It remains to be seen how Mr. Trump will handle the attempted rapprochement and whether the two men’s relationship can be restored.
President Trump received a phone call from Elon Musk late on Monday night, which led to a public expression of regret from the billionaire early Wednesday for the attacks he had lodged against the president in their extraordinary public showdown last week, according to three people briefed on the call.
Mr. Musk’s outreach to Mr. Trump came after the tech entrepreneur spoke privately on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, about a path to a truce between the two men, according to two of the people. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.
The conversations paved the way for the strikingly chastened tone Mr. Musk struck in an X post early Wednesday, in which he wrote: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
Representatives for Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Musk had spent several days signaling that he wanted to make up with the president after the two men engaged in a sharp series of personal attacks last Thursday that played out from the Oval Office and on social media.
What began as criticism by the tech billionaire of Mr. Trump’s signature domestic bill devolved into an exchange of insults that mounted throughout the day, as the president claimed he had not needed Mr. Musk’s help to get elected and Mr. Musk tried to link Mr. Trump to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The day after Mr. Musk spoke with Ms. Wiles and Mr. Vance, he deleted his social media posts suggesting that the president’s name was in government files about Mr. Epstein.
It remains to be seen how Mr. Trump will handle the attempted rapprochement and whether the two men’s relationship can be restored.
In the wake of their showdown, Mr. Trump told advisers that he had no interest in talking to Mr. Musk, and was done with him, a sentiment he reiterated in interviews with reporters.
But behind the scenes, advisers from both camps worked to arrange a détente.
Both Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump have a lot at stake in the relationship, but it was Mr. Musk who appeared more eager to make amends. Mr. Trump threatened to cancel billions of dollars’ worth of contracts that Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, has with the federal government.
Mr. Musk is not without leverage, however. He is the biggest donor in Republican politics and had promised to give an additional $100 million to Mr. Trump’s outside groups ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. He also has extensive knowledge of the inner dynamics of the administration, and Mr. Trump has been keen to avoid a repeat of his first term, when former aides left on bad terms and went on to write books about their experiences.
Donald Trump responds to Elon Musk’s late-night apology
President Trump is feeling good about Elon Musk’s apology after the former “first buddy” admitted late Tuesday he had gone “too far” in his personal attacks on the commander-in-chief.
“I thought it was very nice that he did that,” the president told The Post in a brief phone conversation Wednesday morning, but didn’t say whether he was willing to let bygones be bygones with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.
Musk, 53, went off on Trump in a series of social media messages this past Thursday, at one point claiming the Republican would not have won the 2024 election without his help and suggesting the president was responsible for preventing the release of files on convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein due to his past association with the late financier.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk wrote late Tuesday after previously deleting his post about the Epstein files.
Efforts have been made by Trump’s allies to ease tensions between the two men.
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles held a phone call with Musk to talk about his relationship with Trump, according to a source familiar with the conversation.
The Post could not independently confirm other reports that Musk reached out to Trump personally on Monday.
The president has expressed openness to potentially burying the hatchet with Musk — who he accused last week of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and being bitter about both leaving his special government employee position and the House GOP removing electric vehicle tax incentives from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Trump told CNN on Friday that Musk was “crazy” — and threatened on Truth Social to look into revoking his company’s federal government contracts.
But the president also told The Post on Friday that “nothing surprises him” — not even his onetime ally turning against him.
Trump told Post columnist Miranda Devine Monday that he doesn’t “blame” Musk for the blow-up that started with the former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) figure’s criticisms of the Big Beautiful Bill — but maintained that he’s “a little disappointed.”“Look, I have no hard feelings,” Trump said. “I was really surprised that that happened. He went after a bill that’s phenomenal. …He just — I think he feels very badly that he said that, actually.”
When asked whether he would ever go back to a regular relationship with Musk, Trump told Devine’s “Pod Force One” podcast: “I guess I could, but we have to straighten out the country.”
“And my sole function now is getting this country back to a level higher than it’s ever been. And I think we can do that.”