Elon Musk has shared a one word response to President Donald Trump confirming that he will ‘not destroy’ the billionaire’s companies.
The former pals became embroiled in a public spat earlier this year following Musk’s departure from government in his role as the head of the Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The president had given Musk the unelected position after the Tesla boss supported him during his election campaign, donating a whopping $288 million to the effort.
However, the pair fell out after Musk publicly criticized Trump’s new spending plan, known as the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’.
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After describing the bill as a ‘disgusting abomination’, the Tesla boss took 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 by Musk has since been deleted.
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Musk also warned that Trump’s tariffs will ‘cause a recession in the second half of this year’.
Following the outburst, Trump posted on Truth Social threatening to cancel Musk’s contracts with the government.
If this happens, it could end up costing Tesla billions of dollars as, according to a report by Sky News, money made from state subsidies accounted for at least 38% of Tesla’s profits last year.
It also found that in the first quarter of this year, the firm made ‘$595 million from regulatory credits - almost 50% more than its net earnings of $409m - suggesting that without the subsidy Tesla would be operating in the red’.
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Trump has commented publicly about the subsidies, taking to his own social media platform Truth Social to write: “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and, without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back to South Africa.”
However, it seems that the president may have had a change of heart and one user alerted Musk to the news after taking to X to write: “BREAKING: President Trump has said he will not “destroy Elon Musk’s companies”
And Musk himself responded to the news with just one word: “Phew.”
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This prompted replies from others too, with one user writing: “Elon was biting his nails there for a minute.”
Another said: “Talk about a close call.”
And a third person added: “Cuz he can’t.”
But does this mean the pair will patch things up? I guess time will tell.