President Donald Trump finally responded to Elon Musk's criticism of his "big beautiful bill" and commented on the black eye he sported in his White House farewell, and CNN's Dana Bash received a text while on air pointing out the significance of those remarks.
The president's billionaire benefactor left his role as a special government employee last week, and days later he harshly criticized the Republican budget bill, but Trump did not comment on Musk's remarks until Thursday afternoon in an Oval Office meeting with German chancellor Friedrich Merz.
"You know, I can understand why he's upset," Trump said. "Remember he was here for a long time. You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the Oval desk and, even with the black eye, I said, 'Do you want a little makeup? We'll get you a little makeup.' But he said, 'No, I don't think so,' which is interesting and very nice. He wants to be who he is, so you could make that statement, too, I guess."
"Look, Elon and I had a great relationship," Trump added. "I don't know if, well, anymore. I was surprised because you were here. Everybody in this room practically was here as we had a wonderful sendoff. He said wonderful things about me. You couldn't have nicer, said the best things."
While the president's response to Musk's criticism, and the apparent distance he placed between himself and the tech mogul, were more newsworthy, Bash noted that Trump's comments about the black eye were also notable in their own right.
"As we go to break, I don't want to harp on the black eye too much, but I just want to say that a colleague just texted me to remind me that he, at the time, he said he didn't notice Musk's black eye," Bash said, "and now he said, there it is, and now he said, 'Oh, I offered to give him makeup.' So he very much noticed the black eye. He wants that to be in the zeitgeist, along with other things."
"Just wow," Bash added. "Wow wow wow."
Watch below or click the link.
Leave a Comment
Related Post