Elon Musk said Wednesday that he regrets some of his recent social media posts about President Donald Trump.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk said in a post on X.
Musk’s relationship with Trump deteriorated in a spectacular, public fashion last week as the two men traded jibes on their respective social media platforms.
Until recently, Musk was Trump’s close ally in government and co-head of his administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, where the tech billionaire spearheaded mass layoffs of federal workers.
But their relationship soured when Musk slammed Trump’s massive tax cut and domestic policy bill, labeling it a “disgusting abomination” for its anticipated negative impact on US government finances.
The Tesla CEO stepped up his criticism by sharing years-old comments from Trump and other Republican lawmakers that raised concerns about US government spending and the budget deficit.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) rose following Musk’s walk-back on X, rising 2% in premarket trading.
Among Musk’s posts on X last week was a claim that Trump would have lost last year’s presidential election without him and – in the most incendiary missive – that Trump is “in” the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Epstein was a convicted pedophile who died in jail in 2019 before he could face trial on sex trafficking charges. Musk did not provide any evidence to back up his claim that Trump’s name is included in unreleased records relating to Epstein.
The inclusion of a person’s name in files related to the case does not by itself indicate they have been accused of any wrongdoing.
For his part, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform last week that he could terminate the government contracts and subsidies awarded to Musk’s companies.
The president also told CNN’s Dana Bash Friday that he was “not even thinking about Elon” and wouldn’t be speaking to Musk “for a while.”
Trump, in a pre-recorded episode of New York Post’s podcast “Pod Force One” released Wednesday, said that he “was disappointed” in Musk. The president said he held “no hard feelings” against the Tesla CEO, adding that he “was really surprised” the billionaire had criticized his tax cut bill.
“I don’t know what his problem is, really, I don’t know. I haven’t thought too much about him in the last little while,” Trump told podcast host Miranda Devine.
In recent days, Musk softened his tone toward Trump, deleting some of his most inflammatory X posts, including the one relating to Epstein and another agreeing with the suggestion that Trump should be impeached.
Even last Friday, in the heat of the feud, Musk showed support for an X post by billionaire investor Bill Ackman that urged Musk and Trump to “make peace.” Musk said Ackman was “not wrong.”
Musk also appears to support the Trump administration’s tough stance on the protests in Los Angeles, sparked by federal immigration raids: he posted American flags in response to a post from Vice President JD Vance Monday that said the “president will not tolerate rioting and violence.”
Musk has long supported closed borders, deportations and stopping illegal immigration, in alignment with the Trump administration.
In his X post Wednesday, Musk did not specify which of his previous comments about Trump he regretted posting.
The reconciliatory post comes days after comments by his father, Errol Musk, who said his son had “made a mistake” in picking a fight with the president.
“Trump will prevail. He is the president,” Errol told Izvestia, a Russian newspaper, in a video interview Saturday.
Errol, who has a strained relationship with his son, also said he believes the two will eventually reconcile. “It’s just a small thing. It will be over tomorrow,” he said.
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