Musk Expresses ‘Regret’ Over His Criticisms of Trump

Elon Musk said in a social media post early Wednesday that he regretted some of his posts and comments about President Trump last week, which had led the president to disparage the tech billionaire, a feud that played out in real time on social media.

Mr. Musk said on his X platform that some of his posts about Mr. Trump “went too far.”

Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, was once among the president’s closest advisers. But he and Mr. Trump had a dramatic and public falling out after the Tesla chief executive left his role in the administration.

Both men traded barbs on social media, and Mr. Trump said last week that he had no interest in repairing the relationship.

Mr. Musk’s public expression of regret was another sign of a potential thaw in the standoff with the president. Even last week, Mr. Musk had agreed with a post on X suggesting the two men were “stronger together.” Mr. Musk has since deleted some of his most incendiary social media posts. Mr. Trump has also toned down some of his public criticisms of Mr. Musk.

His shift underscores the complicated power dynamics between the two men. Mr. Musk, who poured roughly $275 million into Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign, is the biggest donor in Republican politics. He also has more followers than anyone else on X, the social media platform he owns.

But Mr. Trump holds vast political power over Mr. Musk. The billionaire’s companies, especially Tesla and SpaceX, have received billions of dollars in federal contracts in recent years. As the two men sparred online last week, Mr. Trump threatened to cut them off as a way to “save money” in the federal budget.

The spat between the two men initially focused on Mr. Musk’s criticism of Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which he condemned as a “disgusting abomination.” But it devolved quickly into petty and outlandish attacks.

Mr. Musk, for example, suggested that the Trump administration had not released its files on the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein because Mr. Trump was in them. Mr. Trump, at one point, asked why Mr. Musk had not covered up his black eye with makeup during an Oval Office appearance last week.