Trump says Musk has ‘lost his mind’ but says he is not focusing on row

Before we end our live coverage of the public fall out that has got the world talking, let’s take a look at what the key players have been saying today.

Donald Trump is thinking about selling his Tesla, according to CBS. There had been murmurs a phone call with Musk could be on the cards but not long after waking up, Trump told US media he was not interested in speaking to “the man who has lost this mind”.

Elon Musk has been a lot quieter today but has attacked ex-Trump aide Steve Bannon as a “criminal”. It follows Bannon pushing for the president to take control of Musk’s SpaceX on his podcast.

JD Vance says he’s proud to stand beside Trump, while House Speaker Mike Johnson tells CBS he’s hoping for a reconciliation.

Democrats are demanding answers after Musk claimed, without evidence, that Trump appears in unreleased government files linked to the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The White House has rubbished those claims.

And finally, the people whose opinion matters most: the voters. In a part of Pennsylvania where Trump stormed to victory last year, Marvin Little says “Elon wanted to be the president anyway, but there can only be one”. Another voter said: “I hate Musk’s guts, I think he should be deported.”

Want to read more? Here’s our definitive account of how the row played out. Thank you for joining.

Our colleagues over at the World Service have been speaking to Donald Trump supporters about his very public break up with Elon Musk.

Melanie in Georgia tells the Outside Source programme that the “two very strong, intelligent, brilliant men” approach things from different perspectives and believes it will all “blow over”.

“We can’t not consider the work that Elon has done for our country… he’s done an amazing job of revealing problems that we’ve had with overspending and waste,” Melanie says.

Emana in New York says it’s “very serious” for Musk to be making allegations about the president, but that she is “cautiously optimistic” it will be resolved.

And Duke Machado from Texas says he supports Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” because it represents “common sense American priorities… cutting taxes puts money back in the pockets of hard-working families”.

Listen as Sarah Smith, Marianna Spring, Justin Webb and Anthony Zurcher discuss how the row escalated, with Trump threatening to revoke Musk’s government contracts and Musk claiming, without evidence, that Trump appeared in the unreleased Epstein files.

Why does a row between the world’s richest person and one of the most powerful, the US president, matter to America and the rest of the world? And what impact could it have on the 2026 midterms?

Listen to Americast on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Elon Musk was a key champion within the White House of cutting government spending, spearheading those efforts via his Doge initiative.

Despite the fall out with Trump, Musk’s moves have already had a big impact, as underscored by today’s monthly jobs report.

It showed the federal government shed 22,000 jobs last month. Overall employment is down by 59,000 since January.

That kind of drop is unusual, and it doesn’t yet include the numbers of people on paid leave or severance, which could ultimately push it higher.

Overall, the report showed US employers added 139,000 jobs last month, while the jobless rate held steady at 4.2%, despite turmoil caused by tariffs and other policies.

Gary O’Donoghue
Chief North America correspondent, reporting at the White House

Still parked in the White House grounds – one used top-end Tesla Model S, almost certainly now for sale.

Donald Trump reportedly paid around $100,000 for it less than three months ago in a show of support for his then-best friend Elon Musk.

The president seemed quite impressed by it then.

In an extraordinary spectacle, the White House was turned into a car showroom for the day following a spate of attacks on Teslas around the country – some seemingly by people angered by Elon Musk’s politics.

But now, with their friendship broken down and their alliance completely written off, Trump seems to have soured on electric cars, which he says “no one really want”.

Last night, Elon Musk asked X users whether it’s “time to create a new political party in America”. It attracted 5.6 million votes, with 80.4% in favour.

It raises the prospect of the world’s richest man backing a challenger to the Democrat-Republican two-party system that has dominated US politics since the mid-19th century.

America has a long history of third parties but, with the exception of a few presidential races where outsider candidates have won enough support to alter the ultimate outcome, none have broken through to become a real national force.

A new third party would face the same uphill struggle – but one backed by Musk, whose personal wealth and public platform are almost entirely unrivalled, would give Democratic and Republican leaders something to think about.

That said, Musk publicly flirting with the idea of supporting a new party is at odds with comments he made last month about scaling back his political spending.

The billionaire put $250m (£184m) of his money behind Trump’s 2024 campaign but said he intends to do “a lot less” spending in the future, adding: “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it… I do not currently see a reason.”

Time will tell whether a third party moulded in his image could give Musk the reason he needs to get the chequebook out again.

