President Donald Trump said Elon Musk will pay “very serious consequences” if the billionaire tech mogul funds Democratic candidates that challenge lawmakers who backed Republicans’ sweeping tax-and-spending bill, NBC News reported.
Trump, in a phone interview with NBC News’ Kristen Walker, also said he has no desire to repair his relationship with Musk. The two had a public falling out on Thursday.
“I gave him breaks in my first administration, and saved his life in my first administration, I have no intention of speaking to him,” Trump said in the interview.
Trump said he hadn’t given his suggestion about canceling Musk’s companies’ federal contracts any more thought, according to NBC. “I’d be allowed to do that,” he said. “I haven’t given it any thought."
Earlier,
President Donald Trump said he had no plans to speak to onetime ally Elon Musk and added that he was still looking at canceling the billionaire’s government contracts — an indication that their public feud is far from over.
“We’ll take a look at everything,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “It’s a lot of subsidy.”
But Trump added, “only if it’s to be fair for him and for the country.”
Trump’s comments came one day after a volatile public spat that saw the president and the world’s richest man resort to personal attacks in a feud spurred by disagreement over a massive tax package that Musk opposes.
Musk late Thursday showed a willingness to deescalate the fight, but Trump said he had no intention of reaching out.
“I don’t have any plans,” Trump said, when asked if he was going to speak to Musk.
On Thursday, the break-up tanked the share price of Tesla Inc., the company Musk leads, but the stock pared some losses on Friday. Other equities and digital assets with ties to Trump or Musk also fell in the wake of their clash.
Musk’s companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, benefit from billions in federal contracts or subsidies. SpaceX, one of the world’s most valuable startups with a market value of $350 billion, has received more than $22 billion in unclassified contracts from the Defense Department and NASA since 2000, according to data from Bloomberg Government.
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