Following a sharp public conflict between U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, the White House has scheduled a phone call with Musk today in an effort to ease tensions between the two influential figures. This was reported by Politico, citing sources in the administration.
Trump’s official comment to journalists was an attempt to downplay the scandal: Oh, it’s fine. It’s going very well. Never been better. However, just a day earlier, an open war of words had erupted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Timeline of the conflict:
— 11:20 a.m. ET: Elon Musk began reposting Donald Trump’s old tweets where he criticized the national debt. Musk commented on one of them: Wise words.
— Noon: President Trump told reporters: Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if it will be that way in the future.
— Later that day: Musk accused Trump of being mentioned in Jeffrey Epstein’s case files and claimed this was the reason the documents were never released: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That’s why they’re not being released. Have a nice day, DJT.
— Evening: Musk claimed that without his support, Trump would have lost the 2024 election: Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Democrats would control the House, and the Republicans would have a 51-49 split in the Senate. Such ingratitude.
— Later: Musk openly supported the idea of impeachment by replying Yes to a post suggesting Trump be replaced by his Vice President JD Vance.
Amid the escalation, Tesla shares dropped 10 percent, and the company’s market capitalization fell by $150 billion. The conflict became the most public and damaging between the two figures — the former tech bromance now appears to be over.
The White House has not commented officially on the allegations, but is clearly working to prevent further political and financial fallout.