'Billboard Chris' sounds off after arrest in 'most woke city' for opposing transgender treatments for kids
Conservative activists warned about the threat to free speech in Europe after they were arrested in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday for holding signs opposing transgender medical treatments for children.
Chris Elston, better known as "Billboard Chris," and Alliance Defending Freedom International senior legal communications officer Lois McLatchie Miller spoke to Fox News Digital after they were released, hours after being harassed by a crowd and taken into police custody.
Elston, well known for wearing billboards decrying transgender medical care for children out in public, stood out in the streets of the Belgian capital alongside McLatchie Miller. Both wore billboards with the messages, "Children are never born in the wrong body" and "Children cannot consent to puberty blockers."
Elston travels the world to spread his message, which he says mostly receives positive feedback. But in Brussels, it was mostly opposition.
"It was pretty much non-stop abuse and harassment," Elston told Fox News Digital. "It quickly became apparent that this is probably the most woke city I have been to in my five years of campaigning, and nothing else comes close."
"We had a man throw a glass bottle at us. It landed behind me, but right in front of a five-year-old girl who was walking with her dad, smashed on the ground. People were telling me I needed to get out of there because Antifa was going to come, and no matter where we walked in the city, we were getting a lot of grief," he added.
After one man continually harassed McLatchie Miller, the pair called the police for protection. Instead, they were told if they didn't remove their signs, they would be arrested. They were then detained, strip-searched and had their signs confiscated, before they were released three hours later with no formal charge, Elston said.
"They put us in handcuffs and everything, but they just let us go, and it seems they just wanted to get rid of us instead of dealing with the angry, unruly mob," he added.
The activists were in Brussels this week to share their message and discuss policy issues with members of the European Parliament.
McLatchie Miller, who works for the faith-based legal organization, Alliance Defending Freedom International, said it was surprising to find herself detained, when she is usually fighting for ADF clients whose speech has been silenced by local authorities.
"I don't think we were quite prepared to expect this level of hostility here in Brussels, but hopefully it exposes some things that need to be exposed about the need to protect freedom of expression in Europe," she told Fox News Digital.
Vice President JD Vance recently sounded the alarm about free speech being under threat in Europe.
In a speech in Munich in February, he raised the case of a British army veteran who was arrested and charged for silently praying in an abortion buffer zone to warn that Europe appeared to be retreating from some of its fundamental values it shares with the U.S. and adopting "Soviet-era" censorship.
McLatchie Miller said her arrest "really represents the free speech crisis that Europe is facing right now."
"Vance pointed this out in his Munich speech just a few months ago, and many people in Europe laughed at him and said that this wasn't true," she continued. "But case after case, time after time, we're seeing this assault on free speech unfold."
"As Chris and I were just there sharing a very peaceful message, a very important message, that no child has ever been born in the wrong body, and they do not need drugs and scalpels to fix themselves, they need love and affirmation. It's an opinion that's shared by many people across Europe, and yet the authorities came and shut down that conversation in the streets of this capital city, this heart of the European Union."
"If free speech is not accessible here in Europe's alleged home of democracy, then it's not accessible anywhere, and it really does raise an alarm bell," she said.
Brussels police did not immediately return a request for comment.
Their arrest comes at a time when Elston believes there is a growing movement across the globe of those questioning or criticizing transitioning children.
"We're making tremendous progress all across the globe," he said.
He cited European countries like Finland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom which now discourage giving puberty blockers to children experiencing gender dysphoria.
"The truth is spreading," he added.
Elston said he speaks to people on both sides of the aisle who share his concerns about transitioning children, and he believes it was one major issue that swung voters away from the Democratic Party in the 2024 election.
"This was the number one issue in the U.S. election that caused swing voters to vote for President Donald Trump," he argued. "It wasn't the economy, it wasn't immigration, it was transgender insanity. And even in these Democrat states, a lot of those voters are sick and tired of this."
