Elon Musk’s explosive rift with the White House stems from longstanding tensions about his libertarian policies and his unpredictable behaviour, according to sources close to the president.

Interviews with a string of insiders reveal months of concern at Mr Musk’s grandstanding behaviour and philosophical differences with people at the heart of the Trump administration.

Strains between the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful man boiled over in the most public of ways during the past 24 hours.

Mr Trump accused his former confidant of suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome” prompting Mr Musk to hit back with an extraordinary claim that the president’s name was in the so-called “Epstein files” of people linked to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

A Trump ally

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