Trump says he has no desire to fix his relationship with Musk, even after the former 'first buddy' deletes his X posts

Business Insider

8 hours ago

It seems Elon Musk won't be President Donald Trump's "first buddy" again anytime soon.
Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he has no plans to repair his relationship with Musk after it imploded this week. When asked if their relationship is done, Trump said, simply, "I would assume so, yeah."
Trump said he doesn't intend to speak with Musk and said the tech billionaire was "disrespectful to the office of the President."
"I think it's a very bad thing, because he's very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the President," Trump said.
The epic and very public fallout began after Musk criticized Trump's tax bill, which the president calls his "One Big Beautiful Bill."
During Thursday's dramatic exchange, which took place mostly on the social media networks each billionaire owns, Trump threatened to terminate Musk's government contracts and subsidies. Musk shot back that Trump was in the so-called "Epstein files" in a now-deleted post.
In the NBC interview on Saturday, Trump warned Musk against funding Democratic candidates running against GOP members voting in favor of the bill, saying there will be "serious consequences."
"If he does, he'll have to pay the consequences for that," Trump said. "He'll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that."
Last month, Musk said he would spend "a lot less" on political campaigns in the future. He spent hundreds of millions in support of Trump in 2024.
"If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it," Musk said at the Qatar Economic Forum last month. "I do not currently see a reason."
Trump's remarks on Saturday came after Musk deleted some X posts from his account. He deleted the post referencing the Epstein files and a video he re-posted that appeared to show Trump partying with Epstein in the 1990s. Musk also deleted an X post in which he called a Trump comment an "obvious lie" and another post saying SpaceX would decommission its Dragon spacecraft "immediately."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Business Insider that passing the tax bill is the president's priority.
"President Trump and the entire Administration will continue the important mission of cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from our federal government on behalf of taxpayers, and the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill is critical to helping accomplish that mission," Leavitt said in a statement.
Representatives for Musk did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
The repercussions from Musk and Trump's dispute were swift, affecting the price of Tesla stock and Dogecoin. A senior White House official told BI that Trump is now considering selling his Tesla.
On Saturday, Vice President JD Vance said it was a "huge mistake" for Musk to "go after the president" during the newest episode of "This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von."
"I'm not saying he has to agree with the bill or agree with everything that I'm saying," Vance said. "I just think it's a huge mistake for the world's wealthiest man, I think one of the most transformational entrepreneurs ever — that's Elon — to be at this war with the world's most powerful man."
During the interview, Vance said he thinks everything will be fine between the pair if Musk "chills out a little bit."
"Hopefully Elon figures it out and comes back into the fold," Vance said, adding that Trump had been a "little frustrated" with Musk's recent criticisms.
"But I think he's been very restrained because the president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk, and I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine," Vance said.