Vice President JD Vance and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles have secretly worked as billionaire matchmakers to repair the fractured bromance between the president and tech mogul Elon Musk.
Musk was Donald Trump’s biggest 2024 campaign donor and reveled in the nickname “first buddy” after helping Trump back into the White House. But the pair fell out dramatically when the Tesla CEO called the president’s beloved “Big Beautiful” spending bill a “disgusting abomination.”
The world’s richest man then went scorched-earth with a now-deleted X post where he said the reason the Trump administration had not released the Epstein files was because Trump himself appears in them.
Behind the scenes, key Trump aides have been working overtime to defrost the relationship between the pair—just as the president finally agreed to release the files relating to the sex offender he was friends with.
The New York Post reports that the bridge-building involved giving Musk and Trump some time to cool off.
“The truth is Susie’s role has always been a behind-the-scenes operator where she identifies problems and tries to solve them,” the source said, claiming Wiles has “always played a role mending fences where there is mutual interest.”
The insider added, “Susie and JD have both been people that Elon is comfortable going directly to when he has something that he wants to discuss.”
A second source claimed that “the relationship has really thawed” between the president and the X boss, while the vice president had “been working on” relaxing tensions between Musk and Trump, according to a different source.
The president referenced Musk several times while giving a speech at a Saudi investment forum at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday. “You are so lucky I am with you, Elon. Has he ever thanked me properly?” Trump said, as the crowd laughed. Musk was seated in the front row at the event.
Despite what seemed like a public dig, Musk posted after the event, “I would like to thank President Trump for all he has done for America and the world,” to his 229 million followers on X. The post has now had over 20 million views.
On Wednesday, Musk returned to Trump’s Truth Social grid for the first time in months as the president posting a similar photo of the event—although he didn’t bother to add a caption. Trump is usually not short of words on his Truth Social account.
Similarly, while Musk was front row at Tuesday afternoon’s investment forum alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his personal Trump-whisperer Wiles, it is claimed the president kept the billionaire literally at arm’s length during a dinner for the crown prince at the White House that night.
Despite a guest list including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, The Wall Street Journal noted that “Trump’s aides gave Musk a table assignment far from where the president was sitting.” It said the two men spoke briefly but did not have “a formal sit-down meeting.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Musk’s representatives for comment.
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