President Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social to extend a surprising olive branch to Elon Musk, vowing he doesn’t plan to “destroy” the Tesla CEO’s empire and actually wants him “to thrive.”
The shift in tone comes amid an explosive public feud that saw Musk accusing Trump of appearing in Jeffrey Epstein’s secret files—a claim that Trump has tried desperately to deflect.
“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday, adding, “I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before!”
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Just weeks earlier, Musk asserted on X that Trump “is in the Epstein files” and said that was “the real reason they have not been made public”
Damning new reports suggest that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in May that his name appears in the documents—reports the White House has dismissed as “fake news.”
Musk taunted Trump over what he called a “hoax,” urging him to “just release the files as promised.”
Their feud escalated into public threats, with Trump warning Musk he might have to “head back home to South Africa,” and vowing to scrutinize SpaceX and Starlink contracts.
Trump’s reversal—framing Musk’s success as patriotic—comes after subsidy cuts to Tesla force the CEO into a corner.
Musk rattled Tesla’s stock price by warning investors that the EV maker is in for a rough ride because of the subsidy slash.
In a bleak second-quarter earnings call, he said that the company is in a “weird transition period.”
“We probably could have a few rough quarters,” he said, according to the Financial Times.
Since Trump’s bill has passed, meanwhile, Tesla has felt the squeeze. The legislation scrapped a variety of incentives tied to renewable energy. There are growing fears at Tesla that the company will not meet demand if buyers rush to take advantage of the $7,500 federal tax credit before it expires in September.
CFO Vaibhav Taneja revealed that the company has also been hit with $300 million in extra tariff-related expenses during the second quarter alone.
Musk is yet to publicly respond to Trump’s latest overture.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
