US Vice President J.D. Vance on Saturday warned that Tesla chief and former DOGE head Elon Musk had made a “huge mistake” attacking President Donald Trump online on Thursday. He had been referring to a bitter online war between the two men that possibly terminated Musk’s relations with the US government.
At the time, Vance had only refrained from attacking Musk online, choosing to only express his loyalty for Trump instead, saying that he was “proud to stand beside him”.
Appearing on comedian Theo Von’s podcast ‘This Past Weekend’, Vance went into more detail about the public spat that was even ridiculed by Russian officials.
Subtly warning Musk with his comment on the Tesla chief having made a “huge mistake”, Vance quickly moved on to downplay the impact of an “emotional” Musk’s explosive allegations against the US president, such as Trump’s links with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the entrepreneur’s call for Trump’s impeachment.
ALSO READ | Presidential pressure? Elon Musk retracts explosive post linking Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
“I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear,” Vance said, calling their social media duel a “blood feud”.
Vance’s comments come amid Musk’s deletion of the explosive X post in which he had linked Trump with Epstein.
“Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” Musk had written on X, without providing further proof. The deletion of the post raises further questions on whether he might have been pressured to do so, ever since the White House call to resolve the spat fell through.
Although Trump never spoke out against the Epstein files allegation, he did release a screenshot of a post of one of Epstein’s lawyers claiming that Trump’s name had not been a part of the Epstein files. Vance also denied the allegation in the podcast.
Although he praised Musk’s entrepreneurial abilities, Vance categorically denied Musk’s criticism of Trump’s “good” centre-piece tax-cut and spending bill, and the claim that it would add $2.4 trillion to America’s already staggering debt of $36.2 trillion.
ALSO READ | The Revenge of Sergio Gor: How a ‘humiliated’ Trump aide may have fuelled Elon Musk’s feud with US president
“Oh it’s okay … It’s going very well, never done better,” Trump had said about his feud with Musk, in a telephone call with Politico, despite saying earlier that the “great relationship” that he had with Musk was gone.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more,” he had said.
With electric vehicle company Tesla, internet company Starlink and rocket company SpaceX in the crosshairs of the online war, both men stand to lose from it, depending on what else happens in the aftermath of the social media feud.
