WASHINGTON: US President Trump has no plans to call Elon Musk, two Trump administration officials said on Friday, following the very public acrimonious blowup of the Trump-Musk partnership.
A White House official — who spoke on condition of anonymity — said on Friday that the president planned to sell the red Tesla he bought in March. Trump originally purchased the car to demonstrate his support for Musk amid a backlash over his role in the administration. Tesla stocks had tanked more than 14 per cent on Thursday amid the row, losing some $100 billion of the company’s market value, but they leapt back in early trading Friday.
Administration officials said Trump showed little interest in engaging with Musk, even after the billionaire signalled he would be open to de-escalating the fight. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said that he hoped Musk and Trump would reconcile, adding that it “would be good for the party and the country if all that’s worked out.” But Johnson, who Musk has criticised for helping push through the sweeping domestic policy bill that the billionaire now opposes, made his support for Trump clear. “Do not doubt and do not second-guess and don’t ever challenge the president of the United States”, he said.
For months, people have wondered if anyone could stand up to Trump. Distinguished law firms and eminent universities crumpled like tissues. Paramount, the media company that owns ‘60 Minutes’, the most respected and feared television news programme of all time, reportedly tried to give Trump $15 million to settle a lawsuit. He said no because it was not a big enough surrender.
The feud started at a simmer last week, began bubbling on Wednesday and became a full-on boil on Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office. As new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz – the day’s visitor – sat in awkward silence, Trump sounded a bit bitter.
He expressed surprise at Musk’s criticism of his legislation. He pushed back against the notion that he would have lost last year’s presidential election without Musk’s hundreds of millions of dollars in support. And he said Musk was only changing his tune now because Tesla would be hurt by the Republican push to end electric vehicle tax credits.
On Thursday, Trump said he was “very disappointed in Elon”, threatened to cut Musk’s companies’ government contracts, said he’d fired him, mocked him for refusing makeup when he was in the Oval Office with a black eye, and called him “CRAZY”. And Musk accused Trump of lying, said he should be impeached, mused on creating a new political party, suggested he would decommission the SpaceX craft that brings astronauts back from the International Space Station, and alleged his former boss was in the Epstein files.
With one tweet linking Donald Trump with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, Elon Musk reignited a long-running conspiracy theory beloved of the US president’s far-right supporters.
The tech billionaire — who exited his role as a top White House advisor just last week — alleged Thursday that the Republican leader is featured in secret government files on rich and powerful former Epstein associates.
The Trump administration has acknowledged it is reviewing tens of thousands of documents, videos and investigative material that his “MAGA” movement says will unmask public figures complicit in Epstein’s crimes.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files,” Musk posted on his social media platform, X, as a growing feud with the president boiled over into a vicious public spat.
“That is the real reason they have not been made public.”
Supporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump´s base allege that Epstein´s associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.”
X declined to comment.
Separately, former White House chief strategist and an ally of President Trump Steve Bannon on Friday called for the Trump administration to investigate Elon Musk for alleged drug use, as well as the South African-native’s immigration status. “They have to do that. You have to take his security clearance. Investigate drug use and investigate his involvement” with China, Bannon said in a phone interview. “And you have to investigate his status as a citizen.”
Meanwhile, Vice President J D Vance has broken his silence amid the escalating online war of words between Trump and Musk.
“President Trump has done more than any person in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads,” Vance said on X (formerly Twitter) late Thursday night.
Affirming his stance and support of Trump, he added: “I’m proud to stand beside him.”
Vance’s public statement comes after Musk, who recently left his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), indirectly brought the Vice President into the row.
On Thursday, Musk responded “yes”, endorsing a social media post that said “Trump should be impeached” and that Vance “should replace him” in the White House.
