{"id":153043,"date":"2025-06-11T18:49:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/elon-musk-surrenders-worlds-richest-man-is-caving-to-trump-after-their-epic-feud-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T18:49:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:49:55","slug":"elon-musk-surrenders-worlds-richest-man-is-caving-to-trump-after-their-epic-feud-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/elon-musk-surrenders-worlds-richest-man-is-caving-to-trump-after-their-epic-feud-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk surrenders: World's richest man is caving to Trump after their epic feud – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 Perhaps a reconciliation<\/a> was just as inevitable as the breakup<\/a> that so many predicted.
Elon Musk<\/a>, the billionaire tech entrepreneur and former top White House DOGE adviser<\/a>, has gradually taken steps to restore his tattered relationship<\/a> with President Donald Trump<\/a> and surrender, just days after their alliance blew up<\/a> in a spectacular war of words marked by personal insults<\/a> and threats<\/a>.
The early returns have Trump \u2012 no stranger to scorched-earth fights \u2012 coming out on top in the battle between the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful man<\/a>. Both own major social media platforms, but it doesn’t hurt that the president is the one with the sway of the White House.
The first signs of retreat came when Musk expressed support on X, the social media company he owns, for Trump’s deployment<\/a> of National Guard troops in Los Angeles to squelch protests that erupted over the administration’s ICE raids.
Then, less than 48 hours after his June 5 blowup with Trump, Musk deleted his most salacious X post<\/a> \u2012 an accusation that Trump’s name is mentioned in classified files related to the financier and sex offender\u00a0Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>. Musk also deleted a post he made during the feud endorsing Trump’s impeachment.
By June 11, Musk was ready to apologize and take back some of the insults<\/a> he hurled at the president. “I regret some of my posts about President. @realDonaldTrump<\/a> last week. They went too far,” Musk said in a 3:04 a.m. post on X, without specifying which posts he was sorry about.
Maybe most telling of all: Musk has largely muted his previously loud criticism of Trump’s tax and policy megabill<\/a>, which the president has dubbed his “big, beautiful bill.” Musk’s relentless attacks on the legislation \u2012 which the Tesla and SpaceX CEO called a “disgusting abomination” \u2012 became the main catalyst behind the great fight between Trump and Musk that unfolded last week.
After duking it out with Trump in public forums, it seems Musk made a calculation and repositioned himself, determining it was better to be on Trump’s side than to turn into his latest enemy.
Trump had threatened to end billions of federal government contracts with Musk’s SpaceX. And a prolonged fight with Trump also risked alienating Musk from the president’s loyal MAGA base \u2012 something that could put his business empire in further peril after Tesla sales plummeted amid a liberal backlash against Musk’s deep cuts to the federal workforce and programs.
Musk may have averted joining the ranks of Trump’s protracted warfare against political allies<\/a> who turned against him. Trump has found the upper hand in about every instance, leaving scorched remains of his opponents on the battlefield.
\u201cIf what happened to me is any indication of how they handle these matters, then Elon is going to get decimated,\u201d Michael Cohen, the\u00a0former long-term Trump lawyer<\/a>\u00a0and fixer who once said he\u2019d \u201ctake a bullet\u201d for his boss, told USA TODAY shortly after<\/a> Musk’s blowup with Trump. Cohen said Musk “just doesn’t understand how to fight this type of political guerrilla warfare.”
For the first four months of Trump’s second term, Musk was the biggest face of the Trump administration<\/a> \u2013 besides Trump himself \u2013 as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, which worked to slash the size of the federal government<\/a> and cut federal workers.
For his part, Trump has said he was not thinking much about Musk, signaled he’s ready to move on<\/a> from the fight, vowed to keep DOGE operating \u2012 and also left the door open for a truce.
“I guess I could, but you know, we have to straighten out the country,” Trump said in a podcast hosted by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine<\/a> when asked whether he could forgive Musk.
Trump, in the podcast released June 11, said he has “no hard feelings” toward Musk but was “really surprised” his tech friend turned against him. “He went after a bill that’s phenomenal,” Trump said, adding, “When he did that, I was not a happy camper.”
“I was disappointed in him. But it is what it is. Things like that happen. I don’t blame him for anything,” Trump said.
For now, Trump has buried the hatchet. In recent days, the 78-year old two-term president has said he had no plans to ask Musk to return his honorary White House key. Nor is he getting rid of the red Tesla<\/a> he bought from Musk, although he said he might “move the Tesla around a little bit,” he said. Trump also said he wouldn’t ditch Musk’s Starlink internet service that was installed at the White House.
Yet to restore the Trump-Musk alliance in full, much would have to be forgiven \u2012 and that’s to say nothing of Musk’s allegation invoking Epstein<\/a>.
Musk’s barrage of criticism over the deficit implications of Trump’s massive tax and policy bill, which looks to cement the president’s domestic agenda, put the legislation in jeopardy. Musk has amplified the voices of a handful of skeptical Republican senators<\/a> who are also worried about the bill’s $3 trillion deficit projection over 10 years<\/a>.
Irking Musk, Trump blamed the tech mogul’s opposition to the bill on business interests. The bill would end $7,500 consumer tax credits for buyers of electric vehicles, a policy of former President Joe Biden that has benefited Tesla.
Musk also expressed disappointment<\/a>\u00a0after Trump withdrew his nominee for the administrator of NASA, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire commercial astronaut with close ties to Musk.
Meanwhile, the White House effectively let Musk walk after he became a political liability, objected publicly to Trump’s steep tariffs and clashed with top Trump officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Prior to his White House departure, Musk asked for his “special government employee” status to be extended beyond 130 days to allow him to continue to lead DOGE, but the White House declined, a source told USA TODAY. \u00a0
“I think he misses the place,” Trump said last week in his remarks that ignited Musk’s fierce response. “I think he got out there, and, all of a sudden, he wasn’t in this beautiful Oval Office.”
The way things have trended since, however, Musk might just make his way back.
Contributing: Josh Meyer.<\/em>
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.<\/em><\/p>\n

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WASHINGTON \u2013 Perhaps a reconciliation was just as inevitable as the breakup that so many predicted.Elon Musk, the billionaire tech entrepreneur and former top White House DOGE adviser, has gradually taken steps to restore his tattered relationship with President Donald Trump and surrender, just days after their alliance blew up in a spectacular war of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}