Billionaire Meltdown: Elon Musk Publicly Begs Trump for Forgiveness After Posting ‘Dangerous Lies’ Online — Stunning U-Turn Sparks Frenzy as MAGA Fans Celebrate and Critics Question Musk’s Mental State! Can Tesla’s CEO Recover From This Political Firestorm?

Tech billionaire admits he went ‘too far’ with social media posts calling for US president to be impeached

Elon Musk receiving a golden key from Donald Trump in the Oval Office in May Credit: Nathan Howard/Reuters

Elon Musk has made a public apology to Donald Trump for posting incendiary comments on social media that imploded their relationship.

The billionaire Tesla founder, who had been one of the US president’s closest advisers, called for the US president to be impeached and claimed he was named in the Epstein files.

“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Mr Musk wrote on Wednesday morning. He did not specify which ones, although he has since deleted the claim about Mr Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr Trump said that Mr Musk had “lost his mind” in the meltdown, which started with a disagreement over the Republican’s so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill.

Mr Musk had been hired as a “special government employee” to head up the new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), controversially tasked with downsizing the federal workforce and slashing spending.

While he enjoyed some success in his mission, he was upset with Mr Trump’s decision to open the spending taps in his bill, saying it was undoing his team’s work.

Mr Musk exited the White House at the end of May, ending a turbulent 130-day stint in Mr Trump’s team, just days after he said he was “disappointed” with the new budget.

At a cordial public farewell to the man who appointed himself as Trump’s “first buddy”, both said Mr Musk would stay on as an adviser. He was handed a gold key to the White House.

But the simmering dissent went public last week when the pair began trading insults online, with Mr Musk denouncing the president’s budget as “a disgusting abomination” that will bankrupt the US.

The Tesla billionaire called on Americans to help “kill the bill”, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks and a boost to defence spending.

Mr Trump was quick to hit back, claiming that the Tesla billionaire had been irked by the legislation ending tax credit worth billions of dollars to his electric vehicle company.

Their spat rapidly intensified when Musk called for the president’s impeachment and claimed the Republican was “in the Epstein files” – the dossier of US government information held on the late paedophile financier.

In response, Mr Trump threatened to cancel US government contracts with Mr Musk’s companies, which include SpaceX.

By Saturday, Musk had deleted the worst of his tweets, in an apparent sign he was hoping to repair the rift between them.

Yet, the damage was done. Mr Trump declared his relationship with the South African-born tech tycoon was over and that he had “no desire” to mend it, accusing Mr Musk of being “disrespectful to the office of the President”.

Mr Trump also warned that there would be “serious consequences” if Mr Musk switched his allegiance to the Democrats and funded rival candidates who would vote against the bill.

JD Vance, the US vice-president, said Mr Musk had made a “huge mistake” in picking a fight with Mr Trump. Over the weekend, he said he hoped he would “come back into the fold”, but acknowledged that might be difficult after he went “nuclear” during the row.