Friday morning, in a telephone interview, a few hours after his puffy exchange with Elon Musk, President Donald Trump seemed remarkably carefree on their quarrel, as if it were not even the most interesting thing that happened on Thursday.
Speaking during a phone call Friday morning shortly before 7 a.m., ABC News asked him for reports that he had a planned call with Musk for later day.
“Do you mean the man who lost his head?” He asked, saying that he was “not particularly” interested in talking to him at the moment.
He said Musk wanted to speak to him, but he is not ready to speak to Musk.
President Donald Trump attends a meeting with the fraternal police order in the dining room in the White House state, June 5, 2025, in Washington.
Alex Brandon / AP
Trump then talked about other things for a few minutes – referring to inflation (bottom), foreign investment (UP) and his plans for a visit to China (huge).
People near Trump described him as sadder than angry with Musk. An advisor who was with Trump on Thursday evening said that he seemed “disappointed” about the rupture. And that’s how he rang Friday morning.
Trump plans to give or sell the Red Tesla he bought to support Musk, a senior administration official at ABC News said on Friday morning. The Tesla was parked Thursday on West Executive Avenue. Trump demonstrated the verification of Tesla models in the White House in March while Musk’s company took a hit when he arrived in Washington.
President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speak to journalists while sitting in a Tesla Red Model S vehicle on the South White House lawn on March 11, 2025 in Washington.
AP
Addressing Al Arabiya English of Delhi Airport Lounge, Musk’s father, Errol Musk, said that he had urged his technological billionaire son to end the quarrel.
“I did not tell him, but I sent him a message, you know, telling him to make sure that it is moving away,” he said before saying who he thinks will come out of this victorious battle. “Trump, of course, will prevail because he was elected by the majority of the inhabitants of America.”
The eldest Musk blamed “a lot of stress” for her son’s actions on Thursday.
Thursday, the War of Words, resulting from Musk’s criticism with regard to Trump, Trump’s tax on tax and immigration, suggested that Trump would have lost the 2024 elections without him, supporting the calls for the indictment of Trump and even claiming that Trump was “in” Epstein files concerning the investigation into the accused sexual trafficker.
“This is the real reason why they were not made public. Have a good day, DJT!” Musk posted.
Trump, in turn, said Musk had become “crazy” and suggested putting an end to the contracts and subsidies of the Musk government.
Vice-president JD Vance expressed support to Trump in the middle of the public dispute in a brief article at X-although the back and forth between Trump and Musk started. The position did not directly weigh on Musk’s attacks or criticize the Tesla billionaire, with whom Vance has his own story which predates his time as a running mate and vice-president of Trump.
“President Trump did more than anyone in my lifetime to gain the confidence of the movement he is leading. I am proud to stand next to him,” wrote Vance on social networks.
Vance had still not directly responded to Musk’s accusations against Trump when he published again on Friday morning.
“There are a lot of lies that the corporate media tell about President Trump. One of the most flagrant is that he is impulsive or angry. Whoever has seen him operating under pressure knows that it is ridiculous,” wrote Vance, concentrating his fury on the media.
The White House called the public quarrel between Trump and Elon Musk “an unfortunate episode of Elon, who does not like the only major bill because he does not include his policies”.
“The president focuses on the transition from this historic legislation and makes our country again large,” said the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, in a statement.
President Donald Trump speaks in the oval office of the White House, June 5, 2025, in Washington and Elon Musk attended a press conference at the Oval Blanche office in Washington, on May 30, 2025.
AP / AFP via Getty Images
Only a few hours after accused Trump, without proof, of appearing in Epstein files, Musk has shown certain signs of trying to soften his tone – even agreeing with a post on X calling both to “make peace”.
The first sign that Musk was starting to walk things came thanks to an account with just over 141 subscribers on X which suggested “cool” and “take a step back”.
The apparently random user’s message led Musk to reverse his threat of downgrading The spaceship used to transport astronauts and supplies to the international space station, a threat musk had done a few hours earlier.
“Good advice,” Musk replied to the user. “Ok, we don’t demonstrate Dragon.”
The Steakin and Lalee IBSA of ABC News contributed to this report.
