As cabinet secretaries, business executives and President Trump's family members boarded Air Force One for a long-haul flight to China, in came Elon Musk.
Musk had publicly torched his relationship with Trump nearly one year earlier. But in May, as they cruised toward Beijing, all appeared friendly, according to people on the plane.
The leader of Tesla and SpaceX, then on the brink of becoming the world's first trillionaire, told the president about plans to build new factories in the U.S. Trump talked about a space launch video he had recently watched and asked about one of Musk's young sons . Musk reminisced with White House advisers about how much fun it had been to be involved in the 2024 presidential race.
Then Musk delivered news that Trump's team had been hoping to hear for months: He intended to aid Republicans in November's midterm elections. Musk has signaled he plans to spend at least $100 million on a voter-turnout operation to help the GOP maintain control of Congress, people familiar with the strategy said.
The scene capped a nearly yearlong effort to reunite Trump and Musk following the breakup of one of the most unusual and significant political alliances in modern American history.
It involved back-channel phone calls, coaxing from mutual friends, invites to Mar-a-Lago and a White House soiree. The reunion was also nudged forward by an unexpected tragedy: the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who had spent the months before his death trying to repair the relationship.
Privately, Trump says he and Musk will never be as close as they once were, according to the president's aides. But they are talking again, roughly once a month, discussing AI, China and world events, people with knowledge of the calls said.
The rekindled relationship could help both men. If Democrats win control of Congress, they are prepared to launch a litany of investigations into the president and his family. Musk, who relies on lucrative government contracts, could be targeted as well.
Representatives for Musk didn't respond to a request for comment. In a statement, the White House said Trump "has built the greatest coalition in the history of American politics, full of patriots like Elon Musk who are deeply committed to preserving all of the historic accomplishments of this administration."
The 'big bomb'
Trump and Musk became fast friends during the 2024 campaign, and soon after Trump took office for a second time, Musk moved into the White House complex -- sleeping there at times -- to oversee the president's efforts to reduce the size of the federal government.
But Musk's unorthodox approach attracted negative headlines and angered members of Trump's cabinet, who felt they should have more control over their own agencies, while his cuts to programs relied on by millions of Americans drew criticism. Aides grumbled about Musk, but for weeks Trump insisted that their bond was strong.
Everything fell apart in June of last year, as behind-the-scenes friction erupted online.
"Time to drop the really big bomb," Musk told his 240 million X followers at the apex of the fight. Trump, he said, was named in the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files. "That is the real reason they have not been made public."
Trump, armed with his Truth Social platform, threatened to cancel Musk's government contracts and accused him of opposing a signature tax-and-spending bill because it eliminated incentives for electric vehicles. Musk said the package, which he called a "disgusting abomination," would drive the country into more debt.
"Without me, Trump would have lost the election," wrote Musk, who spent nearly $300 million to help re-elect Trump in 2024. "Such ingratitude."
A peace offering
Publicly, the White House played down Musk's attacks on the president as an "unfortunate episode." But behind the scenes, senior administration officials were rushing to repair the relationship, according to people familiar with the matter.
One day after the public falling out between the two men, Vice President JD Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles quietly reached out to Musk in an attempt to lower tensions. They figured things were so bad, they had little to lose by trying. The conversation went well, according to people familiar with the matter.
Early the next week, Musk called Trump and they also had a positive conversation, the people said. Musk followed the call with a social-media post expressing regret for some of his comments, saying they went too far.
But it would be many months before the relationship was more fully repaired. In September, Trump told a senior White House official that he wasn't ready to bring Musk back into his inner circle.
Vance played a central role in mending ties between the two men, keeping open lines of communication with the businessman and his allies. Late last summer -- in what was viewed as a peace offering by some of Trump's advisers -- Musk abandoned plans to start a new political party, according to people familiar with the matter, in part because he wanted to maintain a relationship with Vance, who is widely seen as a likely 2028 presidential candidate.
Vance believed that Musk was too important a figure to ignore, the people said. A permanent rupture in relations with the administration could have far-reaching consequences, given the significance of SpaceX contracts for defense and national security. Indeed, some at NASA panicked when Musk threatened to cut off support for missions to the International Space Station during the peak of his feud with Trump.
An administration-led review of SpaceX's contracts with the federal government that was initiated after the June spat with Trump found that most of those contracts were critical to the Defense Department and NASA, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Since then, the company has only become more embedded in America's war machine.
Like Vance, the president's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., remained friendly with Musk, according to people familiar with the matter. Around the time of the breakup, his venture-capital firm, 1789 Capital, invested in Musk's xAI, SpaceX and Neuralink. Katie Miller, the wife of Trump's deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, is also close to Musk, having worked with him during his stint at the White House.
Personnel changes and a tragedy
Kirk, the young conservative activist with a large following, also worked to bring Trump and Musk together, according to people close to him, communicating with Musk as the feud exploded into public view. Kirk was shot and killed in September, and Trump and Musk attended a memorial for him at an Arizona football stadium. David Sacks, a technology adviser to Trump who is a Musk ally, suggested to Wiles that he try to get the two men together, according to people familiar with the events.
Musk walked over to Trump's stadium box and briefly spoke with the president, Trump patting Musk on the elbow as the entrepreneur left. Later, on Air Force One, Trump talked about the exchange, describing it as interesting and asking what others thought, according to a person familiar with the encounter.
That night, Musk posted a photo of him talking to the president at the memorial. "For Charlie," he wrote.
Meanwhile, two personnel changes also helped ease tensions.
In the White House, Musk clashed repeatedly with Trump's longtime aide Sergio Gor. During a meeting early in Trump's second term, Trump said he was frustrated that Musk's DOGE wasn't moving fast enough on certain initiatives. Musk blamed Gor, who oversaw vetting of appointments in the administration, causing the president to berate Gor, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Last August, Trump tapped Gor to be the U.S. ambassador to India -- sending him 7,500 miles away from Washington.
Trump also made an extraordinary U-turn in November, reappointing Musk ally Jared Isaacman to lead NASA, a move that Musk appreciated, according to people familiar with the relationship. Competition for the job was intense, and Isaacman won out over Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary who had taken on the role after Trump ousted Isaacman in June amid the Musk breakup.
In November, in a sign of the detente, Musk returned to the White House for a dinner Trump hosted for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In recent months, Trump has praised Musk publicly. After Musk became a trillionaire, the president sent him a congratulatory note.
For the midterms, Musk plans to donate to America PAC, the group he set up to fund pro-Trump efforts in 2024. He plans to invest at least $100 million in a get-out-the-vote operation in key states, according to a person familiar with the details, which were earlier reported by Axios and the New York Times.
America PAC will coordinate with MAGA Inc., the primary Trump super PAC, which already holds more than $400 million.
Musk has signaled he won't be as visible as he was in the last election and during his polarizing, often chaotic, role overseeing DOGE. "I think I got a little too involved in politics," Musk told the Economist last month.
"Got carried away, frankly."
Comments