Trump walks back threat to strip fed money from Elon Musk companies as feud cools
'Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon's companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!' the commander-in-chief wrote on Truth Social.
'I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that's good for all of us. We are setting records every day, and I want to keep it that way!'
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4 President-elect Donald Trump greets Elon Musk as he arrives to attend a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas.
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The warm words came ten days after xAI, one of Musk's companies, was awarded a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense.
The president floated clawing back his former ally's federal monies in the heat of their public falling out June 5, writing 'the easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.'
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Musk is the owner of SpaceX, Tesla, X, The Boring Company and Neuralink.
The federal government has partnered with SpaceX for years, awarding the company billions to transport astronauts to the International Space Station and improve GPS satellites.
In April alone, SpaceX received $5.9 billion in contracts from the Pentagon — while Musk's Starlink internet services power several federal agencies.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in November of last year the company had received $22 billion in government contracts to date.
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4 President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speak to the press as they stand next to a Tesla vehicle on the South Portico of the White House on March 11, 2025 in Washington, DC.
AFP via Getty Images
Trump directed the government to examine SpaceX's contracts for potential cuts back in June, but the review found the pacts to be too valuable, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Tesla has benefitted from electric vehicle subsidies — including regulatory credits offered by states like California to companies that meet certain targets for construction of electric vehicles. The Washington Post estimated in February that Tesla has earned $11.4 billion off of selling its credits to other vehicle companies.
4 The logo of Tesla on its European headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 02 May 2025.
RAMON VAN FLYMEN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
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4 A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
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The West Wing tiff broke out after Musk criticized Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act after his departure as a special government employee — with the former Department of Government Efficiency leader calling the bill 'disgusting' and an 'abomination.'
The two have not been seen publicly together since, but Trump has been adamant about moving on from the back-and-forth.
'That happens. Things like that happen. I don't blame him for anything. I was a little disappointed,' Trump told The Post's 'Pod Force One' on June 11.
'I guess I could [get back on good terms], but we have to straighten out the country,' the president said at the time. 'And my sole function now is getting this country back to a level higher than it's ever been. And I think we can do that.'
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