FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO Elon Musk greets U.S. President Donald Trump as they attend the NCAA men's wrestling championships in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 22, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo

By Costas Pitas

(Reuters) -Elon Musk said on Wednesday that he regretted some of the posts he made about U.S. President Donald Trump as they had gone "too far," in early signs that a social media bluster between the world's most powerful man and its richest was cooling.

Here's how it happened:

- JUNE 3: Musk attacks Trump's top legislative priority: a sweeping tax-cut and spending bill.

"I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it," he wrote on his X platform.

- JUNE 5, around noon ET: Trump says he anticipates Musk criticizing him personally.

"Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore," Trump said in the Oval Office. "He said the most beautiful things about me, and he hasn't said bad about me personally, but I'm sure that'll be next. But I'm, I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot."

- JUNE 5, 12.10pm ET:

Musk posts on X: "Slim Beautiful Bill for the win."

- JUNE 5, 12.25pm ET:

Musk responds to a clip of Trump from the Oval Office saying Musk knew the inner workings of the bill.

"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!" Musk wrote on X.

- JUNE 5, 1.57pm ET:

Musk launches a poll on X with the question: "Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?"

- JUNE 5, 2.37pm ET:

Trump hits back on his social media platform, Truth Social:

"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!"

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

- JUNE 5, 4.06pm ET:

Trump defends the spending bill and takes a swipe at Musk:

"I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

- JUNE 5, 4.09pm ET:

Musk posts on X in response to Trump's comments about government contracts:

"In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately."

- JUNE 5, 4.11pm ET:

Musk writes "yes" on X in response to another user posting: "President vs Elon. Who wins? My money's on Elon. Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him."

- JUNE 5, 4.26pm ET:

Musk writes: "The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year."

-JUNE 5, 23:29 ET

Trump tells Politico, "Oh it's okay," and, "It's going very well, never done better," when asked about his public breakup with Musk, the news outlet reported.

White House aides have scheduled a call on Friday with Musk to broker peace, Politico reported.

- JUNE 6, 08:12 ET

Trump is not interested in talking to Musk, a White House source with knowledge of the matter says on Friday.

- JUNE 6, 18:23 ET

When asked whether he would consider cutting government contracts held by Musk, Trump says would look at everything.

- JUNE 7, 12:37 ET

Trump, in a telephone interview with NBC News, says his relationship with Musk is over and warned there would be "serious consequences" if Musk funds U.S. Democrats.

"No," Trump tells NBC when asked if he had any desire to repair his relationship with Musk.

"I have no intention of speaking to him," Trump says.

- JUNE 9, 15:31 ET

Trump says he has no plans to discontinue Starlink at the White House but might move his Tesla off-site

-JUNE 11, 03:05 ET

Musk says he regrets some of the posts he made last week about Trump, in a post on X.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas; Additional reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa; Editing by Scott Malone and David Gregorio and Anil D'Silva)