Trump says he has no desire to mend relationship with Musk

President Donald Trump said Saturday that his relationship with Elon Musk was likely beyond repair after the two sparred publicly on social media this past week, and he warned there would be “serious consequences” if Musk financed candidates to run against Republicans who voted in favor of the president’s domestic policy bill.

In a phone interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker, Trump said he had no plans to speak with Musk, calling the tech billionaire “disrespectful” to the office of the president. When asked whether he had any desire to repair his relationship with Musk, Trump said, “No.”

Musk, who poured millions of dollars into the Trump campaign last year, spearheaded a massive government restructuring project in recent months, cutting thousands of federal jobs before he returned to running his businesses last week.

Musk’s vociferous opposition to the president’s bill, expressed on social media, touched off the dispute between the two men Thursday. But he has since removed his most vicious social media posts about Trump, notably his accusation that the Trump administration was blocking the release of information about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because the files somehow implicated the president, who had been a friend of Epstein’s for years before falling out with him.

Another of Musk’s deleted posts was a vow that his company SpaceX would decommission its Dragon spacecraft, which NASA has used to transport crew to the International Space Station. That comment came in response to a post by Trump on Truth Social that he could save the government billions of dollars by canceling Musk’s federal contracts.

Trump was asked on an Air Force One flight to New Jersey on Friday how serious he was about possibly canceling Musk’s contracts. Trump did not rule it out.

“He’s got a lot of money. He gets a lot of subsidy, so we’ll take a look at that,” Trump said. “Only if it’s fair for him and for the country, I would certainly think about it. But it has to be fair.”

Still, the president avoided attacking Musk when pressed by reporters Friday and said he wished Musk and his companies well.

There were other signs from Vice President JD Vance that the feud might not last long.

In a podcast appearance with comedian Theo Von, recorded Thursday during the height of the Musk-Trump dispute, Vance went out of his way to signal that the door to the president’s orbit remained open for the world’s richest man.

“Elon, he’s an incredible entrepreneur,” Vance said. “And look, man, I’m always going to be loyal to the president, and I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold.”

Vance praised Musk’s work with the ad hoc Department of Government Efficiency and empathized with his frustrations with the political process in Washington.

“I just think it’s a huge mistake for the world’s wealthiest man, I think one of the most transformational entrepreneurs ever, that’s Elon, to be at this war with the world’s most powerful man,” Vance said.

The possibility of a rapprochement seemed to evaporate Saturday morning, however, when Trump spoke to NBC News. He said he was “too busy doing other things” to talk with Musk about patching things up. Then, asked if his relationship with Musk was over, he said: “I would assume so, yeah.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.