President Donald Trump on Saturday said there would be “serious consequences” if tech mogul Elon Musk funds Democratic candidates to run against Republicans who vote in favor of the GOP’s sweeping budget bill.
“If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview, but declined to share what those consequences would be.
“He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” he added.
The president also said he has no desire to repair his relationship with Musk after a feud between the two men erupted into public view earlier this week.
“No,” Trump said when asked if he had any wish to do so.
Asked if he thought his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was over, Trump said, “I would assume so, yeah.”
Trump’s comments were the most extensive since he and Musk exchanged threats and attacks on X and Truth Social earlier this week. He added that he thought the Republican Party was more unified than ever after the two men fell out in front of the world.
Trump said he has no plans to speak with Musk anytime soon. “I’m too busy doing other things,” he said, adding, “I have no intention of speaking to him.”
Trump also accused Musk of being “disrespectful to the office of the President.”
“I think it’s a very bad thing, because he’s very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the President,” he added.
Musk on Thursday launched a barrage of posts on X against the president, including a now-deleted post highlighting the onetime links between the president and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“That’s called ‘old news,’ that’s been old news, that has been talked about for years,” Trump said on Saturday. “Even Epstein’s lawyer said I had nothing to do with it. It’s old news.”
In the days leading up to their public falling out, Musk had been critical of a GOP-led spending bill that the House passed last month.
In the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump responded to Musk’s criticisms, telling reporters, “I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill. I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
Shortly after those comments, Musk launched his flurry of posts, including a now-deleted post promoting a call for Trump to be impeached and another where he said the president’s tariff agenda would cause a recession later this year.
Trump on Thursday also responded with his own posts on Truth Social. In one post, he wrote, “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,” suggesting that Musk knew what was in the bill before it was passed.
He also wrote on Thursday, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” referring to federal contracts with SpaceX. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
On Saturday, Trump said he hadn’t given his suggestion about canceling Musk’s companies’ federal contracts any more thought.
“I’d be allowed to do that,” he said, “but I have, I haven’t given it any thought.”
Trump also responded to calls from outside allies, like conservative activist Steve Bannon, who have said that Musk’s business dealings and immigration record should be investigated by the federal government.
The president told NBC News that he hasn’t had those conversations. “I mean it’s not something that’s on top of my mind right now,” Trump said.
He also cast doubt on the notion that Musk’s opposition to the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is jeopardizing the bill’s chances of success, saying he’s “very confident” that the bill will pass the Senate before July 4.
“The Republican Party has never been united like this before. It’s never been. It’s actually more so than it was three days ago,” Trump said.
Musk contributed major financial support to Trump’s presidential bid in 2024, spending over a quarter of a billion dollars to boost him in swing states last year. In the first months of the administration, Trump put Musk in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, where he oversaw mass layoffs of federal workers and the shuttering or partial closing of several agencies.
The feud, Trump said, has made lawmakers see the benefits of the bill.
“I think, actually, Elon brought out the strengths of the bill because people that weren’t as focused started focusing on it, and they see how good it is,” Trump said. “So in that sense, there was a big favor. But I think Elon, really, I think it’s a shame that he’s so depressed and so heartbroken.”
During an interview on “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von” that was taped on Thursday but released Saturday, Vice President JD Vance described Musk’s attacks on Trump as “nuclear” and said that it may not be possible for Musk to “come back into the fold.”
“I’m always going to be loyal to the president, and I hope that eventually Elon, kind of, comes back into the fold,” Vance told podcaster Theo Von. “Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear.”
The vice president also called it a “huge mistake” for Musk to target the president over his frustrations with the House version of the bill, saying, “The process in D.C., if you’re a business leader, you probably get frustrated with that process because it’s more, you know, bureaucratic, it’s more slow moving.”
He added, “I think there’s just some frustrations there. But I really, man, I think it’s a huge mistake for him to go after the president like that.”
