President Donald Trump dismissed the idea of reconciling with Elon Musk in the near future on Friday morning, telling ABC News in a phone interview that he’s “not particularly” interested in speaking with the Tesla CEO.
“You mean the man who has lost his mind?” Trump said when asked about reports of a scheduled call with the tech billionaire later that day, saying that Musk was interested in speaking, even if the president was not.
The feud between the president and his former adviser exploded into view Thursday, sending shockwaves through the MAGA movement. The ABC News report says that Trump mostly seemed calm about the back-and-forth and preferred shifting the conversation to other topics. But one adviser told the network that the president was “bummed” about the situation Thursday.
The dispute between the two men started as a disagreement over a spending bill, but quickly devolved as Musk claimed that Trump would have lost the election without his support, agreed with a social media post calling for the president’s impeachment and claimed that Trump’s name appeared in the so-called Epstein files. Trump fired back by calling Musk “CRAZY” and threatening to revoke his federal contracts.
Among the casualties of the falling out — which also includes billions of Musk’s personal wealth — may be the red Tesla Model S that Trump purchased earlier this year to publicly signal his support for Musk. Trump is planning to sell the car now, according to the New York Times, citing a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Despite a small jump on Friday afternoon, Tesla stocks are still down roughly 13% this week.