Will Musk ultimately back down…"Regrets attacking Trump"

Tax Cut Bill, Support for Trump's Impeachment, Attacks Over Epstein Sex Crimes

Reconciliation gesture after Trump's threat to cancel federal contracts

Recently, Elon Musk—who has been fiercely criticizing President Trump of the United States—seems to be ending the dispute by apologizing to Trump.

At around 4 AM Eastern Time on the 11th, Musk posted on his social media platform X, saying, "I regret some of the posts about President Trump last week," adding, "It was too much."

Last week, Musk characterized the Trump-led tax cut bill as a disgusting piece of legislation that would further worsen America's already serious debt problem.

He also stated that Trump's election victory was thanks to him and expressed his support for Trump's impeachment. Furthermore, Musk infuriated Trump by linking a related video, claiming Trump's name appeared in the sex trafficking crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of sex crimes and died by suicide.

Musk also conducted a poll on X, questioning whether a new third party is needed to represent people dissatisfied with both the Republican and Democratic parties.

In response, Trump threatened to cancel all contracts that Musk's companies have with the federal government. In the case of SpaceX, one of Musk's companies, whose main business involves government contracts, this threat, if fulfilled, would inevitably deal a short-term blow to SpaceX.

Musk's discontent with Trump seems to have been mounting. Although Musk himself did not express dissatisfaction over the withdrawal of tax credits for electric vehicles, a series of policies have negatively affected the EV industry as a whole, while subsidies for oil and other sectors reportedly remain in place.

Musk was also unhappy that Sam Altman of OpenAI, with whom Musk is in litigation, took a leading role in the $500 billion Stargate Project announced right after Trump took office. After a White House event, Musk posted on X that "they have no money," making a deflating comment about Trump's first project.

Most recently, Trump withdrew the NASA administrator nomination for Jared Isaacman, whom Musk had strongly recommended. As head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk played scapegoat for federal workforce restructuring, and both he and Tesla have since become targets of nationwide protest rallies. Considering this, Musk, the world's richest man, may regret that he has gained nothing.

According to MarketWatch, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Adam Jonas claimed that Musk's attacks on Trump were also part of some grand strategy. Jonas pointed out that when Musk acquired Twitter, formerly known as X, years ago and openly intervened in politics, as well as his resilience under criticism and financial stress, these were traits investors could not ignore.

It is unclear whether Musk's expression of regret will greatly help restore his relationship with Trump. As it is still early in the morning, there has been no response from Trump, but foreign media outlets report that it is highly unlikely the two will return to their previously close relationship. According to Bloomberg, Trump has used federal authority to go after those who defied him.

While Tesla's stock price had fallen amid the heated conflict between Trump and Musk, it has recently seen an uptrend this week, ahead of the launch of the robotaxi service on the 22nd. Tesla shares, which rose 5.6% the previous day, are up another 2.1% to $331 in pre-market trading in New York.

Guest reporter Jeong-A Kim kja@hankyung.com