Donald Trump has responded after Elon Musk said some of his recent social media posts about the US president “went too far”.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss shared a series of posts on his X social media platform last week, including one which described Mr Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination”.
He also claimed, in a since-deleted post, that the president appeared in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Posting on X this morning, Mr Musk said: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
In response, the president is quoted as telling the New York Post: “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”
The publication said it spoke to Mr Trump in a brief phone conversation.
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The White House dismissed Mr Musk’s Epstein claims at the time, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying: “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill [a Republican tax and spending bill] because it does not include the policies he wanted.
“The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
Mr Musk did not specify which posts he regretted.
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In another post last Thursday, Mr Musk attacked Mr Trump’s tariffs, saying they “will cause a recession in the second half of this year”.
In response, Mr Trump, in an interview with ABC News, said Mr Musk had “lost his mind”. He also threatened to cancel government contracts with the businessman’s companies and said he had asked the billionaire to leave the White House.
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But yesterday, Mr Musk’s father Errol Musk told Sky News’ Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett: “It’s like any argument. Everybody at some point says I’ll never make up, but then they do later.”
He said the argument likely happened because of “emotions welling out of hand”.
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“They’ve had five months of intense day and night, hardly any sleep, and anybody who went through that would know your nerves are pretty much shredded after that time.”
He also said his son had texted him to say: “Don’t worry, we’re sorting it out.”
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The spat hit Tesla shares, which closed down 14.3% last Thursday, losing about $150bn (£111bn) in value.
They’ve since regained much of their value compared to the beginning of the month.