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Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times The dozen board members of the prestigious Fulbright program that promotes international educational exchanges resigned on Wednesday because of what they said was political interference by the Trump administration in their operations, according to people familiar with the issues and a board memo obtained by The New York Times. The members are concerned that political appointees at the State Department, which manages the program, are acting illegally by canceling the awarding of Fulbright scholarships to almost 200 American professors and researchers who are prepared to go to universities and other research institutions overseas starting this summer, said the people, including Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire. The board approved those scholars over the winter after a yearlong selection process, and the State Department was supposed to send acceptance letters by April, the people said. But instead, the board learned that the office of public diplomacy at the agency had begun sending rejection letters to the scholars based mainly on their research topics, they said. In addition, the department is reviewing the applications of about 1,200 scholars from other countries who have already been approved by the board to come to the United States, the people said. Those foreign scholars were also supposed to receive acceptance letters around April. The memo written by the board says that members are resigning 'rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago,' according to a copy obtained by The Times. The board posted the memo online on Wednesday morning, after sending a resignation letter to the White House. The board is also concerned that the budget that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is requesting from Congress for the next fiscal year cuts spending for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which includes the Fulbright program, to $50 million from $691 million this fiscal year. The State Department did not reply to a request for comment on Wednesday. The actions come as President Trump and his top aides seek to bend academic institutions to their ideological beliefs. The State Department's public diplomacy office is run by Darren Beattie, a political appointee who was fired from a job during the first Trump administration after he gave a talk at a conference attended by white nationalists. He has made social media posts on white grievances, including one saying 'competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,' and ones ridiculing Mr. Rubio. Darren Beattie runs the State Department's public diplomacy office, which began sending rejection letters to scholars based mainly on their research topics, the board members said. Credit... Rebecca Noble for The New York Times The administration is trying to withhold federal funding, mainly for science research, from several universities and in some cases is demanding changes to departments. It has tried to stop foreign students and scholars from coming to Harvard University, but a court has temporarily barred the administration from acting on that order. Mr. Rubio told the State Department last month to stop taking new appointments for foreign citizens applying for student or exchange visas while the agency expands scrutiny of social media posts by the applicants. American universities rely on tuition payments by foreign students for a major part of their revenue and value the research expertise of those students and visiting scholars. Top Trump administration officials say many American universities are too liberal in their curricula and must insert more conservative ideas into their teaching, research and hiring practices. The administration has also dismantled research institutions established by Congress, including the Wilson Center and the United States Institute of Peace. A federal judge ruled last month that the administration's gutting of USIP was illegal. The Fulbright program was established in 1946 after legislation introduced by J. William Fulbright, a Democratic senator from Arkansas. The Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961 formalized legal statutes for the program. It says the selection of scholars, teachers and others falls under the authority of a 12-member board appointed by the president. The nearly 200 scholars who are receiving rejection letters are part of a group of about 900 American scholars approved by the board over the winter. 'The bipartisan Fulbright Board was mandated by Congress to be a check on the executive and to ensure that students, researchers and educators are not subjected to the blatant political favoritism that this administration is known for,' Ms. Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement. 'While I understand and respect the bipartisan Fulbright Board for resigning en masse rather than grant credibility to a politicized and unlawful process,' she added, 'I am painfully aware that today's move will change the quality of Fulbright programming and the independent research that has made our country a leader in so many fields.' Ms. Shaheen and the board asserted that the State Department was violating the congressional statute by rejecting or reviewing the scholarship candidates already approved by the board, the people familiar with the issues said. The selection process for the American scholars usually starts with career diplomats in overseas missions and U.S. educational institutions, and proceeds for months until the board gives essentially pro forma approval over the winter. Across Republican and Democratic administrations, the board has generally approved of the candidates submitted by the State Department because of the long and rigorous selection process and to avoid the appearance of political interference. The United States has 49 bilateral commissions established by treaties with other nations, many American allies, to help with the selection process and match scholars with institutions. More than 35 countries contribute half or more of the funding for the scholarships. The makeup of the board changes as members finish their three-year terms. The