Just last week, Elon Musk accused President Donald Trump of having deep ties to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Now Musk is trying to be friends again.
After a spectacularly public breakup, the tech billionaire issued an early-morning semi-retraction, sort of apologizing for going scorched-earth on the president.
“I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week,” Musk wrote. “They went too far.”
He didn’t say which posts crossed the line—and honestly, there’s no shortage of contenders.
As Trump threatened to strip Musk’s companies of their government contracts and subsidies, Musk fired back with a veiled threat that he’d outlast Trump politically, suggested the president should be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance, and warned that Trump’s tariffs would “cause a recession in the second half of this year,” and claimed, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election.”
Oh, and Musk also accused the Trump administration of covering up the files around Epstein in order to protect the president.
“[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk posted. (That one’s since been deleted.)
Musk is clearly trying to revive their once-close alliance. In recent days, he’s also shared Trump’s Truth Social posts about the brutal immigration raids and subsequent protests in Los Angeles, and he’s even nodded along to a post suggesting the two are “stronger together.”
Maybe Musk saw the public wasn’t exactly rallying to his side in the breakup. Perhaps he realized he still wants those government contracts. Or maybe the pressure from Trump’s inner circle finally got to him. Who knows.
What’s not clear is whether Trump wants him back.
On Friday, Trump mostly brushed off the drama, telling CNN, “He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem.” But by the time Musk’s retraction dropped, Trump’s tone had softened.
In a brief interview with the New York Post on Wednesday, Trump said he thought Musk’s apology was “very nice.”
“I thought it was very nice that he did that,” he said, though he dodged whether he was ready to make up.
And in a previously recorded New York Post podcast released Wednesday, Trump said he didn’t blame Musk for anything but was “disappointed” in him.
Will Trump ever forgive Musk?
“I guess I could,” the president replied in the interview, though he quickly pivoted. “My sole function now is getting this country back to a level higher than it’s ever been.”
Trump also walked back earlier threats to yank Musk’s federal contracts or probe his immigration status—attacks egged on by Steve Bannon, an informal Trump adviser and a loud critic of Musk.
Notably, Bannon isn’t letting it go. He’s publicly urged Trump to launch multiple investigations into Musk, starting with whether the world’s richest man is an “illegal alien.”
He “crossed the Rubicon,” Bannon said of Musk on Friday. “There’s no going back.”
This week, Bannon ramped things up even more, calling for a special counsel to investigate Musk over alleged drug use, referencing a report from The New York Times that claimed Musk was using while working closely with the administration.
“Pull the security clearance for the drugs, temporarily,” Bannon said. “Investigate the whole drug situation.”
The whole meltdown traces back to when Musk’s role in the administration ended. Once the face of Trump’s push to slash spending and gut the federal workforce, Musk turned on his old boss fast, calling Trump’s signature domestic bill a “disgusting abomination.” From there, the spat spiraled into wild accusations and personal jabs.
There’s some chatter that the recent protests in Los Angeles might’ve prompted Musk’s attempted truce, since immigration is one of the few issues he and Trump still largely align on. Musk’s been echoing Trump’s talking points on the protests, seemingly trying to show they’re still ideologically synced.
Still, trying to make peace with someone you just accused of being involved with a sex offender says more about Musk than anyone else.