Politics
NEW: Elon Called Trump Before Posting Public Apology
Before reflecting on his public row with President Donald Trump, Elon Musk first called the man himself.
The two former friends spoke privately, leading Musk to post an apology on social media shortly after 3 a.m. in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” the Tesla founder wrote.
The call, which occurred last Friday, followed others between Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance as well as Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff. The latter pushed Musk to repair his relationship with the president after going public with his complaints about deficit spending and insinuating that Trump was implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
It was the first time both men had spoken since the blowup, sources told the WSJ.
Vance, who joined Wiles in urging Musk to deescalate, has sided in public with Trump while refraining from leveling sharp criticism at Musk, allowing him to play a peacekeeping role.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president “acknowledged” Musk’s post, though declined to elaborate. Neither did President Trump have much to say when asked as he arrived at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for an opening night performance of “Les Misérables.”
“I really haven’t thought too much about it,” he said, standing next to First Lady Melania Trump, the NYT reports.
Vance, also in attendance, filled in some of the gaps.
“But yes, I have spoken to Elon and the president about trying to ensure that Elon is publicly supporting and privately supporting the president’s agenda,” he told reporters.
Musk has spent several days signaling that he wants to be back in Trump’s good graces following the president’s threat to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of lucrative government contracts for his various companies. Trump’s comment on Truth Social last week came after reporters surfaced that Musk was planning to put his largesse behind Democrats in the 2026 midterms.
The mercurial entrepreneur has his own cards to play as the world’s richest man, however. He had previously committed to spending at least $100 million to help Republicans keep control of the U.S. House and Senate, and his make-up with Trump may be the start of putting that deal back into play.
The night after he spoke with Vance and Wiles, some of the Musk’s most inflammatory social media posts began to disappear. He deleted one, suggesting Trump has withheld a full release of the Epstein files because he was named in some of the previously released documents.
A feud first began after Trump vetoed Musk’s man to head up NASA, who was found to have a history of donating to Democrats. Musk excused the donations as part of doing business, but Sergio Gor, the director of personnel for the White House, maintained that the nominee couldn’t be trusted.
But by Sunday, Musk was sharing posts from Trump critical of California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his handling of the Los Angeles riots.
