Donald Trump warned Elon Musk that he faces “very serious consequences” if he funds Democratic candidates following the pair’s epic public bust-up this week.
The warning, delivered in an interview with NBC News set to broadcast on Sunday, follows days of feuding and threats after Musk called Republicans’ budget legislation an “abomination”.
Mr Trump told interviewer Kristen Welker his relationship with the tech mogul was over and warned Mr Musk against choosing to fund Democrats after spending close to $300 million (€355 million) in support of Mr Trump’s re-election last year.
“If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC News. “He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” he said.
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Mr Trump was also asked if he had any wish to repair his relationship with Musk. “No,” he said. Asked if he thought their relationship was over, he said, “I would assume so, yeah,” and had no plans to speak with his erstwhile sidekick.
“I’m too busy doing other things,” Mr Trump said.
“I have no intention of speaking to him.”
But he predicted that the spat had helped to unify the Republican Party around him, saying the “party has never been united like this before. It’s never been. It’s actually more so than it was three days ago.”
Mr Musk’s opposition to the Republican budget bill, formally the “one big beautiful bill act”, would not, he predicted affect its passage through Congress. The bill narrowly passed the House and is now under consideration in the Senate. However, some conservative Republicans share Musk’s concerns about the need for significant spending cuts and are considering making changes.
The bill extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and includes new spending for border security and the military. Republicans aimed to offset these costs with cuts to programmes such as Medicaid, food stamps and green-energy tax credits.
Projections from the Congressional Budget Office and independent analysts indicate that the bill would add between $2.3tn and $5tn to the deficit over the next 10 years. White House officials contend that the economic growth generated by tax cuts will offset the increased spending.
Still, Mr Trump told NBC he is “very confident” that the bill will pass the Senate before July 4th.
“I think, actually, Elon brought out the strengths of the bill because people that weren’t as focused started focusing on it, and they see how good it is,” Mr Trump said. “So in that sense, there was a big favour. But I think Elon, really, I think it’s a shame that he’s so depressed and so heartbroken.”
And he accused Mr Musk of being “disrespectful to the office of the president”.
“I think it’s a very bad thing, because he’s very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the president,” he said.
Earlier, Musk deleted a post from X, the social media platform he owns, that asserted links between Trump and disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Probed on the inflammatory post, Mr Trump said: “That’s called ‘old news’, that’s been old news, that has been talked about for years. Even Epstein’s lawyer said I had nothing to do with it. It’s old news.”
Musk has also retracted a threat to begin “decommissioning” SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft used by Nasa to ferry astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.
That came after Mr Trump suggested he might cancel SpaceX’s federal contracts. On Saturday, the president said he hadn’t given the subject any more thought.
“I’d be allowed to do that,” he said, “but I haven’t given it any thought.”
Earlier on Saturday, JD Vance told interviewer and comedian Theo Von that Mr Musk was making a “huge mistake” going after Mr Trump, but downplayed Mr Musk’s attacks as being made by an “emotional guy” who got frustrated.“ I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear,” the vice-president said. But he reasoned: “Look, it happens to everybody. I’ve flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours.”
“I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine,” Vance said. – Guardian