Gary O’Donoghue
Chief North America correspondent

One particularly serious aspect of this spat was Elon Musk’s threat to cancel his Dragon rocket programme, which is the only way US astronauts can get to and from the International Space Station from US soil.

That threat, later seemingly withdrawn, led one of Donald Trump’s original acolytes, Steve Bannon, to call for SpaceX to be “seized” under something called the Defense Production Act.

So what is it? It was passed during the Korean war and gives the president broad powers to compel private sector businesses to manufacture emergency materials for the purposes of America’s national defence and national security. It also allows the government to compel companies to accept its contracts.

But this is no remote piece of legislation left on a dusty shelf – it’s been invoked regularly in the wake of natural disasters, during the Iraq war and recently within the last five years by Donald Trump himself.

He used it to increase medical supplies during the Covid pandemic – at one point directing General Motors to manufacture ventilators.

However, the act probably does not allow the “seizure” of a company as Bannon called for.

Nevertheless, Elon Musk may well have been thinking about the DPA when he rowed back on his threat to immediately cancel his rocket programme.

Jessica Parker
BBC News Berlin correspondent

You
could be forgiven for almost forgetting that Friedrich Merz was in the Oval
Office yesterday. But he was, of course, sat right alongside Donald Trump as
part of his first visit as German chancellor to Washington DC.

There was no
eyebrow-raising confrontation, the likes of which were seen with Ukraine’s
President Volodymyr Zelensky and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa.

Instead, Merz
looked pretty relaxed as his host took most of the airtime. Publicly – and
privately – the men discussed tariffs and the war in Ukraine.

A vocal backer of
Kyiv, Merz described Trump as the “key person in the world”
who could try and bring peace, “by putting pressure on Russia.” Merz, in turn,
received compliments for spending more on defence domestically and, at one
point, for his good standard of English.

Even if his trip became overshadowed
by the Trump/Musk spat, the new chancellor will be happy overall with how it
went as he tries to establish himself at home and abroad.

Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent

More now from voters in Folsom, the type of small town in Pennsylvania that became one of the most hotly contested parts of America during the 2024 election campaign.

We visit a diner, where Marvin Little is waiting to be seated. He says he’s over the whole Musk-Trump feud already.

“It was obvious this row was going to happen,” he says.

“To me, Elon wanted to be the president anyway, but there can only be one. Trump was never going to give up power.”

Christina is unsure about it all. She and her teenage son attended the rally Elon Musk held here last year and thinks the blow up doesn’t seem genuine.

“My son was talking about it non-stop in the car to school this morning,” she says.

“He thinks it’s a distraction for something bigger, something happening behind the scenes, maybe. I don’t know. It just seems weird.”

Nomia Iqbal
Reporting from Pennsylvania

Once
upon a time in Folsom, Pennsylvania, support for Elon Musk was huge – he did a solo rally
here for Donald Trump, attracting many people.

How quickly the fairy-tale has
ended.

Sat at the local diner, Joseph Presanti cuts to the chase: “I
hate Musk’s guts, I think he should be deported, but it probably won’t
happen.”

The
South African billionare really hit Pennsylvania hard last year, but Joseph
says he’s furious at the way “he’s turned on Trump”.

“We
have a president who is trying to make America great again and now this war is happening. It’s not good for our country.”

Joe
and Carol are grabbing breakfast. Joe is idly stirring their coffee as we chat
to them, and almost seems bemused. Carol rolls her eyes and says: “It’s just
two men with egos basically fighting it out in public.”

Joe
is pretty firm when we ask if Musk is right when he says he won the election
for Trump: “Trump
won the election.”

“His ideas
won voters. Musk was just part of government to try and remove waste. That’s
it.”

Not long ago, we brought you details of Elon Musk’s first post on X today about his row with Trump.

Since then, he has continued to reply to posts from other users about the argument – twice calling referring to Steve Bannon, who was key Trump aide during his first presidential campaign, as a “criminal”.

It follows Bannon pushing for Trump to take control of Musk’s SpaceX on his podcast War Room on Thursday, and saying there could be no way back into the president’s inner circle for Musk.

One user on X today criticises Bannon for suggesting Trump could use the Defense Production Act to take control of SpaceX.

“Bannon advocates crime, because he is a criminal,” Musk replies.

Bannon was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022 for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to a January 6 Capitol riot investigation. He was released from prison last October after four months.

As we reported yesterday, a key point of contention between Musk and Trump was the withdrawal of Jared Isaacman’s nomination to head Nasa.

