Elon Musk’s ‘regret’ in Trump flame war

The world’s most powerful politician and its richest businessman stepped back Wednesday from their war of words that stunned Washington and Wall Street alike last week.

Early Wednesday, Elon 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.”

It was Musk’s strongest sign of contrition yet over his handling of the dramatic break with Trump, days after a call with two of the president’s top allies.

Vice President JD Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles called Musk last Friday to urge him to end his conflict with Trump, said people familiar with the conversation. The call was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Musk served as a close adviser and confidant to Trump until a bitter public falling-out last week, which caused a firestorm for the president and the world’s richest person.

The dispute — which was triggered by Musk’s opposition to the tax-cut bill Trump is pushing through Congress — posed a threat to Musk’s wealth when the president raised the prospect of retaliating by cutting off his government contracts. That would have battered SpaceX, his rocket company.

“I thought it was very nice that he did that,” Trump said in a brief interview with the New York Post, without elaborating on whether he would fully let go of the feud.

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.

Last 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,

Musk was first to stand down from what had been an escalating spat, responding to advice from those online to de-escalate after it rapidly veered out of control. He had riled Trump by claiming credit for his election victory, endorsing his impeachment and even suggesting the president was implicated in the sex crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.

It remains unclear how much Musk’s expressions of regret will do much to repair his relationship with Trump, who is known for carrying grudges and has been using the power of the federal government to lash out at those who have crossed him. That would seem to pose particular peril for Musk, given SpaceX holds a large amount of federal contracts and many of his businesses are subject to federal regulatory oversight.

Trump has signaled little willingness to mend fences with Musk but told reporters that he felt they had once had a good relationship and “I wish him well.”

The scale of the blow-up had already cast significant doubt on whether the two will ever resume the close friendship they had during the first several months of Trump’s second term, when Musk was a nearly ubiquitous presence in the White House.

Musk had led the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which sought to slash spending, shutter agencies and cut the federal workforce. The department aimed to generate $1 trillion of savings for the government but fell far short of that goal, producing just $180 billion by its own unverified accounting.

Even that would be erased by Trump’s tax bill, which would add $2.4 trillion to the government’s budget deficits over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That caused Musk to lobby against its passage, calling it a “disgusting abomination.”

–Bloomberg and The Associated Press contributed