The Memo: Uneasy truce descends in Trump-Musk war

Yahoo

14 hours ago

President Trump and Elon Musk let an uneasy truce mostly take hold Friday, a day after their previous alliance imploded in spectacular fashion.
On Thursday, Musk cast innuendo on Trump's decades-old association with deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein, implying that the 'Epstein files' had not been released because they contained incriminating information about the president. Musk also contended the president would not have won last year's election against then-Vice President Kamala Harris without his help.
Those jabs followed comments from Trump, during an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, where he took aim at Musk.
Trump asserted that Musk had grown critical of the massive budget bill making its way through Congress for selfish reasons — because it cut incentives to buy electrical vehicles such as Teslas. He also suggested the businessman was operating out of a sense of pique because the White House recently withdrew its nomination of a Musk ally, Jared Isaacman, to lead NASA.
There was nothing nearly so spectacular during the day Friday — although that could change at any moment give both men's irascibility and penchant for verbal combat.
Instead, Trump mostly confined himself to phone calls to TV anchors, where he expressed shoulder-shrugging lack of interest in speaking with Musk. Musk maintained his usual prolific social media posting, but mostly about topics unrelated to Trump.
Still, it was hardly a full ceasefire.
On his round of phone calls — none of which appeared to have been recorded for broadcast — Trump told Bret Baier of Fox News, 'Elon has totally lost it,' informed Jonathan Karl of ABC News that Musk had 'lost his mind,' and asserted to Dana Bash of CNN that 'the poor guy's got a problem.'
The White House also let it be known that Trump intended to either sell or give away the Tesla he bought in March as a public display of support for Musk.
Musk, among many other posts, approved of the idea advanced by another social media user that he had 'criticized Congress, not Trump. Trump then attacked Elon personally.'
'Exactly,' Musk responded.
The businessman also called Trump's erstwhile chief strategist Steve Bannon 'a criminal.' Musk and Bannon have a long-running feud.
But many Republicans will settle for hostilities between Trump and Musk at least not ramping up any further from their Thursday levels.
Trump seems reluctant to get into an all-out verbal war with Musk, especially given the massive megaphone wielded by the world's richest man. Musk has more than 220 million followers on X, the social media platform he owns. Though unpopular with the general population, Musk has a strong hold over the younger, male-dominated online right.
CBS News also reported that, despite the feud, 'there has been no effort to oust the over 100 administration officials who came from Musk's orbit.'
The leveling-off of tensions will come as a relief to Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Exasperation with Musk neared the boiling point Thursday, when he implied he might back the creation of an alternative party, while also lambasting Trump and congressional leaders — including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) for how far they have moved from past statements bemoaning growing deficits.
The current legislation, which Trump called the 'big beautiful bill,' would increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over a decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Republican leaders are already grappling with tight math as they try to get the bill through the Senate, where the GOP has a 53-47 majority.
Republican senators have expressed misgivings from different perspectives, with Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) dismayed that the legislation does not curb government spending, while others such as Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) are uneasy about changes to Medicaid that are projected to lead to millions of Americans losing health insurance.
Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to turn some of the Trump-Musk chaos to their advantage.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising appeal telling supporters that the clash between the two men meant 'we knew our moment to get ahead had arrived.'
Democratic Reps. Stephen Lynch (Mass.) and Robert Garcia (Calif.) wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel seeking more information about Musk's comments regarding Trump and Epstein. The move was first reported by Axios.
The two congressmen — both of whom serve on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, with Lynch as its acting ranking member — cited Musk's contention that the 'real reason' the Epstein files had not been released was because Trump was mentioned in them.
'We ask that you immediately clarify whether this allegation is true,' the two Democrats wrote. They also requested a description of 'the role of President Donald Trump in reviewing documents pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.'
The White House has dismissed the request as a stunt, and many other Republicans will argue it is mischief-making.
But the bigger question is whether the Trump-Musk feud will burst back into life anytime soon — and, if so, who will get caught in the blast zone.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.
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