Trump and Musk aides say fragile truce has been brokered but ‘future totally uncertain’: Live updates

Oklahoma’s Markwayne Mullin was on CNN’s State of the Union today, and likened the feud between the president and the CEO of Tesla to an intramarital spat — despite the allegations of involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes raised by Elon Musk.

“I can have friends that have disagreements,” said Mullin.

He also downplayed reports that Musk had come to physical blows with Scott Bessent, the 62-year-old secretary of the Treasury.

“Well, look, Dana, as a former professional fighter, I learned a long time ago — don’t get between two fighters,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash.

Elon Musk was exaggerating the achievements of the Department of Government Efficiency, and “most everybody” on Capitol Hill knew it, a GOP lawmaker has said.

Republican U.S. Rep. Blake Moore told reporters that, behind the scenes, many were skeptical about the bold claims of the world’s richest man.

“Most everybody knew Elon was exaggerating what he could do,” Moore of Utah told reporters outside the Capitol on Thursday. “He was claiming to find $4 billion a day in cuts he was going to get. One time, he said $2 trillion, he was going to find.”

“It’s a massive exaggeration, and I think people are recognizing that now,” he added.

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ABC News suspended journalist Terry Moran on Sunday after the veteran reporter posted tweets describing the president and his top adviser, Stephen Miller, as “world-class haters”.

Moran, in two tweets, described Donald Trump and Miller, the architect of the president’s mass deportation policy, as filled with hatred of their respective political enemies. But Trump’s, Moran said, was “a means to an end, and that end [is] his his own glorification.”

“That’s his spiritual nourishment,” added Moran.

Errol Musk, father of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, says in a new interview with Russian media that his son made a strategic error by blowing up his relationship with Donald Trump.

Musk’s comments to Izvestia were flagged by the New York Post on Sunday.

“They’re very tired and stressed. And so you can expect something like this. It’s not unusual,” Errol Musk said. “Trump will prevail.”

“[Trump]’s the president. He was elected as the president, so Elon made a mistake, I think. But he’s tired. He’s stressed.”

Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said on Sunday that he wouldn’t accept a donation from Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his re-election campaign — but welcomed Musk making more “substantive” contributions to the fight against the Republican budget reconciliation package currently being considered by Congress.

Booker spoke on NBC’s Meet the Press and initially dodged the question, before answering that he would not accept a donation from Musk.

Vice President JD Vance was live with Theo Von, the comedian and podcaster, as much of the feud between his running mate and Elon Musk played out over Twitter and Truth Social.

At one point, he was asked to respond to a tweet from Musk alleging that Donald Trump was “in the Epstein files”, referring to the investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“First of all, absolutely not. Donald Trump didn’t do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein,” Vance told Theo Von. “Whatever the Democrats and the media says about him, that’s totally BS.”

Politico reported on Sunday that aides to Donald Trump and Elon Musk spoke on a phone call Friday, resulting in the uneasy truce that persisted over the weekend.

Musk deleted most of his tweets alleging Trump’s connections to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, whereas the president has ceased tweeting about the Tesla CEO.

“He’s stopped posting, but that doesn’t mean he’s happy,” one Trump aide told Politico.

Nevertheless, the Wisconsin debacle marked a turning point in Musk’s relationship with his presidential patron. And it’s crucial to understanding just how their alliance unraveled so quickly and so explosively.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s spectacular fallout could have catastrophic consequences for the future of space travel.

The two men – the president and the person who previously referred to himself as the “first buddy” – have been engaged in a high-profile fight that has seen them make a host of threats and allegations about each other in public.