“Elon came and said hello,” Trump told reporters after the event.
Trump says Charlie Kirk is “a great man” on his way to his funeral
President Donald Trump told media members that Charlie Kirk is a “great man” on his way to a funeral in Arizona.
President Donald Trump met with Elon Musk at a service-making ceremony for murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk, reuniting one of the most consequential analyses in recent political history after his dramatic dropout.
“Elon came and said hello,” Trump told reporters after the September 21 event in Arizona.
Musk posted a photo of himself with Trump at hours of memorial on social media, writing “For Charlie.” The White House also posted a photo of the pair on social media with the same message. The former colleagues sat down and shook hands.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, spent about $290 million to help Trump win in 2024 and help the president and Republicans get elected. He became one of Trump’s closest advisers in the early days of the Second Administration, sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom in the White House, where he worked to reassess the federal agency through government efficiency.
Musk-led Doge has enacted a massive number of layoffs in dramatic federal reforms and shut down the entire agency. But Musk clashed with parts of the administration and ultimately with Trump. He left the administration and the pair took a very public break in June.
Musk and Trump have exchanged online for criticizing the new law for the president’s signature, saying that his name was mentioned in Jeffrey Epstein’s government file and announced the creation of a new political party to compete with Republicans and Democrats. Trump said Musk “completely ‘off the rail'” and called it a “train wreck” in a social media post.
In June, Kirk said he hoped Trump and Musk would repair their relationship and predicted that would happen.
“I know both of them very well, and I think at some point they’ll reconcile,” Kirk told Meggin Kelly on a show this summer, adding, “I think they’re stronger.”
So did Trump and Musk make up?
Trump said he was happy that the former Doge leader approached him at Kirk’s memorial on September 21. “We had a very good relationship,” the president told reporters on board Air Force 1. “But it’s good that he came.”
