Elon Musk on Tuesday made his first White House appearance since his falling out with President Donald Trump this summer—and since Trump’s split from Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, sat close to a wall in the East Room during Trump’s black-tie dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Until Tuesday, the 40-year-old Saudi royal hadn’t stepped foot in the U.S. since the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, whose killing bin Salman reportedly ordered, according to U.S. intelligence. Trump, 79, shrugged that off earlier Tuesday.
Trump patted Musk twice on the stomach when he entered the room, and Musk nodded and clapped.
The X owner was among many high-profile guests at the dinner. Also attending, per The New York Times, were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Dell CEO Michael Dell, Paramount Global CEO David Ellison, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, Ford Motor CEO William Ford Jr., FIFA head Gianni Infantino and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who met Trump’s youngest son, Barron. The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for a complete guest list.
None have had quite the same relationship with the Trump administration as Musk, who gave about $300 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign, haphazardly cut federal government programs and agencies and then left the administration after 120 days. And none have had as bitter a war of words with Trump.
Musk, 54, split with the president over his One Big Beautiful Bill, particularly how it eliminated some tax credits for electric vehicles. But the differences soon escalated to the point where Musk accused Trump of being named in the Jeffrey Epstein files, and that that was the reason they hadn’t been released. Musk later said he regretted the comment.
Following the blow-up, and after Musk flirted with and apparently abandoned founding a third party, the two reunited in person in September at the memorial service for conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Earlier that month, Trump had tempered his criticism of the billionaire.
“He’s got 80 percent super-genius, and then 20 percent he’s got some problems,” Trump told The Scott Jennings Show. “When he works out the 20 percent, he’ll be great.”
Also in September, Musk said he had received a White House invitation to a tech and AI summit, but couldn’t attend. He sent a representative instead.
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