President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are getting along well so far, but their first meeting at the Oval Office five years ago in 2020 was not as friendly. A source who was at the meeting shared the details with Politico on Tuesday.
“That Musk later became Trump’s biggest financial backer — giving $288 million to his 2024 presidential bid — and then one of his closest advisers, is the latest example of how both men make decisions and build relationships based on a real politik calculus. And how both see themselves as engaging in a transactional relationship,” writes Politico’s Adam Wren.
Musk and Trump were meeting to discuss building a Tesla gigafactory in Mexico rather than Texas. Wren reports that Musk also met with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, before the meeting.
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“A person who was within earshot of Musk — who West Wing Playbook granted anonymity to describe a private conversation — later recounted that Musk called Trump ‘a f------ moron’ behind his back while in the White House,” Wren writes.
“We walk into the Oval, and he kind of looks around, and he’s looking around,” the source said. “He’s like, ‘Gosh, I tell you. I mean, I was just in China and man, their palaces just make the White House kind of look more like an outhouse.’”
Trump “fumed,” the source said.
They discussed Teslas; Trump said he had two. But he seemed confused as to how the car’s supercharging network works.
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Musk was on three Trump advisory councils in 2017, but he left when Trump said he would pull out of the Paris Climate Accords. “Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world,” he tweeted.
In 2022, Musk tweeted, "I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset."
Trump posted a picture of himself sitting at his desk in the Oval Office with Musk standing to his right. “When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, “drop to your knees and beg,” and he would have done it…” he posted on Truth Social.
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