President Trump threatened Elon Musk with “serious consequences” should he decide to fund Democrats in upcoming elections, the latest in the ongoing public spat between the world’s richest man and the world’s arguably most powerful one.
Mr. Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker in a phone interview on Saturday that he has no desire to rebuild his relationship with Musk after the billionaire criticized the budget bill passed by House lawmakers last month. When asked by Welker if his relationship with him was over, the president said, “I would assume so, yeah.”
“I’m too busy doing other things,” Trump continued. “You know, I won an election in a landslide. I gave him a lot of breaks, long before this happened, I gave him breaks in my first administration, and saved his life in my first administration, I have no intention of speaking to him.”
The president also issued a warning amid chatter that Musk could back Democratic lawmakers and candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.
“If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC, though he declined to share what those consequences would be. Musk’s businesses have many lucrative federal contracts.
The relationship between Mr. Trump and Musk broke down publicly last week, with the president threatening to cancel Musk’s lucrative government contracts and Musk claiming that Mr. Trump could not have won the presidency without him.
Musk, the world’s richest person, had spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to back Mr. Trump and other Republican candidates, CBS News previously reported. He had posted several jabs against the president on X over the past week, including saying that Mr. Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance.
Vance says Musk’s attacks were a “huge mistake”
Vance expressed his support for Mr. Trump, saying Musk was making a “huge mistake” going after Mr. Trump in a storm of bitter and inflammatory social media posts after a falling out between the two men.
But the vice president, in an interview released Friday after the very public blow-up between the world’s richest man and arguably the world’s most powerful, also tried to downplay Musk’s blistering attacks as an “emotional guy” who got frustrated.
Musk attacked Mr. Trump in a torrent of social media posts, first criticizing the president’s spending package and then targeting him with more direct attacks. Mr. Trump then portrayed Musk as disgruntled and “CRAZY” and threatened to cut the government contracts held by Musk’s businesses. Trump ally Steve Bannon called for an investigation into Musk’s immigration status and alleged drug use.
During an interview with comedian Theo Von, Vance said he hopes that “eventually Elon comes back into the fold,” but said it might not be “possible now because he’s gone so nuclear.” The interview was taped on Thursday as Musk’s posts were unfurling on X, the social media network the billionaire owns.
“Look, it happens to everybody,” Vance said in the interview. “I’ve flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours.”
The vice president told Von that as Musk for days was calling on social media for Congress to kill Mr. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the president was “getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon, but I think has been very restrained because the president doesn’t think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk.”
“I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine,” he added.
Vance’s comments come as other Republicans in recent days have urged the two men to mend fences. Just weeks ago, Mr. Trump and Musk were close allies, spending significant time together while the billionaire served as a special advisor to the president and led the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE.
Vance called Musk an “incredible entrepreneur,” and said that DOGE, which sought to cut government spending and laid off or pushed out thousands of workers, was “really good.”
Vance defends Trump against Epstein allegations
Musk, who runs electric vehicle maker Tesla, internet company Starlink and rocket company SpaceX, also claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
During the interview, Von showed the vice president Musk’s claim that the Trump administration hasn’t released all the records related to sex abuser Epstein because Mr. Trump is mentioned in them.
Vance responded to that, saying, “Absolutely not. Donald Trump didn’t do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein.”
Mr. Trump’s name has been found in court documents related to Epstein’s case, but his appearance in the documents is not evidence of wrongdoing. CBS News has previously covered Mr. Trump’s presence in those documents.
In February, the Department of Justice gave a group of right-wing influencers binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1,” but the influencers later said that there was little new information in the files. Attorney General Pam Bondi later shared the documents widely and said the first phase “largely contains documents that have been previously leaked but never released in a formal capacity by the U.S. Government.” She said more documents would be forthcoming, but there have been no other releases since.
Musk appeared by Saturday morning to have deleted his posts about Epstein.
“The president is doing a good job”
Musk also shared a post calling for Mr. Trump to be impeached and replaced with Vance. He also called for the formation of a new political party. The vice president said comments like those were “just not helpful.”
“It’s totally insane. The president is doing a good job,” Vance told Von.
The vice president also defended the bill that has drawn Musk’s ire, and said its central goal was not to cut spending but to extend the 2017 tax cuts approved in Trump’s first term. The bill would slash spending but also leave some 10.9 million more people without health insurance and spike deficits by $2.4 trillion over the decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Musk has warned that the bill will increase the federal deficit and called it a “disgusting abomination.”
“It’s a good bill,” Vance said. “It’s not a perfect bill.”
Vance also said it was ridiculous for some House Republicans who voted for the bill but later found parts objectionable to claim they hadn’t had time to read it. The vice president said the text of the bill had been available for weeks.
“The idea that people haven’t had an opportunity to actually read it is ridiculous,” Vance said.