Some Republicans are holding out hope that President Trump and Elon Musk will mend fences after Thursday’s blistering breakup of the bromance, which captivated Washington and left the party’s “big, beautiful bill” hanging in the balance.
The longing for harmony comes amid a Republican sprint on Capitol Hill to finalize the Trump megabill — which Musk trashed — and as the party looks ahead to the 2026 midterm elections, which the billionaire is threatening to shake up by suggesting he may go after lawmakers who support the package.
“I was with the president in the Oval Office yesterday afternoon as some of this was unfolding, and I can tell you, as he said in his own words, he was just, he was disappointed, and I was surprised by Elon’s sudden opposition,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Friday when asked if Trump has any interest in mending fences.
“I hope they reconcile,” he added. “I believe in redemption. That’s part of my worldview, and I think it’s good for the party and the country if all that’s worked out.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — a loyal Trump ally who also chairs the House’s Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, named similar to Musk’s brainchild Department of Government Efficiency — said the two should bury the hatchet in private rather than on public channels.
“I don’t think lashing out on the internet is the way to handle any kind of disagreement, especially when you have each other’s cell phones. So I hope this gets worked out,” Greene said. “But I will tell you right now that people are going to be focused on making sure that we get the agenda that we voted for, and that’s President Trump’s agenda.”
The optimism is not limited to the House: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) called on his 70-year marriage to find advice for the two.
“I just heard Barbara Grassley say this disagreement and arguments btwn musk and Trump must end I know she loves both musk and Pres Trump. I’d advise u to follow her advice,” he wrote on social platform X.
The simmering tensions between Trump and Musk blew up Thursday, solidifying the split between the world’s most powerful man and the richest person on the planet. The back-and-forth began about the sprawling package — with Musk calling it “a disgusting abomination” and Trump defending it — before spiraling into personal attacks, headlined by Musk alleging Trump is named in the Jeffrey Epstein files and the president calling the billionaire “crazy.”
“Elon and I had a great relationship; I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said in the Oval Office Thursday.
The blowup sapped Musk of much of his clout among Republicans on Capitol Hill, with several GOP lawmakers siding with the president over the billionaire.
“I’ve had a lot of love and respect for you for what you’ve done for this country over the last several months, but you’ve lost your damn mind,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), a close Trump ally, told reporters of Musk. “You’ve lost your mind. Enough is enough, stop this. I don’t think it’s healthy.”
As of now, it does not appear that the president is interested in smoothing things over.
After reports surfaced overnight of a potential phone call between Trump and Musk, the president told ABC News that he was “not particularly” interested in talking to the former special government employee, whom he called “the man who has lost his mind.”
“I won’t be speaking to him for a while I guess, but I wish him well,” Trump said to CNN.
While officials close to the White House did not dismiss the idea of a conversation between the two at some point, aides indicated this week that they wanted to turn the page on the drama and remain squarely focused on getting the megabill through Congress.
Musk, for his part, opened the door to some sort of reconciliation: After Bill Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square and an ally of both Trump and Musk, urged the pair on X to “make peace for the benefit of our great country,” adding, “We are much stronger together than apart,” Musk responded: “You’re not wrong.”
Some Trump allies, however, think peace is possible — and likely.
Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), who worked in the first Trump White House and retains a close relationship with the president, when asked if there’s any chance of reconciling the relationship between Trump and Musk said: “I do very much.”
He compared the situation to a strategy utilized by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) — founded by Vince McMahon and his wife, Education Secretary Linda McMahon — of getting rid of revered wrestlers only to bring them back into the fold later on, generating excitement.
“He set up this entire company to create heroes within the entire country of adult wrestling, and then he would fire that person, he would get rid of them, and then he would bring them back, and what would happen when he would bring them back?” Miller asked. “When he would bring them back, the WWE stock price would shoot through the roof and the rating would shoot through the roof because everyone knows that that’s where the excitement really is, is the reunification of these individuals.”
“So I do believe he’s going to come back, I do believe we’re going to sort this thing out,” he added. “I do believe that at the end of the day this was really a bunch of nothing, and that you have a president of the United States and now a private civilian who are disagreeing with each other.”
