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.
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Trump and Musk’s feud explained
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.
Donald Trump greets Elon Musk before a Starship rocket launch last November. File pic: AP
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.
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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.
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Why doesn’t Musk like Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?
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.
