(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have rebuilt their fractured partnership through months of quiet diplomacy, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The two traveled together aboard Air Force One in May en route to Beijing, chatting warmly about factory plans, space launches and Musk’s children, people aboard the flight told the paper.
During that trip, Musk disclosed he would back Republicans in the November midterms, a signal the president’s team had awaited for months, with plans to commit roughly $100 million toward voter turnout efforts, sources familiar with the strategy said.
The détente follows a spectacular collapse of their alliance last June. Musk told his followers on X, “Time to drop the really big bomb,” claiming Trump appeared in files tied to Jeffrey Epstein and asserting “that is the real reason they have not been made public.” Trump retaliated by threatening Musk’s government contracts, while Musk blasted the administration’s spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” and wrote, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election. Such ingratitude,” the WSJ noted, pointing out that he had spent nearly $300 million supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Behind closed doors, Vice President JD Vance and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles reached out to Musk within a day of the blowup, and their conversation went smoothly, according to people familiar with the matter cited by the WSJ. Musk called Trump shortly afterward and publicly walked back some remarks, though full reconciliation took much longer, with Trump telling an aide in September that he was not ready to welcome Musk back into his circle.
Vance kept communication channels open throughout, and Musk shelved plans for a new political party partly to preserve that relationship, the paper reported. The assassination of activist Charlie Kirk in September became an unlikely turning point. Kirk had worked to patch things up before his death, and Trump and Musk crossed paths again at his memorial, where Trump patted Musk’s elbow as he departed. Musk later posted a photo from the event captioned “For Charlie.”
Two staffing moves also eased tensions, the WSJ found. Trump dispatched longtime aide Sergio Gor, who had clashed with Musk, to serve as ambassador to India, and later reinstalled Musk ally Jared Isaacman atop NASA. Musk attended a White House dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November, and Trump congratulated him publicly on becoming a trillionaire.
Musk now says he intends to keep a lower profile than during his chaotic DOGE tenure, telling the Economist, “I think I got a little too involved in politics. Got carried away, frankly,” as cited by the Journal.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
