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By Shane Croucher and Theo Burman
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Elon Musk said he regretted some of his posts about President Donald Trump after their recent public feud, which saw the Tesla CEO call for the latter's impeachment and say that he featured in files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender.
"They went too far," Musk posted to his platform X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday morning, referring to his posts nearly one week after he clashed with the president on the same social media site.
Why It Matters
The clash between Trump and Musk on June 5 was a significant shake-up of the relationship that has defined the first part of Trump's second administration.
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The two men, both of whom are avid social media users, escalated rhetoric against each other. Musk said Trump would not have won the 2024 election without his help, and the president said Tesla was "having a hard time" and that Musk had been "wearing thin" when he left the White House at the end of May.
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What To Know
It appears that Musk is backtracking on his incendiary comments. In a post on X at 3:04 a.m. ET, the world's richest man wrote: "I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far."
Musk did not specify which of his posts he regretted writing.
Musk had previously deleted his claim that Trump featured in the Epstein files on Saturday, two days after he first posted it. Since then, Musk has shared on X comments made by Trump and Vice President JD Vance related to the Los Angeles riots.
The feud between the president and the SpaceX founder began in earnest over the One Big Beautiful Bill currently winding its way through the Senate. The bill is so named for Trump's vision of consolidating multiple legislative priorities—like tax cuts, deregulation—into a single, comprehensive, signature piece of legislation.
Trump has described the legislation as "incredible," but Musk branded it "pork-filled" and called for it to be struck down.
The disagreement spiraled into a full-blown dispute online on Thursday, after Musk called Trump "ungrateful" for not recognizing that he would have lost the election without his financing and public support. In response, Trump said that he was "very disappointed" in Musk, and suggested that he was only upset about the bill because it removed an electric vehicle tax credit that was beneficial to Tesla.
What People Are Saying
Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on Thursday: "First of all, I'm the vice president to President Trump; my loyalties are always going to be with the president. Elon is an incredible entrepreneur. I think DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] was really good. The effort to root out waste, fraud and abuse in our country was really good.
"I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that's not possible now because he's gone so nuclear."
What Happens Next
Trump has not yet responded to Musk's latest message.
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