WASHINGTON — President Trump and Elon Musk are back to being bros as the president welcomed him for two days of Saudi crown prince events and mentioned him by name in a Wednesday speech — following quiet diplomacy by Trump’s advisers to mend one of the nastiest breakups in political history.
Trump gave Musk not one, but three, shout-outs during a business-focused speech before Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after the president offered a warm Tuesday night arm-tap to the world’s richest man at a White House banquet honoring his royal guest.
“You are so lucky I am with you, Elon,” Trump said while touting new tax-bill deductions for domestic cars, jokingly adding: “Has he ever thanked me properly?”
At another point, the president reminisced about the 2024 election, calling out his top financial backer in that race and saying it was “almost like you’re in a war” when deciding how to attack Democrats on border and transgender sports policies.
“I tell people, ‘Don’t talk about it, wait till two weeks before the election and hit the hell out of them, right?’ We talked about that, right, Elon?,” Trump recalled to Musk, who had prime seating at that the event.
Vice President JD Vance and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles played crucial roles in securing Musk’s return to the fold, five sources inside or close to the White House said.
“Both Susie and JD have made it clear to Elon that he has an open line of communication and they are willing and able to be sounding boards and honest brokers in any place that Elon wants to support the administration,” a source close to the situation told The Post.
“He has a place to vocalize that in a private manner. That’s a key part of this, [and] how that materialized hasn’t become public because the one thing that they all appreciate and have is a trust in each other that they can talk privately and candidly and that has allowed for this growth.”
On his part, Musk “has expressed some interest in making sure people know he wants to be supportive and collaborative,” the person said.
Another White House insider said “the relationship has really thawed” more than five months after Musk shockingly called for Trump’s impeachment and vowed to launch a third party that could doom Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.
Wiles appreciated that Musk “made such a huge impact on our efforts to trim the size of government” as the unpaid leader of the Department of Government Efficiency between January and May and “didn’t want to lose that entirely,” the second person said.
A third source said “Elon trusts Susie and JD above pretty much everyone else” and that Vance has “been working on” relaxing tensions.
The quiet talks bore fruit when Trump and Musk conversed in-person at the Sept. 21 funeral of assassinated Turning Point USA cofounder Charlie Kirk in Arizona.
In the meantime, Dan Scavino, Trump’s longtime adviser, social media master and the new director of presidential personnel, reversed his predecessor Sergio Gor’s spite-filled retraction of Jared Isaacman’s nomination to lead NASA — a critical impetus of Musk’s rage.
“Dan took it as his life’s mission to right that wrong” and renominate Isaacman, a former astronaut, one source told The Post.
Trump had yanked Isaacman, a billionaire payments-processing and aerospace entrepreneur, at Gor’s urging on May 31 due to his past donations to Democrats, even though a number of prominent former Democrats serve in Trump’s Cabinet.
Isaacman, renominated on Nov. 4, had been one of the few nominations requested by Musk, who slammed Gor as “a snake” for allegedly undermining his friend out of revenge for Musk for embarrassing him in front of Trump over his pace of administration hiring.
Gor was given a Nov. 10 Oval Office sendoff ahead of his move to India to serve as ambassador, in what his critics view as a soft landing after jeopardizing Trump’s political agenda out of personal grievance.
Trump’s warming relationship with Musk, who poured $290 million into Republican campaigns last year to boost Trump’s comeback, is remarkable given the depth of the vitriolic clash.
The dramatic feud broke loose after Musk had expressed concern about spending contained in Trump’s ultimately successful One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which contained signature campaign pledges to cut taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security payments.
A staggering escalation came on June 5, with the president threatening to end federal funds flowing to Musk’s companies SpaceX and Tesla and Musk claiming the president was incriminated in files pertaining to pedophile sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
After a detente, including the ex-DOGE chief deleting his post about Epstein, Musk announced on July 5 that he was forming a third party called the America Party “to give you back your freedom” — which threatened to peel votes away from Republicans.
“There needed to be some cooling off time, and [Wiles] appreciated that,” the first source said.
“The truth is Susie’s role has always been a behind-the-scenes operator where she identifies problems and tries to solve them,” the insider said.
Wiles “has always played a role mending fences where there is mutual interest” and “Susie and JD have both been people that Elon is comfortable going directly to when he has something that he wants to discuss.”
“Susie and JD care about his sincere support of the broader administration and the goals of the president,” said the first source, who described Trump’s openness to mending ties as pragmatic.
“There have been a number of these times where the president has shown pragmatism,” he said.
Musk’s own business pursuits intersected with the Saudi delegation’s appearance in Washington. During the visit, for example, his company xAI announced a partnership with Saudi company HUMAIN AI to establish a 500-megawatt data center in the oil-rich kingdom using Nvidia chips.
But a source said Musk didn’t show up because of pure self-interest.
“If it was just his own interests, he wouldn’t be at dinner. He has been sincere in his support and willingness in his steps to be on the team. And the team is America,” one source said.
A White House official warned, however, that “it will never be the way it used to be.”
“It’s true they are friendly, but not ‘friends,’” the official said.
“The president forgives, but he does not forget.”
