After a tumultuous 48 hours, there are signs that the embarrassingly public fight between President Donald Trump and his former adviser Elon Musk may be winding down.
Late Friday night, in response to criticisms from a businessman who took issue with his attacks on Trump, Musk tweeted that he would “apologize profusely as soon as there is a full dump of the Epstein files.” That post was quickly deleted.
Musk had previously made waves on Thursday by claiming that Trump is mentioned in the Epstein files, adding, “that is the real reason they have not been made public.” Trump and disgraced financier/convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein enjoyed a long friendship prior to Epstein’s arrest.
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Musk followed his tweet deletion up with a sort-of olive branch reply to one of the official Trump administration’s X accounts.
In response to a video of the president saying of Musk, ”I’m not thinking about Elon. I just wish him well,” Musk replied, “Likewise.”
Not included in the video were remarks Trump made in response to questions from journalists about whether he was interested in reconciling with his (currently) former friend in which he said, “There are efforts, but I’m not really interested in that. I’m really interested in the country solving problems, including war problems in very faraway lands.”
Musk also responded to footage of Trump discussing the potential cancellation of government contracts held by SpaceX. The president said, “We’ll take a look at everything. He’s got a lot of money. He gets a lot of subsidy, so we’ll take a look at that only if it’s fair for him and for the country. I would certainly think about it yeah but it has to be fair.” To this, Musk responded, “Fair enough.”
Musk had previously threatened to begin decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft after Trump threatened to cancel the company’s government contracts, later backing down in response to pleas from X users. In response to one user who told Musk, “You are both better than this. Cool off and take a step back for a couple days,” Musk responded, “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”
The beef potentially being quashed will be disappointing news for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who author Michael Wolff believes is attempting to enter the fray and fan the flames in an effort to ingratiate himself with the president once again.
Bannon was fired from his position as Trump’s chief strategist in 2017 after playing a sizable role in his success in the 2016 presidential election. He weighed in on the squabble between Musk and Trump on Thursday, insulting Musk and calling for his immigration status to be investigated. As Wolff told the Daily Beast’s Joanna Coles, “if you say what Trump wants to hear, then you’re in like Flynn.”
