Brandon Bell/Pool via AP
President Donald Trump is confident that Elon Musk will once again embrace the Republican Party.
During a phone interview on “The Scott Jennings Show” that was recorded Tuesday, Trump said Musk doesn’t have a choice but to return to the GOP.
“I don’t think he has a choice,” he said. “What’s he gonna do? He’s gonna go with the radical Left lunatics? They’re lunatics.”
Trump complimented Musk, who served as a special government employee at the start of the president’s second term and was largely seen has the head of White House’s DOGE efforts.
“He’s a man of common sense. He’s a good man. He got off the reservation, incorrectly, and that’s okay because it’s just one of those things,” Trump said. “But he’s a good person. He’s got 80% super genius and then 20% he’s got some problems. And when he works out the 20%, he’ll be great. But he’s got some difficulty, but I liked him. I always liked him. I like him now. But he went off the reservation and he wished he didn’t do it.”
Trump and Musk have feuded over policy differences, namely the GOP’s tax and spending legislation, the “Big Beautiful Bill” that passed earlier this year. The Tesla CEO characterized it as the “debt slavery bill.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the law “will result in a net increase in the unified budget deficit totaling $3.4 trillion over the 2025-2034 period, relative to CBO’s January 2025 baseline updated to reflect enacted legislation.”
Earlier this year, their relationship imploded in public view as the two posted heated messages directed at each on their respective social media platforms.
In July, Musk said on X that he’d form a new political party, the America Party.
Business Insider reported in August that Musk hasn’t begun the formal process yet to start the America Party a month after he made the declaration on social media. The CEO continued to be a major GOP donor.
Prominent MAGA figures, including Vice President JD Vance, have expressed hopes that Musk would return to the GOP, arguing that the billionaire was key to Trump’s 2024 electoral victory and having access to the world’s richest man would be helpful in future elections.
Musk and a White House spokesperson did not return a request for comment.
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