Musk and Trump have been engaged in a public feud after the Tesla CEO criticized the president’s proposed budget bill
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted to the platform he owns on Tuesday. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
During an Oval Office press conference Thursday, Trump responded to Musk’s criticisms.
“Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anyone sitting here,” Trump told reporters. “He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the [electric vehicle] mandate, because that’s billions and billions of dollars.”
Trump also predicted Musk’s attacks would get personal after saying he was “very disappointed in Elon.”
The war of words came just days after it was announced Musk would be leaving the Trump administration.
Trump’s name has previously been publicly linked with Epstein. His name was mentioned in flight logs released earlier this year by Attorney General Pam Bondi a total of seven times.
The appearance of Trump’s name in the flight logs does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing, as many of the individuals named could have been on Epstein’s plane for legitimate reasons.
The president was friends with the disgraced financier and pedophile for many years, but the two had a falling out in the mid-2000s, Trump told reporters shortly before Epstein died by suicide in 2019.
