewell for Musk as he wrapped up his time leading the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).A wistful-sounding Trump took reporters through the break-up with Musk on live television Thursday, in what at times sounded more like a therapy session than a meeting with a foreign leader.The Republican suggested that Musk had “Trump derangement system,” missed working at the White House and had become “hostile” after his departure. – ‘Such ingratitude’ -Tesla and Space X boss Musk, who has criticized Trump’s bill on the grounds that it would raise the US deficit, hit back in a series of rapid-fire social media posts. He branded Trump’s claims “false” before doubling down on the sensitive issue of Trump’s election win. Musk was the biggest donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign, to the tune of $300 million.”Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” said Musk.”Such ingratitude.” Musk then posted a poll on whether he should form a new political party — a possible threat to Republican support, even if the foreign-born tycoon himself is barred from becoming president under the US Constitution.As the row moved to social media, Trump doubled down by threatening Musk’s massive government contracts, including for launching rockets and for the use of the Starlink satellite service.US media have put the value of the contracts at $18 billion.”Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, adding that Musk had gone “crazy” about a plan to end electric vehicle subsidies in the spending bill.He then dropped the bombshell: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”Trump’s decision to tap Musk to head DOGE was one of the most controversial of his second presidency. Musk’s young “tech bros” cut tens of thousands of government jobs and slashed US foreign aid.Trump and Musk’s whirlwind relationship initially blossomed, with the tech tycoon appearing in the Oval Office with his young son on his shoulders, flying with Trump aboard Air Force One and staying at the White House and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.But the 53-year-old lasted just four months on the job, becoming increasingly disillusioned with Washington’s slow pace, while clashing with some of Trump’s cabinet members.The only winner from the public Trump-Musk spat? Germany’s Merz. Merz, who sat mutely while Trump bashed Musk, had prepared to avoid a repeat of the ambushes that Trump unleashed on the Ukrainian and South African presidents in the Oval Office. But in the end it was Musk who took the president’s fire.

Weeks after a military crisis, India and Pakistan have dispatched top lawmakers to press their cases in the United States, where President Donald Trump has shown eagerness for diplomacy between them.After crisscrossing the world, the delegations descended this week at the same time on Washington, which played a key mediatory role in a ceasefire after four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed adversaries in May.In strikingly similar strategies, the rival delegations are both led by veteran politicians who have been critical of their countries’ governments and are known for their ease in speaking to Western audiences.Pakistan has embraced an active role for the Trump administration while India, which has close relations with Washington, has been more circumspect and has long refused outside mediation on the flashpoint Himalayan territory of Kashmir.”Just like the United States and President Trump played a role in encouraging us to achieve this ceasefire, I believe they should play their part in encouraging both sides to engage in a comprehensive dialogue,” said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the scion of a political dynasty whose Pakistan People’s Party says it belongs neither to the governing coalition nor opposition.”I don’t quite understand the Indian government’s hesitance,” he told AFP. “I’m the first to criticize the United States for so many reasons, but where they do the right thing, where they do the difficult task of actually achieving a ceasefire, they deserve appreciation.”India’s delegation is led by one of its most prominent opposition politicians, Shashi Tharoor, a former senior UN official and writer.He said he was putting the national interest first, despite disagreements domestically with Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Tharoor said he heard “total support and solidarity for India” during his meetings with US lawmakers and a “complete understanding of India’s right to defend itself against terrorism.”- ‘No equivalence’ -Gunmen on April 22 massacred 26 tourists on the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, most singled out as Hindus, in the deadliest attack on civilians in decades in the scenic region that has seen a long-running insurgency.India accused Pakistan of backing the assailants and launched strikes on Pakistani territory. More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides.”There can be no equivalence between a country sending terrorists and a country having its civilians killed — holiday-makers, tourists, men shot down in front of their wives and children after being asked their religion,” Tharoor told a news conference.He said he was “puzzled” by those who believe denials of responsibility by Pakistan, pointing to how US forces found Osama bin Laden in the country.Tharoor also noted that former Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari — Bilawal’s father — had advocated peace with India but was in power during the siege of Mumbai on November 26, 2008.”If they can’t control what they’re doing to us, why bother to talk to them?” said Tharoor, who pointed to the outsized role of the military in Pakistan.- ‘A new normal’ -Trump has repeatedly credited his administration with averting nuclear war and said the United States had negotiated an agreement to hold talks between the two sides at a neutral site, an assertion that met India’s silence.Pakistan had cool relations with Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, whose aides bitterly resented Islamabad’s role in the Afghanistan war, but Pakistan has quickly worked to woo Trump including with the arrest of a suspect in a deadly 2021 attack that killed more than 170 people, including 13 US troops, during the withdrawal from Kabul.Bilawal — recalling how his mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in an attack — said Pakistan was ready to discuss terrorism with India but that Kashmir as a “root cause” also needed to be on the table.He said that India was establishing a dangerous new precedent in South Asia where whenever there is a terrorist attack in any country, “you go straight to war.””I think that the fate of 1.7 billion people and our two great nations should not left in the hands of these nameless, faceless, non-state actors and this new normal that India is trying to impose on the region,” he said.The two delegations have no plans to meet in Washington.