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The world’s richest man found himself in a public spat with his former bestie President Donald Trump in recent weeks.
This was after the billionaire stepped down from his role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk and Trump had developed a close friendship last year after Musk donated a whopping $288 million to the president’s election campaign.
Taking center stage of government as an unelected official, Musk was frequently seen at the White House sporting MAGA-related caps.
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According to reports, Musk lost around 25% of his fortune which equates to approximately $113 billion during his controversial time at DOGE.
However, the friendship came to an abrupt end when Musk criticized Trump’s new spending bill earlier this month, describing it as a ‘disgusting abomination’.
The Tesla boss took to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to write: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
The post has since been deleted and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill [a Republican tax and spending bill] because it does not include the policies he wanted.
“The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
In a further post, Musk warned that Trump’s tariffs will ‘cause a recession in the second half of this year’.
Trump went on to respond during an interview with ABC News where he said that Musk had ‘lost his mind’ and claimed that he had asked the billionaire to leave the White House.
In a post on his own social media platform, Truth Social, Trump threatened to cancel Musk’s contracts with the government.
Now, it seems like the SpaceX founder might be having a change of heart, with one simple sentence making him $191 million richer.
Walking back on some of his statements, Musk posted on X: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
Leavitt later confirmed that Trump had seen the message and ‘is appreciative of it’.
Speaking to the press, the president later said: “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”
After Musk’s public apology, the billionaire saw his wealth boosted by nearly $200 million according to Forbes' real time billionaire list.
