(Bloomberg) -- Minute by minute, post by post, Elon Musk’s very public, extremely online feud with President Donald Trump sliced into his vaunted status as the world’s richest person.

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The final damage at day’s end: $34 billion erased from his personal net worth, the second-largest loss ever in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the 500 wealthiest people on the planet. The only bigger one: his own wipeout in November 2021.

The tit-for-tat was surreal, and also, in some ways, potentially inevitable for a US president who has used the Oval Office to dress down world leaders and a chief executive who has a history of launching himself from one crusade to another. The trigger was Musk’s sudden push, just days after he departed from Washington, to muster enough support to “kill” Trump’s signature “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

Musk, who’s still the world’s richest person with a vast $334.5 billion fortune, has endured any number of routs before. But the stakes are higher than ever in contending with Trump, as the president laid bare when he proposed ending Musk’s government contracts, in a potential blow to Tesla Inc. and SpaceX revenue.

In true Muskian fashion, the billionaire responded on X with five words uttered by Clint Eastwood’s character in Sudden Impact: “Go ahead, make my day.” He followed up by alleging, without evidence, that Trump’s name appears in the files related to the late New York financier Jeffrey Epstein.

He then said SpaceX would begin to decommission its Dragon spacecraft — a critical link to space for the US, which depends on Musk’s company to ferry cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. Roughly five hours later, he reversed his decision.

The war of words is a sharp departure from the months following Trump’s election win, when Musk’s net worth reached an all-time high approaching $500 billion. His companies’ valuations surged, buoyed by expectations that they would benefit from the billionaire’s relationship with Trump and his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk officially left Washington last week.

Tesla’s Path

The escalating spat raises questions about the path forward for Tesla, which once appealed to climate-conscious drivers but has since become synonymous with Trump’s MAGA priorities, alienating traditional, left-leaning consumers. The electric carmaker’s shares fell 14% on Thursday to $284.70.