Musk extends a generous offer to Trump as their friendship weakens and poses a risk to divide MAGA supporters.

Elon Musk seemed to make an effort to calm down the escalating conflict with Donald Trump as the White House staff arranged a crisis call between the two feuding billionaires.

The once-friendly relationship between the wealthiest and most influential figures in the world took a turn for the worse, with Musk calling for Trump’s impeachment due to his association with Jeffrey Epstein, and the president suggesting deporting the Space X CEO.

What initially started as a disagreement over Musk’s disapproval of Trump’s proposed legislation quickly turned into a series of personal attacks, leading the president to propose terminating Musk’s lucrative government contracts.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman stepped into the fray, posting a plea on X for the two men to reconcile ‘for the benefit of our great country,’ warning that ‘we are much stronger together than apart.’

Musk’s response was brief but telling: ‘You’re not wrong.’

His unexpected reply has been seen by some as an olive branch, suggesting he is eager to back down before the collision between the two gets out of hand. 

Trump’s aides are reportedly organizing a call between the president and his former ‘First Buddy’ for Friday to smooth over the fallout that threatens to tear apart MAGA and destabilize DC. 

Trump appeared last night to shrug off the stunning public feud in an interview with Politico. 

‘Oh it’s okay,’ he said during a phone call, before touting his recent polling: ‘It’s going very well, never done better.

‘The numbers are through the roof, the highest polls I’ve ever had and I have to go.’

Trump had earlier floated the idea of terminating Musk’s lucrative federal contracts with allies suggesting he and his companies be stripped of security clearances.

His long time advisor Steve Bannon went further, suggesting that the government should seize SpaceX under the Defense Production Act – a move that would undoubtedly trigger challenges.

Musk, who threatened to decommission the SpaceX Dragon capsule – a critical lifeline for transporting American astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station – ultimately retreated. 

After a user on X challenged Musk’s threat to pull the program suggesting he ‘cool off and take a step back for a couple of days’, he abruptly posted: ‘Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.’

Whether Trump will accept the offer of a truce and that any damage in their relationship can be repaired, remains to be seen. 

On his ‘War Room Live’ broadcast Bannon urged the president to seize SpaceX from Musk under the Defense Production Act – a national security measure dating back to the Korean War era – to seize control of the company. 

‘The United States government should take possession of it,’ Bannon declared.  

In practice, seizing SpaceX which is a private company would prove difficult. 

While the Defense Production Act gives the president broad powers to prioritize contracts deemed necessary for national defense, expand productive capacity and supply of critical goods and materials and allocate resources like energy, materials, or services, it does not explicitly authorize outright seizure or nationalization of private companies.

Trump could target Musk in other ways, such as targeting his contracts, clearances, and federal partnerships. 

‘Elon Musk is here illegally. He’s got to go,’ Bannon said, despite the fact that Musk, originally from South Africa, has been a naturalized US citizen for more than twenty years.

‘They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately,’ Bannon said in a phone interview on Thursday with The New York Times. 

On his show, Bannon – who has long openly criticized the billionaire – called Musk an ‘unstable individual’ and a ‘national security issue,’ pointing to The New York Times report that charted the DOGE leader’s drug use. 

‘President Trump is a bull and Elon is a baby calf,’ Bannon also said. 

The spat between Musk and Trump earlier broke out after the SpaceX boss voiced his opposition to the Republican-led ‘big, beautiful bill.’

The budget reconciliation bill will reportedly add trillions to the national deficit, a move that enraged Musk and prompted his departure from the Trump Administration.

Musk had been overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which had reported saving the US tens of billions of dollars on so-called wasteful government projects.

DOGE’s goal had been to get that number into the trillions.

Following his departure, a war of words broke out between Musk and the president over social media.

SpaceX has been awarded over $17 billion in government contracts since 2015, according to ABC News. Much of that money comes from NASA and the Department of Defense.

Tesla has also received approximately $1 billion according to the latest figures from February.

The spectacular fallout between Trump and Musk – who were political allies for a little less than a year – started in recent weeks when the billionaire started resisting Republicans’ ‘big, beautiful bill,’ arguing that the spending wiped out DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts. 

The fractures in their relationship were made plain for all to see.

Whilst Trump was hosting the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office he was asked about Musk’s recent criticism. From there, the dam broke. 

‘Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more, I was surprised,’ Trump told reporters. 

The president suggested that Musk was angry – not over the bill ballooning the deficit – but because the Trump administration has pulled back on electric vehicle mandates, which negatively impacted Tesla, and replaced the Musk-approved nominee to lead NASA, which could hinder SpaceX’s government contracts.

‘And you know, Elon’s upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles, and they’re having a hard time the electric vehicles and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy,’ Trump said. ‘I know that disturbed him.’

Last weekend, Trump pulled the nomination of Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Isaacman had worked alongside Musk at SpaceX.

‘He recommended somebody that I guess he knew very well, I’m sure he respected him, to run NASA and I didn’t think it was appropriate and he happened to be a Democrat, like totally Democrat,’ Trump continued. ‘We won, we get certain privileges and one of the privileges is we don’t have to appoint a Democrat.’ 

Musk posted to X while Trump’s Q&A with reporters was ongoing. 

‘Whatever,’ the billionaire wrote. 

‘Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,’ he advised. 

‘In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that [is] both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this!’ Musk continued. ‘Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.’ 

The spat quickly turned personal with Musk then posting that Trump would have lost the 2024 election had it not been for the world’s richest man – him.

Musk had publicly endorsed Trump on the heels of the July 13th assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania and poured around $290 million of his fortune into the Republican’s campaign. 

The billionaire also joined Trump on the campaign trail when he returned to the site of the Butler shooting in early October, a month before Election Day.

Trump said in the Oval that he likely still would have won Pennsylvania without Musk’s help and because Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t choose the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, to be her running mate. 

Even with Shapiro on the ticket, Trump claimed, ‘I would have won Pennsylvania, I would have won by a lot.’  

Musk said that was laughable. 

‘Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,’ Musk claimed. 

‘Such ingratitude,’ the billionaire added.

The 53-year-old Musk also asserted he had more staying power than the 78-year-old president.

‘Oh and some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years,’ Musk said Thursday afternoon, responding to a post from MAGA agitator Laura Loomer. 

After his meeting with Merz, Trump continued to throw punches online. 

Trump asserted that he had asked Musk to leave his administration and said the billionaire went ‘CRAZY!’

‘Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!’ Trump wrote. 

Trump didn’t directly respond to Musk’s Epstein charge, instead posting what amounted to a shrug on Truth Social, while also continuing to back the ‘big, beautiful bill.’ 

‘I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,’ Trump wrote. ‘This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.’ 

Asked for comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Mail in a statement: ‘This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.’

‘The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,’ Leavitt added.