The Tesla CEO played a significant role in the POTUS’ second election campaign last year, with Musk even asserting Trump wouldn’t have defeated Kamala Harris for the White House without his involvement.
Trump appointed the SpaceX founder to help oversee the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was charged with cutting unnecessary government expenditures.
Musk served in the position up until very recently, but relations have since deteriorated between the president and the world’s wealthiest individual.
The pair’s conflict apparently originates from opposing perspectives on Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, with Musk labeling it an ‘abomination’ and alleging the proposed legislation of reversing all the work he accomplished at DOGE.
Rejecting that assertion, Trump stated he was ‘disappointed’ in the tech magnate and maintained that Musk understood the details of the bill before he departed DOGE.
Musk subsequently posted on Twitter claiming that the president appears in the Jeffrey Epstein files in now-deleted tweets, which prompted the White House to describe the entire situation as an ‘unfortunate episode from Elon’.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” Musk claimed on social media. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
Musk added in a subsequent tweet: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
Musk has since addressed the situation after making the controversial statements, and it seems the billionaire has some remorse about posting them.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk posted on Twitter today (June 11).
While many would anticipate that relationship to now be finished, Trump has suggested it may not be the conclusion for himself and his former ‘first buddy’.
“Look, I have no hard feelings. I was really surprised that that happened… I think he feels very badly that he said that, actually,” the president commented on the Pod Force One podcast with New York Post columnist Miranda Devine.
Trump added: “I guess I could [patch things up with him] but we have to straighten out the country. 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.”
When previously questioned whether he believed the relationship was finished, Trump informed press in the Oval Office: “I would assume so, yeah. I’m too busy doing other things.”