Elon Musk is back in Donald Trump’s good graces despite the world’s richest man so far snubbing his $300 million White House ballroom project.
In a sign that their bromance could end up being reignited ahead of next year’s crucial midterm elections, the president revealed on Monday that he’s been in touch with Musk, and has spoken “on and off” to the Tesla chief since they sat together at conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s memorial last month.
The revelation comes despite the tech titan being a notable omission on the list of billionaire donors to Trump’s controversial ballroom construction, whose financial backers include Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Palantir.
“Look, he’s a nice guy, and he’s a very capable guy. I’ve always liked him,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
“He had a bad spell—he had a bad moment. It was a stupid moment in his life, I’m sure he’d tell you that, but I like Elon and I suspect I’ll always like him.”
The “bad moment” Trump noted was a reference to the pair’s spectacular falling out in June, when the former DOGE chief, who had been brought in to cut government waste, branded the so-called “big, beautiful bill” as a “disgusting abomination” that would blow out the national debt even further.
Musk then went nuclear by declaring that Trump was in the Epstein Files and later calling for the president to be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance.
“This is so outrageous. It has crossed the line,” Trump ally Steve Bannon said in response to the attacks at the time. “He’s crossed the Rubicon and there’s no going back.”
Now, it seems there may be a path for Musk to get back into the fold after all.
This will likely give some Republicans a sigh of relief ahead of next year’s midterms, given Musk’s money and the megaphone he has on his social media platform X, can make or break political campaigns.
At the height of his epic break-up with the president, the Tesla boss threatened to set up his own third party.
However, he has said little about this since, and last month, in a significant breakthrough, sat briefly with Trump during Kirk’s memorial in Arizona after the conservative activist was assassinated.
“I’m so glad Charlie brought these two patriots back together,” conservative influencer Nick Sortor wrote on X with a clip of Trump’s latest comments.
Whether Musk ends up supporting GOP candidates or Trump’s controversial ballroom project is another question.
As the East Wing was demolished last week to make way for the $300 million ballroom, the president revealed that he had already raised about $350 million to fund it through private donors and his own money.
Other donors include cryptocurrency kings Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss; Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his family; and Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson and her family foundation and US Defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
But the donations have sparked concerns about ethics violations and the risk of “pay for play”—money paid to secure influence within the administration.
“There is a reason that we have Congress fund things, and you do not have private companies coming in to this extent and paying for whatever vanity project a president wants,” Minnesota Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar told MSNBC.
“In this case, he has literally taken a wrecking ball to our democracy, and then, of course, engage in what many of us are concerned about here, which is pay for play.”
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