Vice President JD Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles played a critical role in coaxing Tesla CEO Elon Musk into taking steps to mend his relationship with President Donald Trump through a phone call.
A week ago, a feud between Musk and the president erupted seemingly over a massive tax cuts bill the White House is pushing. It became unclear whether the two would be able to repair their friendship as the disagreement sparked into a social media war, where both men traded barbs. But throughout the feud, Trump signaled he would be open to reconciliation, although he placed the buck on Musk to make the first move.
Late Monday evening, Musk did just that, picking up the phone to speak to Trump for the first time since the blowup, according to the New York Times.
The move came after Vance and Wiles, arguably the closest people to Trump in the White House, staged an intervention, holding a joint call with Musk on Friday, urging him to patch things up with the president.
Within 48 hours of speaking to the president, Musk issued a public apology.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week,” he said in a post to X. “They went too far.”
Trump signaled he would be open to pursuing reconciliation following the apology.
“I thought it was very nice that he did that,” the president said.
The battle erupted last Thursday over disagreements about Trump’s “big beautiful” bill. Musk found the legislation’s price tag abhorrent, worrying it would blow up the federal debt and calling it an “abomination.”
Trump said Musk decided to denounce the tax cuts bill only after he found it would remove federal electric vehicle subsidies, which could hurt Musk’s company.
MUSK COMMENTS ABOUT FEUD WITH TRUMP, SAYS HE REGRETS ‘SOME’ OF HIS POSTS
Musk responded to the accusation by floating threats to start his own political party, backing efforts to impeach Trump, and suggesting that the president held sinister connections to notorious convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. After campaigning heavily for Trump in Pennsylvania last year, Musk also said Trump wouldn’t have won the 2024 election without his help.
Trump threatened to cut government contracts to SpaceX amid the feud and denounced claims Musk won him the election, but generally kept his comebacks fairly muted, keeping the conversation largely centered on the tax bill. The president kept the door open to reconciliation through the battle, saying during a media stakeout at the White House that he would “have no problem” with receiving a phone call from Musk.
