Donald Trump spent part of Friday morning letting some news outlets know that he has no plans to talk to Elon Musk, even amid talk of a potential truce in their messy fallout.
On CNN, Dana Bash said that she got off the phone with Trump, and the president told her, “I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem.”
“He says he won’t be speaking to him for a while, but he wishes Elon Musk well,” Bash said, as Trump turned to the economy. She said that Trump didn’t sound angry but “I guess more resigned.”
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl also spoke to Trump, and said the president told him that he was “not particularly” interested in talking to him. Karl had asked him about reports that there would be a call with Musk some time on Friday.
“You mean the man who has lost his mind?” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Fox News and other outlets reported that Trump plans to give away or sell the red Tesla that he purchased from Musk earlier this year. The two had appeared on the White House lawn in March for what essentially was a sales pitch for Musk’s cars, amid reports of declining sales due in part to the negative image many potential buyers had of the billionaire in his chainsaw-like approach to the federal government. As the feud between Musk and Trump escalated on Thursday, White House reporter posted photos of the Tesla, parked near the West Wing.
Musk had given some indication later on Thursday that he would tone it down. After one X user suggested that Musk and Trump “cool off and take a step back for a couple days,” Musk wrote, “Good advice.” He also appeared to back off his threat to decommission Dragon, the program to supply NASA with spacecraft to resupply and send astronauts to the space station.
