Musk says he regrets some X posts he made about Trump
Musk spent a fortune to support Trump, but left government advisory role amid criticism of budget bill
Billionaire businessman Elon Musk said on Wednesday he regretted some of the posts he made last week about U.S. President Donald Trump as they had gone "too far."
Trump said on Saturday his relationship with Musk was over after they exchanged insults on social media, with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO describing the president's sweeping tax and spending bill as a "disgusting abomination."
Musk has since deleted some posts critical of Trump, including one signalling support for impeaching the president. He also deleted a post in which he claimed without evidence that the government wasn't releasing more information regarding what it knows about Jeffrey Epstein because of Trump's past association with the infamous alleged sex trafficker who died in jail in 2019.
"I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far," Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X on Wednesday, without saying which specific posts he was talking about.
After Musk's comments, Trump told the New York Post: "I thought it was very nice that he did that."
Tesla shares rose 1.7 per cent in early trading.
Don't support Democrats, Trump warns
Declaring his relationship with Musk over during interviews last weekend, Trump said there would be "serious consequences" if the billionaire decided to fund U.S. Democrats running against Republicans who vote for the tax and spending bill. Trump also said he had no intention of repairing ties with Musk.
On Monday, Trump said he would not have a problem if Musk called and that he had no plans to discontinue the Starlink satellite internet provided to the White House by Musk's SpaceX but might move his Tesla off-site.
"We had a good relationship, and I just wish him well," Trump said. Musk responded with a heart emoji to a video on X showing Trump's remarks.
In 2018, Musk declared in a Twitter post that he was "not a conservative" and that "humanitarian issues are extremely important to me."
But his political views changed, and in 2024 he bankrolled a large part of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, spending nearly $300 million US in last year's U.S. elections, taking credit for Republicans retaining a majority of seats in the House and retaking a majority in the Senate.
Musk led downsizing, foreign aid cut efforts
Trump then named him to head an effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending, despite Musk's apparent conflicts of interest leading several companies subject to government regulation. Musk individually or with his companies had faced inquiries into alleged securities violations, questions over the safety of Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems, potential animal welfare violations in Neuralink's brain-chip experiments and alleged hiring discrimination practices at SpaceX.
Musk left the role late last month after criticizing Trump's marquee tax bill, calling it too expensive and a measure that would undermine his work at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk's DOGE, not a Congress-approved department, took dramatic steps to reshape and shrink the federal government. Agencies were dismantled, and thousands of federal workers were fired, dismissed or reassigned, leading to a spate of lawsuits challenging the moves.
As a result of the moves, significant foreign humanitarian aid from the U.S. government was scaled back, leading to concerns from global health organizations. Musk characterized much of that funding as fraudulent, though Democrats charged that Musk statements on specific agency initiatives have largely only highlighted actions he disagrees with politically, such as measures to provide condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Musk's activities led to protests at many Tesla dealerships across North America, with vandalism reported in some instances.
"Elon Musk's Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death," New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg wrote, citing the impacts around the world of cuts to the United States Agency for International Development, when Musk announced late last month he was returning to the private sector full-time.
Democrats have expressed alarm at members of Musk's DOGE team, who were not confirmed by Congress, having access to sensitive governmental, personal and payment data related to the federal civil service.
But in recent days, the Supreme Court permitted DOGE broad access to personal information on millions of Americans in Social Security Administration data systems while a legal challenge plays out.
With files from CBC News