US President Donald Trump has said he does not want to repair his relationship with Elon Musk and warned that his former ally and campaign donor could face “serious consequences” if he tries to help Democrats in the upcoming election.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker that he had no plans to reconcile with tech entrepreneur Mr. Musk.
Asked specifically whether he thought his relationship with the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX was over, Mr Trump replied: “I would assume so, yes.”
“I'm too busy with other things,” Mr. Trump continued.
“You know, I won the election in a landslide. I gave him (Mr. Musk) a lot of slack, long before this happened, I gave him slack in my first administration and saved his life in my first administration, I'm not going to talk to him.”
The US president also issued a warning amid speculation that Mr Musk could endorse Democratic lawmakers and candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.
“If he does this, he’s going to pay the consequences,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with NBC, though he declined to say what those consequences would be. Mr. Musk’s businesses have many lucrative federal contracts.
The US president's latest comments suggest Mr Musk is evolving from a close ally into a potential new target for Mr Trump, who has aggressively used the powers of his office to crack down on critics and punish perceived enemies.
As a major government contractor, Mr. Musk’s business could be particularly vulnerable to retaliation. Mr. Trump has already threatened to cancel Mr. Musk’s contracts, calling it an easy way to save money.
The dramatic rift between the president and the world's richest man began this week with Mr Musk's public criticism of Mr Trump's “big, beautiful bill” pending on Capitol Hill.
Mr Musk warned the bill would increase the federal budget deficit and called it a “disgusting abomination”.
Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Musk in the Oval Office, and soon he and Mr. Musk were trading sharp personal attacks on social media, leaving the White House and Republican leaders in Congress scrambling to assess the fallout.
As the spat escalated, Mr Musk proposed impeaching Mr Trump and made unsubstantiated claims that the government was covering up information about the president's ties to notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
By Saturday morning, Mr Musk appeared to have deleted his posts about Epstein.
In an interview, US Vice President J.D. Vance tried to downplay the feud, saying Musk was making a “huge mistake” in going after Trump but calling him an “emotional guy” who is getting irritated.
“I hope that eventually Elon will come back into the fold. It may not be possible now because he has gone so nuclear,” Mr. Vance said.
Mr Vance called Mr Musk an “incredible entrepreneur” and said Mr Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has sought to cut US government spending and laid off or fired thousands of workers, was “really good”.
Mr Vance made the comments in an interview with “manosphere” comedian Theo Vaughn, who last month joked about snorting drugs through a mixed-race child and the sexuality of men in the US Navy while opening for Mr Trump at a military base in Qatar.
The interview with Vance was recorded on Thursday, when Musk's posts were appearing on X, the billionaire's social networking site.
During the interview, Mr. Vaughan showed Vice President Mr. Musk a claim that Mr. Trump's administration had not released all the records related to Epstein because Mr. Trump was mentioned in them.
Mr Vance responded by saying: “Absolutely not. Donald Trump did nothing wrong to Jeffrey Epstein.”
“These things are just useless,” Mr. Vance said in response to another post by Mr. Musk calling for Mr. Trump to be impeached and replaced with Mr. Vance.
“This is complete madness. The president is doing a good job.”
Vance also defended the bill that angered Mr. Musk, saying its main goal was not to cut spending but to extend the 2017 tax cuts passed during Mr. Trump's first term.
The bill would cut spending and taxes, but would also leave about 10.9 million people without health insurance and increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion (£1.77 trillion) over a decade, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
“It's a good bill,” Mr. Vance said. “It's not a perfect bill.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
