President Donald Trump said he is open to forgiving Elon Musk after the billionaire’s recent attacks, though he was “not a happy camper”.

Musk, who had just departed his role advising the White House on federal spending cuts, sharply criticized Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill in a series of posts on his X platform, a feud that rapidly escalated into personal attacks.

“I have no hard feelings. But I was really surprised that that happened,” Trump told “Pod Force One” with The New York Post‘s Miranda Devine in an interview published on Wednesday morning.

“I guess I could,” Trump said when asked if he could forgive Musk, adding “but we have to straighten out the country” and “my sole function now is getting this country back to a level higher than it’s ever been”.

Musk had posted to X a few hours before the Trump interview was released that he regretted some of his remarks about the president.

“They went too far,” Musk said, after deleting them from X.

The clash came shortly after Musk left his White House advisory role on good terms with Trump, having steered the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with slashing waste and fraud in federal spending.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO soon took aim publicly at the One Big Beautiful Bill—the centerpiece of Trump’s domestic agenda, filled with tax cuts and spending on the military and border security—as “pork-filled” and an “abomination”.

He also accused Trump of ingratitude, taking credit for delivering the 2024 election win, and claimed the president was in the Jeffrey Epstein files, explaining the delay to their full release by the Department of Justice. Musk also said Trump had lied.

Trump threatened to cut lucrative federal contracts held by Musk’s businesses in response, and said he had never made those criticisms during his time in the White House.

This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.