President Donald Trump admitted the once “great relationship” with former Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk might be permanently altered.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship; I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said in an Oval Office media gaggle Thursday, acknowledging the reports that Musk was upset by not only the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but also his pick for NASA Administrator getting yanked Saturday night after Musk’s official White House parting Friday.
Trump mentioned Musk was happy and amicable Friday before the NASA nomination of Jared Isaacman was pulled just over 24 hours later.
“I can understand why he’s upset,” Trump said in a candid Q&A session. “Remember he was here for a long time. You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk. And even with the black eye.
“I said, ‘do you want a little makeup? We’ll get you a little makeup.’
“But he said, ‘no, I don’t think so,’ which is interesting and very nice. He wants to be who he is.”
But Musk’s animated, animus-filled public comments against the OBBB shocked Trump.
“I was surprised because you were here – everybody in this room practically was here – as we had a wonderful sendoff,” Trump continued. “He said wonderful things about me. You couldn’t have said nicer things, the best things.”
Musk posted a series of rebukes of Trump’s remarks in real time, including boldly saying Trump owes his election to him and adding Republicans would have lost the Senate.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote on X, responding to a video where Trump said “I would have won Pennsylvania regardless of Elon.”
In an ensuing post, Musk sighed: “Such ingratitude.”
But, in the Oval Office, Trump noted Musk has worn the various hats of MAGA, actually and figuratively.
“He’s worn the hat, ‘Trump was right about everything,’ and I am right about the Great Big Beautiful Bill,” Trump said. “We call it a Great Big Beautiful Bill because that’s what it is.”
Before getting into the Musk fallout, Trump hyped the OBBB.
“It’s the biggest cut in the history of our country,” Trump said. “We’ve never cut – it’s about 1.6 trillion in cuts. It’s the biggest tax cut tax. You would say people’s taxes will go way down, but it’s the biggest tax cut in history.”
Trump suggested the electric vehicle mandate ending bothered Musk, too.
“Elon is upset because we took the EV mandate, and you know, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles,” Trump said. “And, you know, they’re having a hard time the electric vehicles. And they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy.”
Musk fired back at the EV claim, repeating his contention that the Trump criticism had nothing to do with that, and rejecting Trump’s claim that Musk was privy to the crafting of the House GOP legislation.
“False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” Musk wrote in another scathing X rebuke, highlighting the depth of the falling out with Trump.
Trump also noted Musk’s ire was a result of Isaacman’s nomination being pulled, mostly because he was a Democrat, according to Trump.
“He wanted – and rightfully you know – he recommended somebody from that he, I guess, knew very well. I’m sure he respected him, but to run NASA and I didn’t think it was appropriate, and he happened to be a Democrat, like, totally Democrat.
“And I say, you know, look, we won. We get certain privileges, and one of the privileges we don’t have to appoint a Democrat.
“NASA is very important. We have great people.”
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