Musk regrets 'some' of his anti-Trump tweets: 'They went too far'

After posting messages supporting the president's response to anti-ICE protests and deleting posts linking him to Epstein, Elon Musk offered another sign of reconciliation: "I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week," he wrote on X. "They went too far."

The public rift began last week, shortly after Musk's term as special counsel at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ended. The farewell was on a Friday, in the Oval Office, amid words of thanks and promises to continue working together. The following weekend, Musk advanced his dissatisfaction with the Administration, but assured that his disagreements would be private.

Three days later he broke his silence. "I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore," he posted on X a week ago. The reason for his discontent, he specified then, was the Administration's budget proposal, known as the Great and Wonderful Bill: "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination."

From then on, the rhetoric escalated from both sides—"Trump is showing such ingratitude," "Musk went CRAZY!"—to accusations that the government had avoided releasing the "Epstein files" because the president would appear involved. Musk doubled down in subsequent, now-deleted tweets.

Trump, open to reconciliation... but not in a hurry

"I have no hard feelings," Trump said in the debut of the Pod Force One podcast, pre-recorded and released Thursday. But, he acknowledged, "I was really surprised."

Columnist and host Miranda Devine asked him to clarify his accusations that Musk had “problems”—“what kind of problems, are you talking about drugs?” “I don’t know what his problem is,” the president dodged, shifting the conversation to the budget bill instead.

"I think he feels very badly that he said that actually," he contended, turning back to Musk, about his criticism of the One Big Beautiful Bill. While acknowledging that the world's richest man had clashed with Scott Bessent, secretary of the Treasury, he described the run-in as a mere "shouting match," something "sort of typical." "That happens."

Would you reconcile? "suppose I could," Trump said, "but you know we have to straighten out the country, and my sole function now is to bring this country back to a level higher than it’s ever been."