WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Friday that he has no plans to speak with billionaire Elon Musk after their feud exploded into public this week.
“No, I don’t have any plans,” Trump told reporters on Friday evening, when asked whether he intended to contact his former adviser.
Asked about his view of Musk, Trump said, “I’m not thinking about Elon. You know, I just wish him well.”
Trump added that he’s “not really interested” in efforts to reconcile with the Tesla CEO.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told NBC News earlier in the day that Trump wouldn’t hold a call on Friday with Musk.
“There are no plans for that today,” Wiles said when asked about reporting by Politico that White House aides scheduled a call Friday with Musk to try to patch things up between the two men.
Trump is “not interested” in a call, a senior White House official told NBC News.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is focused on the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the GOP domestic policy bill that Musk trashed, which triggered their falling out. “That’s the mindset he left the Oval Office in yesterday,” she said.
A Trump administration official added, “There could be anything — I’d like to de-escalate a very unfortunate situation. But there are no calls on the books, at least not now.”
People at the White House expect Musk will have to cool things down before any permanent de-escalation. The president “does not back down,” a Trump adviser said.
The rift between Trump and Musk comes after friction built more quietly between the tech billionaire and others in the Trump administration during Musk’s time at the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk and Wiles “didn’t really have a great relationship,” said one person close to Trump, who said the chief of staff would get “irritated” at Musk’s attempts to give orders to Cabinet secretaries or staffers.
This person, speaking on background, said he believes there will be movement inside the administration now “to get rid of some of the DOGE guys at the various offices.”
The White House is taking the feud seriously: White House aides scrambled into at least two closed-door meetings Thursday to strategize about whether and how to respond to Musk’s social media barrage. Vice President JD Vance was with Trump on Thursday when the tweets began and they spoke multiple times in the afternoon, according to a person familiar with the day’s events. Trump encouraged Vance to be diplomatic about Musk if asked about him, the person said.
Vance defended Trump in a post on X Thursday night, writing, “President Trump has done more than any person in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads. I’m proud to stand beside him.”
Meanwhile, Trump is considering selling or giving away the red Tesla that he purchased in March, according to a senior White House official. The president is still weighing his options and has not made a final decision, the official added.
As to whether there will be a rapprochement between Musk and Trump, the person close to Trump said that, knowing the president, “he would want to see Elon be quiet for a while and then Elon reach out to him and say sorry. I think the president would then let it go.
“I don’t think [Trump] is going to try to make the peace,” the person continued.
How the spat escalated
The spat began Thursday when Trump criticized Musk’s recent attacks on the Republican policy measure over its estimated increase to the deficit, and turned into a full-scale blowup that sent ripples through Congress and Tesla’s stock prices.
“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“I’m very disappointed in Elon,” Trump said. “I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Trump suggested that Musk, who earlier this week called the GOP bill a “disgusting abomination,” was upset that the bill cut out a tax credit implemented by the Biden administration to incentivize electric vehicle purchases.
Musk denied he was knowledgeable about the legislation.
“False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” Musk wrote in a post on X.
The two men spent the rest of the day Thursday lobbing insults at each other on their own social media platforms — Musk on X and Trump on Truth Social.
Musk posted on X more than 40 times Thursday criticizing the GOP tax bill and reacting to Trump’s comments.
Congress reacts
Amid the flurry of posts and comments, Democrats are cautious about whether Musk’s opposition will ultimately help their efforts to block Trump’s tax and spending legislation.
“It will have some effect, but Republicans are much more in fear of Trump than Musk,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., though he added that Musk’s disapproval “lends credibility to their objections, particularly on the debt and deficit.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in an interview on CNBC that he found Musk’s posts on X “surprising and disappointing.”
Johnson also pushed back on Musk’s claims that he is responsible for the Republican victories in November.
“Elon was a big contributor in the last election, but this was a whole team effort,” Johnson said. “I mean, President Trump is the most consequential political figure of his generation, of modern American history. He is the one responsible for that. But we all worked hard. We delivered the House majority.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., the chair of the House’s subcommittee focused on the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, said that Musk’s “behavior was very unwarranted.”
“Do I like the price tag of it? No. I agree with Elon,” she said of the big bill the House recently passed, with Greene voting for it. “I don’t like the price tag of it, but I’m able to look at all aspects of the bill, and I don’t have to get into an argument with anybody.”
Meanwhile, other Republicans are trying to avoid the clash and remain neutral.
“There’s a good verse in Proverbs: ‘Stay out of fights,’” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told NBC News. “I’m staying out of this one.”
