Trump-Musk feud stay updates as president says he isn’t centered on rift | USAEMALL.com

In a phone conversation Friday morning, President Trump told chief Washington analyst for CBS News Robert Costa that he’s moving forward with his presidency today, and “totally” focused on domestic and foreign policy matters — not on Musk and their public feud. He also cast this moment as a positive one economically, even as many of his supporters and critics are paying close attention to Musk’s attacks on his administration. 

“That’s all I focus on,” Mr. Trump said of his presidency. “I don’t focus on anything else. That’s why I have my highest poll numbers.”

“It’s going really well,” the president added. “The country is doing great, has never done so well. Jobs numbers are great, everything is good.”

According to two sources close to the president who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations, the atmosphere at the White House this morning is muted about Musk. The president, they said, is unhappy with him. But the president also finds him to be “immature” and “acting out,” as one source described Mr. Trump’s view of the situation.

“This is a fluid thing and a lot can happen. It’s wait and see, wait and see what happens, what Musk does, how the president digests it,” one of the sources said. “We’re all not going to get ahead of this and he’s just doing what he always does, be the president and keep on moving.”

President Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to clear the way for it to continue with its efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and lay off more than 1,300 employees while a legal fight over the future of the department moves forward.

The Justice Department is seeking the high court’s intervention in a pair of disputes brought by a group of 20 states, school districts and teachers unions, which challenge Mr. Trump’s plans to unwind the Department of Education. The president signed an executive order in March directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate the department’s closure to the maximum extent allowed under the law.

As part of Mr. Trump’s pledge to get rid of the department, the administration canceled a host of grants and executed a reduction in force, or a layoff, that impacted 1,378 employees — roughly a third of the department’s workforce. Affected workers were placed on administrative leave and were to receive full pay and benefits until June 9.

Mr. Trump also announced that the Small Business Administration would take over the Education Department’s student-loan portfolio, and the Department of Health and Human Services would handle special education, nutrition and other related services. 

In response to the lawsuits challenging Mr. Trump’s actions, a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the administration from carrying out its layoffs, finding that the reduction-in-force was a unilateral effort to close the department, which would violate the separation of powers. 

Read more here.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday morning he hopes Mr. Trump and Musk “reconcile” but warned against challenging the president of the United States. 

Johnson told reporters he hasn’t spoken with Musk by phone and said he has only communicated with him by text since Thursday’s public fallout between Mr. Trump and Musk. 

The speaker said he was at the White House with the president Thursday “as some of this was unfolding” and described the president as “disappointed” by what Musk said. But Johnson said he hopes the two men can reconcile.

“I believe in redemption,” Johnson said. “That’s part of my worldview, and I think it’s good for the party and the country if all that’s worked out.”

“I tell you what, do not doubt and do not second-guess and don’t ever challenge the president of the United States, Donald Trump,” Johnson added. “He is the leader of the party. He’s the most consequential political figure of this generation and probably the modern era, and he’s doing an excellent job for the people.”

Steve Bannon on Friday called on the Trump administration to investigate Elon Musk.

Bannon, a former White House chief strategist and an ally of President Trump, told CBS News he wants the White House and Trump administration to probe alleged drug use by Musk, the South African-native’s immigration status and the Musk-inspired Department of Government Efficiency. 

“They have to do that. You have to take his security clearance. Investigate drug use and investigate his involvement” with China, Bannon said in a phone interview. “And you have to investigate his status as a citizen.”

Bannon questioned whether Musk’s path to citizenship was handled properly. 

“If it turned out he overstayed visas and lied about it, it’s not right. It has to be investigated,” Bannon said.

He added that he now believes DOGE needs greater scrutiny. 

“Did they take data sets to feed into their AI model? This has to be investigated now. He’s an unstable individual. What did DOGE do? What did DOGE find?” Bannon asked, saying it’s a matter of “national security.”

Read more here.

A senior administration official said Mr. Trump is thinking about selling the Tesla he purchased earlier this year.

In March, the president said that he would buy a Tesla “as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk.” Several models of the vehicle were displayed on the driveway at the White House for Mr. Trump to shop from and he ultimately selected a red Model S, which starts at around $80,000.

Mr. Trump told reporters then that he would write a check for the car and leave it at the White House for his staff to use. 

On the heels of their public spat, Musk is seeking a call with Mr. Trump. A call hasn’t taken place, a source familiar with the discussions told CBS News. The source said Mr. Trump hasn’t elected to schedule a call with Musk.

A second source told CBS News that the president isn’t interested in speaking with Musk.

In an appearance on CNN, White House Office and Management Director Russ Vought said of Musk’s comments lambasting the Trump tax bill, “We’re disappointed by Elon’s comments, but look, we have a job to do. The president has a job to do.”

As to whether the cancellation of Musk’s government subsidies and contracts is actually under consideration, a threat Mr. Trump made Thursday, Vought did not answer directly — he said Musk  and his companies, which include Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink, benefit from taxpayer dollars.

The president posted on Truth Social that the “easiest” way to save “billions and billions” in the budget “is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.”

Vought argued the president’s post was intended to state “the reality that the businesses of Elon Musk benefit and work in tandem with the federal government. And the American people need to know that.”

Vought also acknowledged that the tax bill, titled One Big Beautiful Bill, could be changed by the Senate and that the White House is having conversations with House and Senate members to make “improvements” to it. 

The alliance between President Trump and Elon Musk went up in flames Thursday, days after the world’s richest man left the administration and tried to wield his influence to kill a massive budget bill that is central to enacting the president’s top legislative priorities. 

Their spat played out in public and marked another remarkable turn for Musk, who spent tens of millions on Mr. Trump’s reelection campaign and was given the reins to slash the size of the federal government. Here’s a look back at how Mr. Trump and Musk got here.

By Caitlin Yilek and Joe Walsh

In response to the spat between Mr. Trump and Musk, Vice President JD Vance reaffirmed his loyalty to the president, writing on social media that he has “done more than any person in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads. I’m proud to stand beside him.”

As the feud between Mr. Trump and Musk unfolded Thursday, the billionaire claimed on X, the social media platform he owns, that the president’s name appeared in the files related to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who faced charges of sex trafficking and died by suicide while in federal custody in 2019. He said “that is the real reason” the files haven’t been released to the public.

Musk teased the allegation by claiming it was “time to drop the really big bomb.”

Trump administration officials pledged to release more files related to Epstein’s case once the president returned to the White House for his second term. The Justice Department in February released some information to more than a dozen right-wing influencers, but some who were part of the group said they learned nothing new.