Elon Musk Says Donald Trump Would've Lost Election Without Him

12:15 PM PT -- Elon Musk brought out his own big guns ... tweeting on X, "Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.  Have a nice day, DJT!"

11:55 AM PT -- Well this is escalating quickly ... amid the back-and-forth flame war on the two men's social media outlets, Donald Trump just went nuclear on his Truth Social platform ... appearing to threaten Musk's deals with the U.S. government.

Elon has multiple contracts with the government, and benefits from federal subsidies as well ... Musk companies Space X and Tesla both have gotten tax credits and other benefits over the years totaling billions of dollars.

In another Truth Social post, Trump said he was the one who asked Musk to leave his administration, saying he had been "wearing thin."

Elon Musk says he's the country's kingmaker ... 'cause he says Donald Trump wouldn't have won the election without him -- and the whole Republican Party would be in shambles, too!

The tech mogul fired off a series of tweets directed at POTUS ... including one where he said, without him, Trump would be sitting at home watching President Kamala Harris at the country's reins.

He adds, "Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate" ... so, Elon's pretty sure he's the only reason for the Republicans' recent decisive victory. He followed it up by accusing Republicans of being ungrateful to him.

Of course, this animosity between Elon and the prez is coming out because Musk is pissed about the recent tax and spending bill passed by the House of Representatives ... which EM has called a "disgusting abomination."

President Trump fired back at Elon for his comments ... saying he would've won Pennsylvania with or without Elon stumping for him -- and saying it seems to him Elon's developed a little "Trump Derangement Syndrome" since leaving DOGE, and D.C., last week.

DJT also claimed Elon knew the intimate details of the spending bill and said nothing about it ... but, Musk is calling BS on that -- responding, "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 says his reasoning isn't selfish, BTW ... 'cause he's fine with the bill losing solar and EV subsidies, which will likely affect Tesla if it means the bill is "slim and beautiful."

Sounds like the Elon and Donald honeymoon is over ... and, the social media battles are going to be epic.