During a heated public battle with his former close ally, Elon Musk, a billionaire in the technology industry, expressed regret on Wednesday for some of the social media remarks he made about Donald Trump, the President of the United States on the previous week.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk stated on the X.
A close collaboration that had enabled Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was cutting budgets under Trump’s second administration, was broken up by the disagreement, which increased market apprehension over the future of the tech tycoon’s SpaceX and Tesla companies.
The electric vehicle manufacturer suffered its worst ever blow right after the controversy, with shares since recovering losses.
Musk’s resistance to the Trump-supported “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” tax and spending measure was the catalyst for last week’s dispute. Musk further attacked the program on social media by claiming that it would significantly raise the U.S. budget deficit and that it “undermines” the work of DOGE.
This point has been denied by the Trump administration.
Trump threatened Musk with repercussions over the weekend if he backed Democratic candidates opposing the tax and spending measure.
The president stated at the time that he had no plans to speak with Musk, but on Monday he changed his mind and said he would not mind if Musk called.
The dispute, which was fought concurrently across Trump’s and Musk’s respective social media networks, Truth Social and X, immediately threatened the tech billionaire’s business endeavors.
Crucially, the president of the United States proposed ending government subsidies and contracts given to Musk’s businesses.
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Musk swiftly withdrew his threat to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is now the sole option available to the United States for transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
By the weekend, the storm appeared to be settling. Musk seemed to have removed some of his social media tweets that have exacerbated his spat with the White House leader as of Saturday. One such post claimed that Trump was listed in the “files” of late sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. The accusation had been denied by the White House.
Additionally, it seemed that Musk had removed a message in which he said “yes” to a social media user who called for Trump to be impeached and Vice President JD Vance to take his place.
Trump responded on Monday by announcing his intention to keep the White House’s Starlink technology, a satellite internet service owned by Musk’s SpaceX.
