President Donald Trump finally took questions on his stunning public feud with Elon Musk, after laying low for most of Friday – while repeating his threat to probe a litany of Musk contracts.
‘We’ll take look at everything,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. ‘It’s a lot of money.
He continued: ‘It’s a lot of subsidy … so we’ll take a look… only if it’s fair… only if it’s to be fair for him and the country… ‘
The line on subsidy suggests Trump will continue to push to go after tax credits for electric cars such as the Musk-owned Tesla. That language features in the House-passed ‘big, beautiful bill.
Following the outbreak of their feud, Trump and his allies have said Musk turned on the bill because it cuts the subsidies. Musk has said he doesn’t need them anyway.
At another point Trump disavowed knowledge of calls for probes of Musk – after his longtime ally Steve Bannon, a Musk adversary, said Musk should be probed or even deported.
President Trump broke his silence on his feud with Elon Musk Friday afternoon
‘I had no idea there were any… I’ll let them speak for themselves … I have no idea,’ Trump said.
It had been 24 hours since he addressed his extraordinary break with his former ‘first buddy’ who used to accompany him to Mar-a-Lago and who Trump invited to cabinet meeting and hosted the office along with Musk’s child, ‘little X.’
At times Trump appeared to want to tamp down the talk of the feud – despite escalating it with threats and ignoring advice to set up a phone call to settle it.
‘Honestly I’ve been so busy working on China… working on Russia… working on Iran.. I’m not thinking about Elon musk .. I just wish him well,’ Trump said.
And he won’t be demanding Musk return the gold colored key he presented him with in the Oval Office just days ago.
‘No I don’t take things back,’ Trump said.
He dodged a question about dumping his new $80,000 Tesla. ‘I hope he does well with Tesla,’ Trump answered.
Trump held his events – including signing an executive order on drones in the U.S. – behind closed doors. Then, he toured a golf course at Joint Base Andrews in a golf cart while trailed by aides and Secret Service agents.
He ignored shouted questions about his relationship with the world’s richest man while leaving the White House.
It wasn’t until he boarded Air Force One en route to his Bedminister, New Jersey golf club that he finally spoke about the simmering feud that has driven down Tesla’s stock price and prompted speculation about big changes in the space industry as well as talk that Musk’s billions in government contracts could be under threat.
On a day he was feuding with former first buddy, Trump toured golf courses at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland
On Thursday Trump and Musk took part in a spectacular public spat, which included cameos by dead serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and anti-Semitic rapper Kanye West.
The fallout between Trump and Musk – who were political allies for a little less than a year – started in recent weeks when the billionaire started resisting Republicans’ ‘big, beautiful bill,’ arguing that the spending wiped out DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts.
Then, on Thursday, when Trump was supposed to be hosting the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office, he was asked about Musk’s recent criticism.
From there the dam broke.
‘Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more, I was surprised,’ Trump told reporters.
The president suggested that Musk was angry – not over the bill ballooning the deficit – but because the Trump administration has pulled back on electric vehicle mandates, which negatively impacted Tesla, and replaced the Musk-approved nominee to lead NASA, which could hinder SpaceX‘s government contracts.
‘And you know, Elon’s upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles, and they’re having a hard time the electric vehicles and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy,’ Trump said. ‘I know that disburbed him.’
Over the weekend, Trump pulled the nomination of Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Isaacman had worked alongside Musk at SpaceX.
President Donald Trump was hosting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office on Thursday when he was asked about Elon Musk’s recent criticism of the ‘big, beautiful bill’ – that teed a furious feud
‘He recommended somebody that I guess he knew very well, I’m sure he respected him, to run NASA and I didn’t think it was appropriate and he happened to be a Democrat, like totally Democrat,’ Trump continued. ‘We won, we get certain privileges and one of the privileges is we don’t have to appoint a Democrat.’
Musk posted to X as Trump’s Q&A with reporters was ongoing.
‘Whatever,’ the billionaire wrote.
‘Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,’ he advised.
‘In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that [is] both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this!’ Musk continued. ‘Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.’
The spat quickly turned personal with Musk then posting that Trump would have lost the 2024 election had it not been for the world’s richest man – him.
