Trump fires back at reports he's trying to 'destroy' Elon Musk's companies after their falling out
President Donald Trump shot back at reports that he will try to destroy the companies of former best friend Elon Musk, clarifying his intent when it comes to the world's richest man.
Trump had previously threatened to take away the billions in government contracts that Musk's various companies hold.
The duo had a very public fallout over Trump's one big beautiful bill, which resulted in each man making threats against the other.
But the president now says he wants Musk to 'thrive.'
'Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon's companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!,' the president wrote on Truth Social.
'I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that's good for all of us,' Trump wrote.
The clarification came after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked in her briefing on Wednesday if Trump supports federal agencies contracting with Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI.
'I don't think so, no,' she replied and then added she would speak to the president about the matter.
xAI won a contract for up to $200 million with the Department of Defense, alongside Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, last week.
President Donald Trump said he wants Elon Musk to 'thrive'
Additionally, this week, xAI unveiled a suite of products for U.S. government customers, which it refers to as Grok for Government.
Trump and Musk have had a hot and cold relationship since the Tesla founder left government service in May.
After his departure, Musk publicly turned on Trump's signature bill, complaining it would increase the country's debt and undo much of the savings his Department of Government Efficiency had sought.
Trump was furious at Musk's public criticism and, at one point, responded: 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.'
He also threatened to deport Musk, who was born in South Africa and is a naturalized American.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump in happier times - before their very public falling out
Earlier this month Trump added an additional threat: turning DOGE - the agency Musk founded - against him.
'I don't know. We'll have to take a look,' the president told Daily Mail when asked about deporting Musk.
'We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,' Trump added.
Musk, for his part, threatened to start a third political party to go after Republican candidates and posted on his X account that the reason the Jeffrey Epstein files hadn't been released because Trump is in them. He later took that post down.
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