White House: Musk has ‘a right to speak for his companies’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said that tech billionaire Elon Musk has the right to speak out on behalf of his companies amid the ongoing feud between President Trump and the Tesla CEO.
The two had an explosive and public divorce on Thursday, during which they exchanged insults including Musk's claims that Trump wouldn’t have won the 2024 presidential race without Musk’s help, that files on the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein were being kept secret to protect the president, and Trump floating canceling government contracts with Musk’s companies.
Leavitt was asked on FOX News Channel’s “Hannity” about the falling out between Trump and Musk, who went from close allies to sparring publicly about the megabill, known as the “one big, beautiful bill.”
“Tonight, the president’s focus and the focus of the entire White House remains on passing the one big, beautiful bill. And as your audience just saw, on Friday, just days ago, the president graciously hosted Elon Musk in the Oval Office and Elon thanked the president for his incredible leadership to cut waste, fraud and abuse in our government, which this one big, beautiful bill does,” Leavitt said.
She added, “So the only difference between Friday and today is Elon went back to his companies. And, as a businessman, he has a right to speak for his companies. But as president, President Trump has a responsibility to fight for this country.”
Musk earlier this week called for the megabill to be killed, calling it “an abomination” and “pork-filled” due to its effects on federal deficits.
The president said in the Oval Office Thursday that he was “very surprised” and “disappointed” by Musk’s harsh criticism of the legislation and that he was uncertain about the future of their relationship.
The situation then quickly escalated with Musk and Trump posting back and forth on Truth Social and X, respectively.
Trump said Musk “just went crazy” because a key provision in the megabill takes away the tax credit for electric vehicles that benefited his company.
“I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump said.
Musk officially left his government role last Friday after leading the Department of Government Efficiency and its efforts to slash government spending. The president held a press conference with Musk to mark his exit, during which he thanked him for his work on the government overhaul and gifted him a key to the White House.