Musk bowed his head in "regret"; Silicon Valley is ultimately no match for the White House.

Author: Jin10

Tech billionaire Elon Musk said on Wednesday that he regrets some of his social media posts targeting U.S. President Trump last week, which sparked a public spat and led to a rift in their once-close alliance.

The conflict ended the close collaboration of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which had pushed Musk to lead a streamlined budget during Trump’s second term, and raised concerns about the prospects of the tech tycoon’s Tesla and SpaceX. After the outbreak of the conflict, Tesla’s market value suffered its biggest one-day decline in history, but the stock price has now gradually recovered.

“I regret some of the posts I made last week about President Trump (@realDonaldTrump); they were a bit excessive.” Musk wrote on the social media platform X.

The trigger of the contradiction is Musk’s opposition to Trump’s supported “Beautiful America Act” tax and spending plan. In an interview, he stated that the plan “destroys” the workings of DOGE and further criticized on social media that it would significantly increase the U.S. budget deficit. The Trump administration refuted this.

As of last Saturday, Musk seems to have deleted some posts that intensified the conflict with White House leaders, including a post accusing Trump of being linked to deceased sex offender Epstein’s “documents.” The White House had previously denied this claim. In another post, Musk replied “agree” to a user’s comment calling for “the impeachment of Trump and the succession of Vice President Pence,” which has also disappeared.

In the dispute, which was staged simultaneously through Musk’s X platform and Trump’s Truth Social, Trump also hinted that he would end the government’s contracts and subsidies for Musk’s companies. But on Monday, Trump said he planned to keep Starlink technology — a satellite internet service owned by Musk’s SpaceX, in the White House.

Analysts believe that Musk’s apology is unlikely to bridge the gap between the two sides. The ever-vengeful Trump, while stating “I wish him all the best,” has clearly refused to mend fences. The golden period of their relationship was only a few months before Trump’s second term, when Musk-led DOGE attempted to cut $1 trillion in federal spending, ultimately only achieving a target of $180 billion.

Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush technology, believes that Musk’s relationship with Trump is “difficult to fully repair, but it may improve in the coming months.” After all, “Trump needs Musk to maintain relations with the Republican Party, and Musk needs Trump even more” — especially key policies like the federal framework for autonomous driving.

The conflict has revealed the fragility of Silicon Valley’s relationship with the White House. In the five months since Trump took office, he has pressed all the tech CEOs who attended his inauguration — including Meta’s Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Bezos and Google’s Pichai — through lawsuits or rhetoric. While Microsoft emerged as a minority winner (it was approved to buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is still investigating its relationship with OpenAI.

Case Western Reserve University School of Law professor Anat Alon-Beck pointed out: “Tech giants have to accept the conditions of the current government.” Although Trump continued several antitrust investigations from the Biden era, his repeal of the AI safety executive order and measures to relax the regulatory environment still provided the industry with some breathing room.