Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday said he regretted some of the social media posts he made about U.S. President Donald Trump last week during an explosive public dispute with his former close ally.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk said on the X social media platform.
The feud dissolved a tight partnership that had propelled Musk to spearhead the budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, under Trump’s second administration, fueling market concerns over the outlook for the tech tycoon’s Tesla and SpaceX businesses. Immediately after the row, the electric vehicle automaker saw its biggest ever hit, with shares since recouping losses.
Last week’s conflict was sparked by Musk’s opposition to the Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” tax and spending bill. In a CBS interview, Musk said the package “undermines” the work of DOGE, further blasting it on social media by saying it would substantially increase the U.S. budget deficit. The Trump administration has disputed this point.
Over the weekend, Trump said there would be consequences for Musk if he supported Democratic candidates challenging the tax and spending bill. At the time, the president noted that he had no plans for speaking with Musk — before changing tack on Monday to indicate he would not have a problem if Musk called.
After the storm
The row, carried out simultaneously over the X and Truth Social media platforms owned by Musk and Trump, respectively, posed immediate threats to the tech billionaire’s ventures.
Critically, the U.S. president suggested terminating government contracts and subsidies awarded to Musk’s companies. Musk meanwhile threatened to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft — which is currently the only U.S. choice for bringing crew to and from the International Space Station — before quickly walking back his statement.
The storm showed signs of settling by the weekend. As of Saturday, Musk appeared to have deleted some of his social media posts that had contributed to the ramped-up conflict with the White House leader, including an update in which he had accused Trump of being mentioned in the “files” of late sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. The White House had disputed the allegation.
A post in which Musk replied “yes” to a social media user calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced with Vice President JD Vance also appeared to have been deleted.
In turn, Trump on Monday said he was planning to retain the Starlink technology, a satellite internet service that is part of Musk’s SpaceX, at the White House.
