JD Vance has reportedly spent much of Donald Trump’s first year back at the White House doggedly trying to keep the president and Elon Musk from tearing one another apart.
Amid his explosive divorce from the MAGA leader earlier this summer, Musk only dropped much-trumpeted plans to form his very own “America Party” following a secret intervention by the vice president and his team, according to The Washington Post.
The newspaper’s report, released Monday, provides an inside look at the sheer effort expended by Vance in quietly bringing the Tesla CEO back into the GOP fold—and allies say that even now, their truce remains delicate.
Vance, himself a former venture capitalist, enjoyed a cozy relationship with the tech tycoon before his ascent to the White House, one which he reportedly worked hard to deepen as the SpaceX founder charged ahead with his controversial cost-cutting DOGE initiative.
In February, soon after Trump took office, Vance reportedly invited Musk to a family dinner at the Naval Observatory, an early sign that the vice president planned to serve as a personal bridge for Musk at the White House.
Over the following months, the pair continued to speak frequently, often several times a week, maintaining a direct channel of communication as Musk’s influence and visibility inside the MAGA administration grew.
That relationship apparently became ever more crucial as Musk began to openly clash with the administration, notably by criticizing Trump’s spending proposals on social media toward the end of May.
As those attacks escalated to include accusations the president was avoiding the long-promised release of files related to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein because he himself was in them, Vance is understood to have worked privately to contain the fallout of the pair’s messy split.
Trump would not appear to have made that easy, in particular by provoking Musk’s ire when he rescinded the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a Musk ally, to serve as NASA administrator.
Seeing that nomination as a key issue for Musk, Vance reportedly lobbied MAGA lawmakers to revive Isaacman’s confirmation, positioning the move as a way to repair relations and address Musk’s concerns directly.
Toward the end of the summer, those reputed efforts appeared to have shown results when Musk quietly abandoned plans to launch his own party, easing fears of a prospective split among the MAGA base.
Following the SpaceX founder’s appearance at a White House dinner with Saudi despot Mohammad bin Salman in November, and an apparent detente with the president following the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk earlier in September, the Post reports that Musk has since revived plans to support Republican candidates ahead of next year’s crucial midterm elections.
Vance’s motives would not appear entirely selfless. The newspaper suggests the vice president, widely known to be eyeing his own run for the Oval Office come 2028, is fully aware of what support a close relationship with Musk may be able to provide. Musk is said to have already made clear he sees Vance as a possible contender in 2028.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and representatives for Musk and Vance for comment on this story.
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