Vance Says Trump Has No Desire for Long-Term Feud With Musk

Vance also said the president was ‘frustrated’ with some of the comments Musk made about him and his sweeping tax and spending bill.

President Donald Trump (L) and Vice President JD Vance salute during the 157th National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on May 26, 2025. Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

President Donald Trump was “frustrated” with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s recent posts lambasting him and his spending bill, but doesn’t want a long-term feud with his former adviser, Vice President JD Vance said on June 11.

Vance told reporters at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that he had spoken to Trump about his public disagreements with Musk and that the president felt the billionaire campaign donor had said “some unacceptable things.”

“I think the president was rightfully very frustrated about that, but he also wishes Elon well and has no desire to be in some long-term feud or beef with Elon Musk,” Vance said.

Vance said he believes it is “in the best interest of the whole country for one of the country’s great entrepreneurs to also be supportive of the president and our agenda.”

If Musk chooses not to be supportive, it will ultimately be his loss, Vance said.

“I suspect that Elon Musk very much wants to be on the team and it’s for him and the president to speak to their direct relationship,” Vance stated, adding that the Trump administration was grateful for the work Musk did early in the process of making the government more efficient via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Vance told reporters he had also spoken to Musk about his feud with Trump, but did not go into detail about their conversation.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO had expressed regret over some of his recent posts about Trump and his sweeping tax and spending bill, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” writing in a June 11 post on social media platform X that those posts “went too far.”

Musk did not specify which of his comments he regretted. He has since deleted some of the posts.

In late May, just days after Musk departed the Trump administration when his term as a special government employee expired, he branded the spending bill a “disgusting abomination.” He has also expressed concerns about the bill’s potential fiscal impact on the federal government.

In other remarks, the entrepreneur said it was because of him that Trump and the GOP won the 2024 elections. Musk spent roughly $300 million backing Trump’s campaign and other GOP candidates last year.

Musk also made controversial claims about an alleged connection between Jeffrey Epstein and the president and threatened to start a rival political party.

Trump, in turn, suggested Musk “went crazy” after the president “took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted,” though he said the businessman had been aware of the plan for months.

The president also threatened to cut federal contracts and subsidies for Musk’s companies, prompting Musk to say he would start decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is used by NASA and is the agency’s only U.S. vessel capable of carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station, though he later walked back on the threat.

Trump welcomed Musk’s apology in an interview with the New York Post on June 11, saying, “I thought it was very nice that he did that,” and that he has “no hard feelings” in a sign of a possible reconciliation between the two.

The Epoch Times contacted the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.