JD Vance has slammed Elon Musk for launching an all-out campaign of hate against President Donald Trump following the Tesla CEO’s social media meltdown earlier this week.
“I just think it’s a huge mistake for the world’s wealthiest man, I think one of the most transformational entrepreneurs ever, to be at war with the world’s most powerful man, who I think is doing more to save our country than anybody in my lifetime,” the vice president said.
“I just think you’ve got to have some respect for him and say, ‘yeah, we don’t have to agree on every issue’,” he went on. “But is this war actually in the interest of the country? I don’t think so.”
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Vance’s comments, made during a sit-down with podcaster Theo Von released Saturday, follow Musk lighting a match to his already fraying relationship with Trump on Tuesday, and then proceeding to pour several gallons of kerosene over the resulting blaze in the days since.
The feud first kicked off after Musk described the president’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, which contains spending proposals for many of the Trump administration’s flagship policies, as “a massive, outrageous, pork-filled[,] disgusting abomination” that threatens to “defeat all of the cost savings achieved” by DOGE.
Musk had led the White House government efficiency drive, taking an axe to federal programs and government departments as well as scything away an estimated two million federal jobs, until stepping down last week after reaching the 130 day limit granted to “special government employees.”
Things escalated drastically after Trump said Thursday he was “very disappointed” by the tech broligarch’s criticism of his administration’s spending proposals, adding that “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.”
Musk responded later that night on X later that night, publishing a series of posts in which he lamented Trump’s “ingratitude” and claimed the president would have lost the election were in not for the estimated quarter of a billion dollars the Tesla CEO invested in his campaign.
He later proposed the formation of a new political party, at one point appearing to position himself as a prospective leader of that movement, and even accused Trump in a now-deleted tweet of refusing to publish the full ‘Epstein Files’ for fear of revealing the alleged extent of his relationship with the deceased financier and convicted pedophile sex trafficker.
Musk’s increasingly erratic behavior also follows after a bombshell report by The New York Times on his alleged drug habits, which include reportedly abusing ketamine with such regularity as to have given him issues with his bladder, a common symptom of chronic use.
Despite suffering perhaps one of the most spectacular public meltdowns in U.S. political history, vice president Vance appears to think there may still be scope for the SpaceX founder to eventually find his way back into Trump’s good graces.
“Hopefully, Elon figures it out, comes back into the fold. I know the president was getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon. But I think it has been very restrained, because the president doesn’t think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk,” Vance told Von on Saturday.
“I actually think that if Elon chilled out a little bit everything would be fine,” he added.
