Tech mogul Elon Musk’s father lamented his son’s scorched-earth war of words with President Trump as a “mistake” and warned that the US leader would ultimately prevail in the nasty spat.
Errol Musk, who has had a strained relationship with his billionaire son, explained that Elon had been under tremendous stress and was optimistic the two personality giants could patch things up.
“They’ve been under a lot of stress for five months. And it gives them a break. You know, they’ve had to get rid of all the opposition, try and put the country back on track, and do normal things and so forth,” Errol told Russian media, per Izvestia.
“They’re very tired and stressed. And so you can expect something like this. It’s not unusual,” the elder Musk added. “Trump will prevail. He’s the president. He was elected as the president, so Elon made a mistake, I think. But he’s tired. He’s stressed.”
Elon had slowly begun to split with Trump and Republicans publicly last month over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act due to his concerns about its impact on the deficit.
It started with some swipes during an interview on CBS’s “Sunday Morning Show.” Then, Musk ramped up his attacks on the marquee GOP megabill, ripping it as “pork-filled” and a “disgusting abomination.”
Finally, last Thursday, Musk went nuclear on Trump. The world’s richest man argued that without his help, “Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”
At one point, Musk appeared to back impeachment against Trump and then dropped a “big bomb,” claiming that the president was in the Epstein files, in a since-deleted post.
During the epic public feud, Trump threatened to sever lucrative federal contracts with Musk’s companies and the tech baron suggested he’d decommission the Dragon spacecraft, the government’s main method of getting into orbit, before reversing course.
Musk’s time as a special government employee wrapped up late last month, and Trump gave him a chummy send-off in the Oval Office. Musk had seemingly also grown incensed after the president withdrew his nomination of Jared Isaacman to helm NASA.
“Elon wants to stick to the principles of not giving in to the Democrats [and] their stupid ideas,” Errol added. “It’s normal, it’s just a small thing, [it] will be over tomorrow.”
Errol was in Moscow to address the Future Forum 2050, an event to promote Russia’s development championed by diehard nationalist Alexander Dugin, who is known as “Vladimir Putin’s philosopher.”
Trump has publicly downplayed the breakup with Musk, but warned the billionaire that there will be “consequences” if he starts dipping into his deep pockets to help Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections.
Elon has expressed openness to working to patch things up with the president and Vice President JD Vance had been optimistic they could bring the tech baron back into the fold.
“No, I don’t have any plans,” Trump replied when asked by reporters if he had plans to reconcile with Musk, adding that he’s “not really interested” in such efforts.
“I’m not thinking about Elon. You know, I just wish him well.”
The president suggested that Musk had “lost his mind” and gone “crazy.” Privately, Trump bashed Musk as a “big-time drug addict,” according to the Washington Post. Musk denies being addicted to drugs.
Errol, who has a frosty relationship with his son, has long been a backer of Trump. The South African engineer had briefly been a politician, serving on the Pretoria City Council as an Independent and then later a member of the Progressive Federal Party, which opposed apartheid.