current members are all appointees of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. because those who began serving on it during the first Trump administration have rotated out. The nearly 200 American scholars who are receiving rejection letters from the State Department are about a fifth of the total U.S. scholars approved by the board over the winter. Mr. Beattie and his aides appear to be rejecting them based on their stated research topics, which include climate change, environmental resilience, migration, gender, race and ethnicity and homelessness, said the people familiar with the State Department's actions. The topics also include ones in the sciences, such as biology, agriculture and animal studies, according to the board memo. The Fulbright program encompasses about 8,000 scholars, students, teachers and researchers in different categories at any given time. The board sent separate messages last month to Mr. Beattie and Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state, expressing concern over the undermining of the selection process for the American scholars, the people said. Most of the American and foreign scholars approved by the board had gotten early signals from officials and commissions of their acceptances so they could arrange leaves from their universities and prepare to move overseas for about a year. June 11, 2025, 10:11 a.m. ET Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, just off the plane after trade talks with Chinese officials in London, is now testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee. In his prepared remarks, Bessent said: 'China has a singular opportunity to stabilize its economy by shifting away from excess production towards greater consumption. But the country needs to be a reliable partner in trade negotiations.' He added that if China will 'course-correct by upholding its end of the initial trade agreement we outlined in Geneva last month' the world's two largest economies can rebalance trade relations. June 11, 2025, 10:04 a.m. ET General Motors said it would invest $4 billion to expand production of gasoline-powered and electric models in the United States, in some cases relocating production from Mexico. The move may help it win favor with President Trump, who has complained about companies making cars in Mexico. G.M. said late Tuesday it would relocate production of the Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle from Mexico to its factory in Kansas City. It also said it would produce gasoline-powered Chevrolet Blazer S.U.V.s at its factory in Spring Hill, Tenn., alongside electric Cadillac models. G.M. had been expected to move Blazer production to Mexico. Credit... Brett Carlsen for The New York Times June 11, 2025, 8:18 a.m. ET President Trump said in a Truth Social post this morning that the economic deal between the U.S. and China 'is done' and that China has committed to supplying the U.S. with magnets and rare earth minerals. He said that Chinese students would continue to have access to American colleges and universities. On tariffs, Trump said that the tariff rate for Chinese imports would be 55 percent, while China's tariff rate would be 10 percent. 'Relationship is excellent,' Trump wrote. The president noted that the deal was subject to final approval from him and President Xi Jinping of China. Bryan Bedford recently criticized the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency President Trump nominated him to lead, for what he called a 'lack of strategic vision.' Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Bryan Bedford, President Trump's pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, refused on Wednesday to commit to holding all commercial pilots to the same federal training requirements, unnerving Democrats as he outlined his vision to modernize the air travel safety agency at a critical moment. The issue emerged as a flashpoint during Mr. Bedford's confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which centered mostly on issues of safety. Mr. Bedford, a longtime airline executive, is expected to receive enough support to be confirmed. Nevertheless, he is auditioning to run the F.A.A. as the agency tries to address several issues, including an air traffic controller staffing shortage and outdated technology that has caused significant outages and delays, that critics have said make flying riskier. 'I'm a big supporter of structured training as opposed to pure time building,' he told senators of the current federal training requirements, later adding that: 'I don't believe safety is static.' Mr. Bedford has been a longtime critic of the federal requirement that commercial pilots complete 1,500 flight hours of training, a standard he called 'arbitrary' in congressional testimony in 2014. In 2022, as the leader of Republic Airways, he petitioned the F.A.A. to allow graduates of Republic's flight school to be certified after completing only 750 hours of training, the same number required of military pilots seeking to pilot commercial aircraft. The petition was denied. As F.A.A. administrator, Mr. Bedford would have some discretion to grant such waivers to other pilots, and potentially even to graduates of Republic's school, if they reapply for a waiver, after a mandatory two-year recusal period with which he has agreed to comply. On Wednesday, he declined to pledge he would not dole out such waivers until the F.A.A. could fully staff air traffic control towers, rankling Democrats. They warned that chipping away at pilot safety standards before other safeguards were in place could lead to more midair accidents like the fatal collision between a commercial jet and a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29. 'Now is not the time for less cockpit time for the pilots,' Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, the top Democrat on the panel's aviation subcommittee, said while questioning Mr. Bedford, adding: 'In incident after incident it has been the pilots — the pilots — who made a last-second decision to avert disaster.' Fears about air travel safety came to a head this year after the crash near Reagan Airport. The ensuing crisis of confidence in air travel has inspired sweeping debate over how to balance the oftentimes competing demands of speed and safety as officials rush to fix the F.A.A.'s longstanding problems. While Mr. Bedford's stance on pilot training is expected to cost him support among Democrats, the panel's top Republican backed his position. 