Musk called Trump Monday night before expressing regret for harshest criticism of the president

By Alayna Treene, Kaitlan Collins and Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — Elon Musk called President Donald Trump Monday night, two sources told CNN, before saying early Wednesday that he regrets some of his social media posts about the president during their very public blow-up last week.

The call with the president, which lasted just moments, came after Vice President JD Vance and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles spoke by phone with Musk on Friday, when which the three discussed the feud between Trump and the tech billionaire, two sources familiar with the discussion told CNN.

Musk backed off from his attacks following the phone calls, deleting his most critical social media posts about the president — including the one relating to Jeffrey Epstein and another agreeing with the suggestion that Trump should be impeached. On Wednesday, Musk went even further, writing on X that he some of the posts “went too far.”

“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” he wrote on X.

The New York Times first reported the Monday phone call.

CNN has reached out to a spokesperson for Musk.

The Friday call, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, came after Vance had asked the president last week how he wanted him to publicly handle the feud, especially given Vance was slated to do an interview with conservative podcast host Theo Von hours later, one of the sources told CNN.

Trump urged Vance to be diplomatic, the source said.

The sources familiar with the discussion told CNN that by the time Wiles and Vance got on the phone with Musk, it appeared Trump and the Tesla founder had already begun to deescalate their feud.

“Musk appeared to already be backing off at that point, and the president wasn’t as pissed by then as he was the day before,” one of the sources said.

White House officials have since left the door open to the possibility the two men will eventually repair their relationship. While at first it appeared Musk’s attacks may have been an irrevocable break in their alliance, the president has internally not been as harsh toward Musk in recent days as some had previously expected, they said.

Vance had recorded the Theo Von podcast on Thursday, which was then released on Saturday. During that recording, the vice president said he thought it was a “huge mistake” for Musk to go after Trump the way he had, but that he hoped Musk “comes back into the fold.”

“I actually think that if Elon chilled out a little bit everything would be fine,” Vance said.

After last week’s very public blow-up between Trump and Musk, which began with disagreements over the president’s domestic policy bill, the tech billionaire began inching back toward Trump over the weekend, as unrest and protests of immigration raids began roiling Los Angeles.

Musk appeared to support the Trump administration’s stance on the situation in Los Angeles, adding American flags to a post from Vance about how the “president will not tolerate rioting and violence.” Musk has long supported closed borders, stopping illegal immigration, and deportations, in alignment with the administration.

And Musk posted a screenshot of a Trump Truth Social post that said California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass “should apologize to the people of Los Angeles.”

This week, he also re-followed White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and conservative podcaster and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, proponents of the domestic policy bill whom he had unfollowed amid the fight with Trump. Kirk had been publicly calling on Musk and Trump to reconcile.

“I know both these guys … I am hopeful, optimistic and will do everything I possibly can to try and bring this back together,” Kirk told Megyn Kelly on Tuesday, adding he expected them to make up.

Musk’s message of regret in the early hours of Wednesday appears to have reached the president, who told The New York Post in a brief phone interview, “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional reporting.

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