Musk had publicly endorsed Trump on the heels of the July 13th assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania and poured around $290 million of his fortune into the Republican’s campaign.
The billionaire also joined Trump on the campaign trail when he returned to the site of the Butler shooting in early October, a month before Election Day.
Elon Musk speaks at the Capitol One Arena on President Donald Trump’s inauguration day. Musk took credit for Trump’s 2024 election victory in X posts on Thursday
Elon Musk objected to President Donald Trump’s claim that Trump would have won Pennsylvania – and the 2024 election – without the help from the world’s richest man. ‘Such ingratitude,’ Musk commented
Trump said in the Oval that he likely still would have won Pennsylvania without Musk’s help and because Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t choose the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, to be her running mate.
Even with Shapiro on the ticket, Trump claimed, ‘I would have won Pennsylvania, I would have won by a lot.’
Musk said that was laughable.
‘Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,’ Musk claimed.
‘Such ingratitude,’ the billionaire added.
The 53-year-old Musk also asserted he had more staying power than the 78-year-old president.
‘Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years,’ Musk said Thursday afternoon, responding to a post from MAGA agitator Laura Loomer.
Loomer said she was reporting from Capitol Hill and that Republican lawmakers were trying to determine if it was better to side with Trump or Musk.
After President Donald Trump concluded his meeting with the German chancellor he took to Truth Social and called Elon Musk ‘CRAZY!’ and threatened to cancel Musk’s government contracts
After his meeting with Merz, Trump continued to throw punches online.
Trump asserted that he had asked Musk to leave his administration and said the billionaire went ‘CRAZY!’
‘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!’ Trump wrote.
The president then threatened to pull SpaceX and Tesla’s government contracts.
‘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!’ Trump wrote.
Musk then taunted Trump to act.
‘This just gets better and better,’ he wrote. ‘Go ahead, make my day …’
In a follow-up post, Musk said he would ‘begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.’
Elon Musk dramatically charged that President Donald Trump’s name appears in the files of known pedophile Jeffrey Epstein
This 1997 photo shows then real estate developer Donald Trump (right) alongside Jeffrey Epstein (left), the pedophile sex offender who died in prison in 2019
The Dragon is how NASA astronauts currently travel to the International Space Station – and how supplies make it there.
As the fight continued, Tesla shares plummeted.
Anti-semitic rapper Kanye West even got involved.
‘Broooos please noooooo. We love you both so much,’ West wrote.
And Musk threw the Epstein bomb.
‘@RealDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,’ Musk wrote. ‘Have a nice day, DJT!’
Epstein is a serial child sex offender who died in prison in 2019.
Trump pledged to release the files related to Epstein, with Attorney General Pam Bondi releasing some pages in February, but most of that information was already in the public domain.
‘Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out,’ Musk added.
Trump didn’t directly respond to Musk’s Epstein charge, instead posting what amounted to a shrug on Truth Social, while also continuing to back the ‘big, beautiful bill.’
‘I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,’ Trump wrote. ‘This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.’
Later he ignored shouted questions from reporters on Musk’s Epstein charge as he hosted the National Fraternal Order of Police executive board in the State Dining Room.
Asked for comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Mail in a statement: ‘This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.’
‘The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,’ Leavitt added.
Trump didn’t directly respond to Musk’s Epstein charge, instead posting what amounted to a shrug on Truth Social, while also continuing to back the ‘big, beautiful bill.’
‘I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,’ Trump wrote. ‘This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.’
Later he ignored shouted questions from reporters on Musk’s Epstein charge as he hosted the National Fraternal Order of Police executive board in the State Dining Room.
A source familiar pointed out to the Daily Mail that ‘everyone knows President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Palm Beach Golf Club.’
‘The Administration itself released Epstein files with the President’s name included. This is not a new surprise Elon is uncovering. Everyone already knew this,’ the source continued.
The source also mused, ‘If Elon truly thought the President was more deeply involved with Epstein, why did he hangout with him for 6 months and say he “loves him as much as a straight man can love a straight man?”‘
It was less than a week ago that Trump gave Musk a golden key and a DOGE send-off from the Oval Office.
