#TrumpVsMusk About 10 minutes after starting his bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump was finally asked about the "elephant in the room": Elon Musk and his harsh criticisms this week of the bill on Trump's agenda.

"He hasn't said anything bad about me," Trump said. "I prefer him to criticize me than the bill." Trump certainly got what he wanted. By the end of the meeting, he and Musk quickly moved from a legislative disagreement to personal attacks. Musk responded in real-time to Trump's comments on his platform X, becoming increasingly personal. And Trump finally hit back hard on his own platform, Truth Social.

It was the kind of confrontation that many predicted would come sooner or later when these two powerful, frank, and unpredictable billionaires formed their convenience alliance last year. And now it has arrived forcefully.

On Thursday afternoon, Musk responded to a user on X who chose him over Trump and called for the president's impeachment by simply saying: "Yes."

It is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine this dispute being resolved without becoming even uglier, considering what is being said.

Shortly before the event in the Oval Office, Musk specifically invoked Trump's changing positions on the national debt, citing tweets from years ago when Trump presented himself as a defender of spending control. ("Where is the man who wrote these words?" Musk asked. "Has he been replaced by a double?")

But Trump has never been particularly susceptible to his rhetorical consistency or his fiscal conservatism.

And as the minutes passed, things became much more personal.

Here are the comments (so far) that really stand out and that, seemingly, will be difficult to surpass.