'Fifteen hundred hours of mindless banner towing is no way to train a commercial pilot,' Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the panel's chairman, said during the hearing. Mr. Bedford repeatedly emphasized that his top priority as administrator would be improving the air traffic control system. He pledged to accelerate the hiring of controllers and roll out more advanced technology, much of which he argued was already commercially available. 'There's stuff that's on the market today, made by American manufacturers, that they're selling abroad,' he argued, adding later: 'The tools that we are giving our work force are unacceptable.' As part of that, Mr. Bedford endorsed the expansion of tracking technologies that would allow airplanes — including military aircraft — to be more visible to air traffic controllers, noting that the military helicopter that crashed into an American Airlines plane near National Airport had turned off its tracking device. Mr. Bedford spoke favorably of the Essential Air Service, a federal program that subsidizes air travel to rural and underserved areas, despite a Trump administration proposal to slash its budget by about half. He also noted that he would support an influx of federal funds to upgrade aging air traffic control towers, saying that though the $12.5 billion Congress had already authorized was 'a great start,' that 'it's going to take a lot more than that.' But he was cautious about running afoul of other initiatives Mr. Trump has championed. After recounting an anecdote about how Republic's flight school, had trained a woman of color to become an airline captain, Mr. Bedford deflected questions about whether he agreed with Mr. Trump's claim that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were at fault in the crash at National Airport. The claim has been roundly criticized. 'I don't have any earthly idea,' Mr. Bedford said. He also sidestepped queries about whether a proposed auction of federal spectrum, the portion of the spectrum used for wireless communications that belongs to the government, to private operators might negatively affect aviation safety. Last week, Mr. Trump endorsed a plan from congressional Republicans to authorize such an auction. 'I'm not informed enough to formulate an opinion,' Mr. Bedford said, despite Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, the panel's top Democrat, insisting that Mr. Bedford had previously told her that the proposed auction would be 'a big problem.' 'We had significant challenges with the last spectrum,' Mr. Bedford replied, adding: 'I said for the record we should learn those lessons of the past and act more collaboratively.' Several airline companies and trade associations, as well as the air traffic controllers' union, have backed Mr. Bedford's candidacy. But a union representing airline pilots has raised concerns, pointing to his stance on training. On Wednesday, family members of recent plane crash victims who attended the hearing also offered mixed critiques of Mr. Bedford's stance on lowering pilot training standards. 'If we get the very best training, there may be room for that,' said Tim Lilley, whose son, Sam Lilley, was one of the pilots for the flight that was hit by an Army Blackhawk helicopter on Jan. 29. The elder Mr. Lilley previously flew Blackhawk helicopters for the Army for 20 years. 'His additional training, we were all for, but make that in addition to the 1,500 hours,' said Ron Aughtmon, who lost his uncle, John Fiore, in the 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407, which prompted Congress to order the 1,500-hour rule be put in place. 'There shouldn't be a reduction. It works.' In ethics disclosures, Mr. Bedford promised to resign from his current positions running or serving on the boards of various airlines, noting that he expected to receive a lump-sum severance payment and outstanding bonuses from Republic upon leaving his position should he be confirmed as the next F.A.A. leader. He also committed to serving a full five-year term to ensure that the agency had stable leadership as it tried to accelerated fixes. The F.A.A. has had five leaders in the last four years. The push for an inquiry is tied to a conference Harvard held as part of a broader 'Harvard China Health Partnership.' Credit... Sophie Park for The New York Times Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pushing to investigate whether Harvard University violated federal sanctions by collaborating on a health insurance conference in China that may have included officials blacklisted by the U.S. government, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Rubio signed off on a recommendation to the Treasury Department last month to open an investigation, which experts and former Treasury officials said was an unusual attempt from a cabinet secretary to target a domestic entity for sanctions enforcement. Whether the agency within the Treasury that handles sanctions, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, opened an investigation in response was unclear — but such a move could expose Harvard to significant legal risks. Mr. Rubio's action is the latest example of the Trump administration's whole-of-government approach to bringing the Ivy League university to heel. President Trump has sought for months to impose his political agenda on Harvard by reshaping its curriculum, admissions and hiring processes. The effort initially relied primarily on accusations that university officials had not done enough to address antisemitism on campus. In recent weeks, however, the administration's focus has expanded to other issues, including allegations about Harvard's foreign ties, particularly to China. A potential sanctions investigation demonstrates how Harvard's problems with the government extend far beyond questions of whether the school will continue receiving federal funding. Mr. Trump and his allies appear determined to upend nearly all aspects of the