Amid a bitter public feud with President Donald Trump, Elon Musk is showing signs of softening his tone, even appearing to agree with a post on X calling for the two to “make peace.”
Earlier, President Donald Trump on Thursday hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House, where the two discussed trade and support for Ukraine.
The president met on Wednesday with a group of Senate Republicans amid his push for lawmakers to pass his “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a sweeping immigration and tax bill that’s faced pushback from some GOP members.
Late Thursday evening, Vice President JD Vance expressed his support for the president amid the public dispute between Donald Trump and Musk.
“President Trump has done more than anyone in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads. I am proud to stand beside him,” he wrote on social media.
Just hours after accusing President Donald Trump of appearing in the Epstein files, Elon Musk is showing signs of softening his tone, even appearing to agree with a post on X calling for the two to “make peace.”
The first sign Musk may be starting to walk things back came thanks to an account with — at the time — about 140 followers on X who suggested to “cool off” and “take a step back.” The post led Musk to reverse his threat to decommission the spacecraft used to transport astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station — a threat Musk had made just hours earlier.
Musk then wrote that he agreed with a post by hedge fund manager Bill Ackman saying Trump and Musk should “should make peace for the benefit of our great country.” Musk responded: “You’re not wrong.”
The cost of retrofitting the Qatari 747 and converting into an Air Force One is “probably less than $400 million” the Air Force secretary told the House Armed Services Committee Thursday.
Troy Meink told the committee that “part of upgrading it is essentially doing a deep sweep to make sure that there’s no counterintelligence threats on the platform.”
Meink also said that estimates that the retrofitting might cost $1 billion were too high and it “wouldn’t be anywhere near that.”
“I think there has been a number thrown around on the order of $1 billion, but a lot of those costs associated with that are costs that we’d have experienced anyway,” he explained.
He said the majority of that figure includes “buying additional platforms for training, for spares, things like that are actually the majority of that amount,” Meink told the committee.
A top Air Force official said last month the two replacement 747s being built by Boeing might be available as early as 2027 if certain security adjustments were made. Meink said Thursday he could not guarantee they could be ready by that date. “We’re working with the contractor to pull it back. I think 27 is going to be really tough.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., met with President Donald Trump at the White House Thursday afternoon, multiple sources told ABC News.
The meeting comes amid Trump’s public fight with Elon Musk, stemming from issues with Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
The speaker earlier ignored questions upon his immediate return but then later gaggled with reporters, where he was asked a number of questions about his relationship with Musk and his thoughts on the Trump-Musk feud.
Johnson’s family was also at the White House, sources said.
The White House has not responded to inquiries about the meeting.
