Trump says Musk ‘has lost his mind' as feud with Tesla tycoon continues
President Donald Trump continued his war of words with Elon Musk on Friday, saying the Tesla tycoon 'has lost his mind' — even as Musk seemed to be softening his stance in their epic feud.
Trump on Friday told reporters that while Musk may be ready to make amends, he's not ready to rekindle his friendship with the tech billionaire, whose public criticism of the president's "Big Beautiful Bill" — he called the proposed budget legislation a 'disgusting abomination' — sparked their ugly breakup.
'You mean the man who has lost his mind?' Trump said to ABC News' Jonathan Karl when asked about Musk.
The president added he is 'not particularly' interested in speaking with Musk directly even though he claimed Musk has been trying to talk to him.
'I'm not even thinking about Elon. He's got a problem,' Trump told CNN. 'The poor guy's got a problem.'
Musk didn't immediately respond to the new round of barbs from Trump, though the world's richest man signaled late Thursday that he was interested in lowering the temperature of their blow-up.
He liked favorable posts online about his relationship with Trump, including one from hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.
'I support @realDonaldTrump and @elonmusk and they should make peace for the benefit of our great country,' he wrote.
Musk replied: 'You're not wrong.'
But it may be far too late for detente.
MAGA adviser Steve Bannon suggested the government should use the Defense Production Act to seize SpaceX and Starlink from Musk in the interests of national security.
The populist firebrand also urged Trump to investigate Musk's reported drug use and even his immigration status. Musk was born and raised in South Africa and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, but some reports claim he worked illegally in the U.S. years ago.
Musk responded by deriding Bannon as a 'communist' and used the R-word to demean his intelligence.
Musk tweeted late Thursday that he would no longer allow NASA to use SpaceX's Dragon craft to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station, but backed off the threat hours later.
The bromance between the two men fractured in recent weeks as Musk stepped down from his government post and denounced Trump's sprawling budget bill for blowing up the federal budget deficit.
The criticism comes as Trump seeks to win the near-unanimous support of Republican lawmakers needed to jam the bill through Congress. It would extend his signature deep tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations and make substantial but lesser cuts to popular social programs like Medicaid.
Things really went off the rails Thursday when Trump said he was 'disappointed' in Musk and also accused him of having 'Trump Derangement Syndrome.'
Musk, who shelled out nearly $300 million to land Trump in the White House, also accused his ex-pal of 'ingratitude,' adding that 'Trump would have lost the election' if not for his support. The mogul also agreed with a social media post calling for Trump's impeachment and suggested that Trump is implicated in Jeffrey Epstein's notorious sex trafficking crimes.
Trump countered by threatening to cut off government contracts given to Musk's companies, paving the way for some MAGA acolytes to suggest other ways to exact pay back on Musk, who owns Tesla, SpaceX and X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
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