Trump cites Isaacman’s past donations to Democratic campaigns as the reason for rescinding
the nomination, saying “we don’t have to appoint a Democrat”.

Musk had strongly backed Isaacman for the role. The Space X owner has a keen interest in the future of the agency and is a long-time friend of Isaacman.

Isaacman spoke about finding out he’d been discounted for the role during an interview with the All-In Interview podcast, and suggested his
nomination was scrapped because of “Musk’s deteriorating influence”.

He said there were “people with axes to grind” and he was a “good visible target”, suggesting his sidelining was the result of wider tensions within the Trump administration.

Isaacman – who backed Trump’s election – pointed out that his previous donations to Democratic candidates were already in the public domain, and said reporting about his chances of becoming Nasa head being blocked because of friction in the White House “seem to check out”.

Fox News says its political anchor Bret Baier has just spoken to US President Donald Trump.

Trump told Baier he’s still not interested in talking to Elon Musk – something he has been consistent about throughout today, despite earlier reports suggesting the two could have a phone conversation.

“Elon has totally lost it,” Fox reports Trump as saying.

He also addresses Musk’s poll that he posted to X last night, in which he raised the prospect of supporting a new political party – something Trump tells Fox he’s not worried about.

Steve Bannon, a prominent former White House strategist and long-time critic of Musk, believes the billionaire cannot now reconcile with Trump.

Speaking to NPR, Bannon slams Musk’s recent comments, particularly his reference to the so-called Epstein files and his suggestion that Trump should be impeached and replaced by JD Vance.

“This is outrageous. It has crossed the line and there’s no going back,” Bannon says.

Elon Musk has made his first post today about his row with Donald Trump.

He is responding to another user who writes: “Elon criticised Congress, not Trump. Trump then attacked Elon personally.”

Musk replies: “Exactly”.

As we’ve been reporting, Donald Trump has threatened to cancel Elon Musk’s government contracts.

White House Office and Management Director Russ Vought was asked in an appearance on CNN whether a termination was actually under consideration.

Vought does not answer directly, but tells the news network that Musk and his companies benefit from taxpayer dollars.

He says Trump’s post was intended to state “the reality that the businesses of Elon Musk benefit and work in tandem with the federal government. And the American people need to know that.”

He also tells CNN he’s “disappointed” by Musk’s comments.

As we’ve been reporting, Trump has spoken about Musk today, telling US media that Musk is “the man who has lost his mind”.

Musk hasn’t posted anything publicly about the argument today.

That’s a big change from yesterday, when he was replying quickly to Trump’s comments.

So far today, Musk’s only activity on X has been to repost a Tesla image celebrating the production of the company’s eight millionth vehicle at its Berlin factory.

“Congratulations Tesla Giga Berlin team!!,” Musk writes.

This comes as Tesla shares have taken a hit because of the argument, although they did recover slightly when US markets opened.

The BBC’s X Man: The Elon Musk Story podcast delves into the mind of Elon Musk, exploring how science fiction shaped the world’s richest man and his ambitious visions for our future.

You can listen to the podcast on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Zoe Kleinman
Technology editor

Last night a long-forgotten post I shared on X in November 2024 got some new attention: “I wonder how long it will be before Trump and Musk fall out,” I wrote. “It’s an extraordinarily powerful partnership but they are also two enormous egos who both like being Number One”.

Seven months later, we now know the answer.

In January, Trump was flanked by tech titans at his presidential inauguration: a mighty 21st-century equivalent of the Army Generals of old. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and of course, Elon Musk were all smiles. Apple boss Tim Cook appeared less thrilled, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was notably entirely absent.

Perhaps they already understood that Trump’s favour can be short-lived, and his fury unrestrained; even among his favourites.

Apple’s status as a multi-trillion dollar US success story hasn’t stopped Trump gunning for the iPhone, threatening eye-watering tariffs against China, where the majority of them are made.

If Musk ever believed his position as “best buddy” made him untouchable, he’s had a big wake-up call.

He’s now discovered that even he can’t change Trump’s mind, and that Trump will fight fire with fire for as long as it takes.

The BBC’s US media partner CBS reports that US House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to see Trump and Musk reconcile, saying it “would be good for the party and the country if all that’s worked out”.

Johnson, who has also faced criticism from Musk, makes his support for the president clear.

“Do not doubt and do not second guess and don’t ever challenge the president of the United States, Donald Trump,” he says. “”He’s the most consequential political figure of this generation and probably the modern era, and he’s doing an excellent job for the people.”