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A DISAGREEMENT OVER PUBLIC POLICY between President Trump and Elon Musk took a personal and nasty turn on Thursday, as their once-friendly working relationship imploded in spectacular fashion.

The recriminations started off mild, but escalated dramatically by the end of the day, with Trump threatening to cut Musk's government contracts and Musk alleging that Trump has ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Early in the day, while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office,Trump weighed in on Musk’s sharp criticism of the GOP’s spending bill, which faces a tough path through the Senate over concerns it will add trillions to the national deficit.

Trump said he was “very surprised” and “very disappointed” to hear Musk’s remarks after the two had exchanged glowing praise for one another less than one week ago, when Musk finished his work as a special government employee assigned with eliminating wasteful spending.

“Elon and I had a great relationship, I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said.

“He’s not the first,” Trump added. “People leave my administration and they love us, and then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it and some of them become hostile. It’s Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Musk, who has fired off dozens of posts on social media over the past few days calling on Republicans to kill Trump’s agenda bill, responded almost immediately on X:

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

Later, Musk pondered a third party.

“Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle,” Musk wrote in a post on X to his more than 200 million followers.

And then Musk went nuclear, alleging that Trump is implicated in the Epstein files.

"That is the real reason they have not been made public," Musk posted on X. "Have a nice day, DJT!"

Trump said he believes Musk’s gripes aren’t actually about the level of spending in the “big, beautiful bill,” but rather about its elimination of electric vehicle (EV) subsidies, which are utilized by Tesla.

"Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!" Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump then threatened to cut Musk's government contracts as a means of addressing the deficit.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," Trump said. "I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

Tesla shares fell 14 percent on Thursday.

TRUMP AGENDA BILL LOSES MOMENTUM

The disagreement between Trump and Musk over spending and debt comes at a fraught time for Trump’s agenda bill, with at least two GOP senators saying they won’t vote for the legislation unless it addresses the deficit.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) can only afford three defections for the bill to pass, with Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) looking like hard no votes. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has also criticized spending levels.

Trump and GOP leaders argue that Congressional Budget Office projections about the deficit fail to account for the growth that will come from the bill’s tax cuts and deregulatory measures.

But the bill raises the debt ceiling by several trillion dollars, which is a nonstarter for the fiscal hawks.

Musk on Thursday reposted a tweet from 2013 in which Trump announced his opposition to raising the debt ceiling.

“Wise words,” Musk said of Trump’s old remarks.

Now, Trump is calling to abolish the debt ceiling all together.

GOP tensions aren’t only running hot between Trump and Musk.

Paul on Thursday said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, wants to “secretly explode” the military budget.

Johnson, the Wisconsin senator, predicted the Trump agenda bill won’t pass by the GOP’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.

“It won’t happen,” he said.

The next potential flashpoint? Senate Republicans are talking about reviewing Medicare for waste, fraud and abuse, which is certain to lead to accusations from Democrats that the GOP is looking to gut the popular entitlement program for seniors.

“Some people are afraid of the topics. I’m not,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “In my view, this is our moment as........

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