Almost as quickly as it began, Elon Musk’s onslaught against President Donald Trump has come to an end.
But in the early hours of this morning the Space X founder walked back some of his comments, posting on X (the social media site he owns formerly known as Twitter): “I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far.”
For Musk, such a public apology directed at a prominent political figure is almost unheard of. Musk has previously told former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau that it “doesn’t matter what you say” and called for British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to go to jail, saying he was “evil.” He also said the U.K. parliamentary undersecretary for the home office, MP Jess Phillips, should be imprisoned and “thrown out.”
No such apologies were issued to these politicians.
And yet President Trump has extracted a 180-degree turn from the richest man on the planet, likely owing to the previously firm partnership between the duo and—critics might suggest—because of the pain the White House can inflict on Musk’s private interests.
The friendship between Musk and Trump began back on the campaign trail, with the billionaire entrepreneur backing the then Republican nominee to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
Musk also suggested the idea of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which would supposedly axe $2 trillion from federal spending, and was appointed to lead the team when Trump secured the Oval Office.
That was in response to Navarro claiming that the American people know Musk—the richest man on the planet—is not a “car manufacturer” but a “car assembler.” In April Musk then began wielding the “fake news” line against Navarro, saying that his claims about Tesla are “demonstrably false.”
At the time the White House shrugged off the sparring, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying: “Boys will be boys.”
But it was after Musk officially left Washington, D.C., as a special government employee that things really went south.
He continued: “[The bill] more than defeats all the cost savings achieved by the @DOGE team at great personal cost and risk.”
The Tesla CEO then claimed Trump could not have won last year’s election without him, as well as asking voters to rebel against the Big, Beautiful Bill.
Musk reacted to a clip of this interview on X, responding: “cool.”