institution, which has long symbolized the pinnacle of higher learning in the country and attracted influential scholars from around the globe. A spokesman for the Treasury Department said the agency takes any allegations of sanctions violations 'extremely seriously' but declined to comment on a possible or pending sanctions investigation. A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The health insurance conference, known as the Training Course on Health Financing, began in 2019 as a joint venture between Harvard, the World Bank and the National Health Insurance Administration, the arm of the Chinese government that oversees the state-backed health care system, according to the university's website. Over the years, training has focused on topics like 'innovative provider payment methods' and 'pricing and payment for internet health.' The university has promoted the event, which in some years has drawn upward of 200 people, as a key part of a broader 'Harvard China Health Partnership' inside its T.H. Chan School for Public Health. University officials have previously described the event as aimed at expanding access to high-quality health care for 1.4 billion people in China. Behind Mr. Rubio's sanctions push is the presence of officials from a Chinese state-run group called the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps at some, if not all, of the conferences since 2019. The X.P.C.C. is known in northwest China for building towns and running its own university and hospital systems. The group is also responsible for systemic human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the region, according to the U.S. government. The Chinese government formed the X.P.C.C. more than seven decades ago as a paramilitary organization tasked with settling a distant region with many ethnic groups and some militias. The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the group in 2020. Harvard has been conducting an internal review into the X.P.C.C.'s involvement at the conference, but it was unclear what details had been turned up, according to two people familiar with the inquiry who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal university deliberations. A Harvard spokesman declined to comment. An archived version of a Harvard webpage about the inaugural conference noted that participants in the training included the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. That event occurred one year before the U.S. government targeted the group for sanctions, but mention of the X.P.C.C. has since been deleted. A Chinese government website about the 2023 conference shows that participants that year — three years after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the X.P.C.C. — included Chinese health officials, scholars from 'top universities,' such as Harvard, and representatives of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Still, the X.P.C.C.'s involvement in the conference only recently gained attention from Trump allies, after a report about Harvard's links to China published on April 22 by Strategy Risks, a New York-based intelligence company specializing in corporate exposure to China. The report was funded by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank that has advised Republican policymakers. Since then, the report's details have been highlighted in news articles from conservative media outlets and public statements from Republican officials. On May 15, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas cited the Strategy Risks report in a letter to Mr. Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging an investigation into Harvard's public health school. On May 19, Republicans on the House education committee sent a request for records to Harvard about, in part, the X.P.C.C.'s involvement in the conference. On May 22, the Department of Homeland Security said that Harvard had 'hosted and trained' members of the group and included a link to a Fox News article about the House Republican records request in its news release. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, signed off on a recommendation to the Treasury Department, led by Scott Bessent, right, last month to open an investigation into Harvard. Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Investigations of potential sanctions violations could take months or years, while penalties range from a cautionary letter from the government to significant financial damages. Other cabinet secretaries — like the secretary of state — often coordinate with the Treasury secretary on foreign individuals, groups or countries that they believe should be subject to sanctions. But it is atypical for the nation's chief diplomat to single out an American individual, group or company for a potential violation, according to John Smith, a former director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Sanctions investigations, Mr. Smith said, are typically started after reporting in media or from companies, the intelligence community or law enforcement. 'I wouldn't say it's wrong or improper,' Mr. Smith said. 'I would just say it's unusual and not the usual course of business.' Typically, after learning of a potential violation, the Office of Foreign Assets Control decides whether to open an investigation. If the office ultimately finds wrongdoing, the Treasury could impose civil penalties and recommend that the Justice Department pursue criminal charges. In particularly egregious instances, companies can be hit with civil and criminal penalties that come with fines as high as billions of dollars. Harvard has confronted a tumultuous two months since Mr. Trump set his sights on the school. In some ways, Harvard has been victimized by the success of its yearslong push to expand its global influence, which has abruptly crashed into the nationalist impulses fueling Mr. Trump's 'America First' agenda. Many of Harvard's attempts at inroads in China began relatively recently, when Washington was engaged with Beijing as a strategic and economic partner. China is now viewed more widely as an adversary, a shift that accelerated during Mr. Trump's first administration. Harvard brought an initial lawsuit against the administration in April, accusing