NEW YORK (AP) — The world’s most powerful politician and its richest businessman stepped back from their war of words that stunned Washington and Wall Street alike last week, but it's unclear if the peace will hold.
Early Wednesday, Musk wrote on X, “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
For his part, Trump said in a New York Post podcast interview published Wednesday, “Things like that happen. I don’t blame him for anything.”
Musk’s break with a president whom he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect had appeared to put an end to his influence in the White House and dashed investors' hopes for favored treatment for his businesses. For Trump, the spat was a distraction as he attempts to pass a massive tax bill, negotiate peace in two international conflicts and deal with protests in the second biggest city in the U.S.
On Thursday, investors in Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla sent the stock plunging more than 14%, knocking $150 billion off the company's market value. Tesla shares recovered those losses over a few days' trading, although the rally stalled Wednesday, perhaps a sign that investors remain on edge and want a more solid confirmation that the feud has ended. Tesla shares closed up 0.1% at $326.43.
The Trump side was uneasy as well. On Friday, Vice President JD Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles felt compelled to intervene. The pair called Musk and urged him to end his feud with Trump, according to two people familiar with the call who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The call was first reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal.
Tesla investors had been hoping Trump would pull back from regulatory scrutiny of Musk’s partially self-driving cars and hammer out new federal rules to help usher in a future of fully self-driving cars that they are convinced Tesla will dominate. The dispute seemed especially ill-timed with an upcoming trial run of Tesla's self-driving “robotaxis” promised for this month. Musk in a separate post late Tuesday on X said that Tesla’s rollout of the cab service in Austin, Texas, is “tentatively” scheduled for June 22.
Wall Street analysts have expressed concern that Trump could retaliate against Musk by having federal safety regulators impede a broad rollout of the service.
What's more, Trump at one point threatened to cut government subsidies and contracts from Musk companies, which include the rocket company and big NASA contractor SpaceX.
Before expressing regrets for his comments, Musk deleted a post in which he claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Meanwhile, other posts that irritated Trump, including ones in which Musk called the spending bill an “abomination” and claimed credit for Trump’s election victory, remained live.
Asked in the Post podcast taped on Monday whether he might reconcile with Musk, Trump responded, “I guess I could but, you know, we have to straighten out the country and my sole function now is getting this country back to a level higher than it’s ever been and I think we can do that."
That was a marked changed from Trump's comments on Sunday when he told NBC’s Kristen Welker that he has no desire to repair their relationship and warned that Musk could face “ serious consequences ” if he tried to help Democrats in upcoming elections.
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AP writer Michelle Price contributed from Washington.
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