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U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that his relationship with Elon Musk is likely over and warned of "serious consequences" if the tech billionaire backs Democratic candidates against Republicans.
"I would assume so, yeah," Trump told NBC News when asked if his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was finished.
Trump said he has no desire to repair his relationship with Musk after their public dispute erupted this week.
"No," Trump said when asked if he had any wish to mend ties with Musk.
Trump accused Musk of being "disrespectful to the office of the President."
"I think it's a very bad thing because he's very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the president," Trump said.
Trump said he has no plans to speak with Musk anytime soon, stating, "I'm too busy doing other things. I have no intention of speaking to him."
Trump warned there would be "serious consequences" if Musk funds Democratic candidates to run against Republicans who vote in favor of Trump's domestic policy bill.
"If he does, he'll have to pay the consequences for that," Trump told NBC News, declining to specify what those consequences would be. "He'll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that."
The dispute began when Musk criticized Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," a GOP-led spending bill passed by the House.
Musk launched attacks on Trump via social media Thursday, including a now-deleted post claiming Trump's name appeared in Jeffrey Epstein's files. Trump dismissed this as "old news" that "has been talked about for years."
"Even Epstein's lawyer said I had nothing to do with it. It's old news," Trump said Saturday.
Musk deleted several social media posts, including one promoting calls for Trump's impeachment and another claiming the president's tariff agenda would cause a recession.
Vice President JD Vance described Musk's attacks on Trump as "nuclear" in an interview with podcaster Theo Von.
"I'm always going to be loyal to the president, and I hope that eventually Elon, kind of, comes back into the fold," Vance said. "Maybe that's not possible now because he's gone so nuclear."
Vance called it a "huge mistake" for Musk to target the president over frustrations with the spending bill.
"I really, man, I think it's a huge mistake for him to go after the president like that," Vance said.
Trump previously suggested canceling Musk's federal contracts, writing on Truth Social: "The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts."
When asked Saturday if he had given more thought to canceling Musk's companies' federal contracts, Trump said: "I'd be allowed to do that, but I have, I haven't given it any thought."
Musk contributed over $250 million to Trump's presidential campaign in 2024.
Trump initially put Musk in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he oversaw federal worker layoffs and agency closures before returning to his businesses last week.
Trump said the Republican Party has never been more unified, claiming the feud helped lawmakers see the bill's benefits.
"The Republican Party has never been united like this before. It's never been. It's actually more so than it was three days ago," Trump said.
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