the government of trying to assert control over the school with threats to cut federal funding. By then, the Trump administration had already blocked $2.2 billion in various grants. Since the lawsuit was filed, the university and its research partners have lost nearly another $1.5 billion in support from the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Department and other federal agencies. The university is also fighting in court over an effort from Mr. Trump and the Homeland Security Department to revoke visas from Harvard's international students, who account for about one-fourth of the student body, and bar them from the country. Harvard has been targeted by additional investigations from the Education Department, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Health and Human Services Department and the Justice Department. Isaac Stone Fish, the founder and chief executive of Strategy Risks, said he started his company in 2021 after working as a journalist in Beijing. In 2022, he published a book, 'America Second,' that traces the recent transition of the U.S.-China relationship, from economic partners to open rivals. Mr. Stone Fish said his report, cited by conservatives, should not be read as a 'blanket condemnation' of Harvard. He praised the university for pushing ahead on what he described as crucial research and scholarship into China. But he also argued that the X.P.C.C. was 'one of the world's most notorious organizations' and that the university's partnerships should be held to a high standard. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, speaking at a Bloomberg News event in Washington on Tuesday, defended the administration's punishing approach to Harvard and said it was a way to shift an ideological tilt she views as hostile to conservatives. Asked to summarize the administration's successes so far in its battle with Harvard, she pointed to the departure of two faculty members in March from the university's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. 'We have noticed that they did replace their head of Middle Eastern studies because they felt that they needed to make some adjustments there,' Ms. McMahon said. 'So we're pleased to see that.' All of the federal funding cuts for Harvard — and eight of the 10 federal investigations into the university — have happened since the professors left campus. Elon Musk in the Oval Office last month. Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Elon Musk said in a social media post early Wednesday that he regretted some of his posts and comments about President Trump last week, which had led the president to disparage the tech billionaire, a feud that played out in real time on social media. Mr. Musk said on his X platform that some of his posts about Mr. Trump 'went too far.' Mr. Musk, the world's richest person, was once among the president's closest advisers, overseeing a major effort to slash spending and reduce the size of the federal work force. But he and Mr. Trump had a dramatic and public falling out after the Tesla chief executive left his role in the administration. Both men traded barbs on social media, and Mr. Trump said last week that he had no interest in repairing the relationship. Mr. Musk's public expression of regret was another sign of a potential thaw in the standoff with the president. Even last week, Mr. Musk had agreed with a post on X suggesting the two men were 'stronger together.' Mr. Musk has since deleted some of his most incendiary social media posts. Mr. Trump has also toned down some of his public criticisms of Mr. Musk. The protests in Los Angeles also highlighted a key issue where the two men agree: immigration. In recent days, Mr. Musk has used his social media platform to echo Mr. Trump's rhetoric about the protests and need for a strong government response. Mr. Musk's post on Wednesday underscores the complicated power dynamics between the two men. Mr. Musk, who poured roughly $275 million into Mr. Trump's re-election campaign, is the biggest donor in Republican politics. He also has more followers than anyone else on X, the social media platform he owns. But Mr. Trump holds vast political power over Mr. Musk. The billionaire's companies, especially Tesla and SpaceX, have received billions of dollars in federal contracts in recent years. As the two men sparred online last week, Mr. Trump threatened to cut them off as a way to 'save money' in the federal budget. Mr. Musk's companies were promised $3 billion in federal contracts from 17 federal agencies in 2023 alone. A number of federal agencies are investigating or suing companies owned by Mr. Musk. Allies of the two men have been urging them to reconcile. The spat initially focused on Mr. Musk's criticism of Mr. Trump's signature domestic policy bill, which he condemned as a 'disgusting abomination' because it will add substantially to the national debt. But the spat devolved quickly into petty and outlandish attacks. Mr. Musk, for example, suggested that the Trump administration had not released files on the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein because Mr. Trump was named in them. Mr. Trump, at one point, asked why Mr. Musk had not covered up his black eye with makeup during an Oval Office appearance last week. The social media fight came as Mr. Musk had pledged to step back from politics and his work at the Department of Government Efficiency, a federal government cost-cutting project, to refocus on his companies, which are facing important moments for their futures. Tesla has seen its sales slump globally as Mr. Musk's politics have become a strain for the car brand. In the United States, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and France, sales have fallen while other electric carmakers are gaining ground. Tesla is facing a major test later this month, when the company is expected to introduce a new autonomous driving taxi fleet in Austin, Texas, called Robotaxi. Mr. Musk's space company, SpaceX, is also facing challenges. The company is developing the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. Test flights thus far have produced mixed results. See more on: Donald Trump © 2025 The New York Times Company Manage Privacy Preferences
