JD Vance said Elon Musk was making a “huge mistake” going afterDonald Trumpin a storm of bitter and inflammatory social media posts after a falling-out between the two men.
But the vice-president, in an interview released on Friday after the very public blowup between the world’s richest person and arguably the world’s most powerful, also tried to downplay Musk’s blistering attacks as an “emotional guy” who got frustrated.
“I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear,” Vance said.
Vance’s comments come as otherRepublicansin recent days have urged the two men, who months ago were close allies spending significant time together, to mend fences.
Musk’s torrent of social media posts attacking Trump came as the president portrayed him as disgruntled and “CRAZY” and threatened to cut the government contracts held by his businesses.
Musk, who runs electric vehicle maker Tesla, internet company Starlink and rocket company SpaceX, lambasted Trump’s centerpiece tax cuts and spending bill but also suggested the president should be impeached and claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about Trump’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“Look, it happens to everybody,” Vance said in the interview. “I’ve flown off the handle way worse thanElon Muskdid in the last 24 hours.”
Vance made the comments in an interview with “manosphere” comedian Theo Von, who last month joked about snorting drugs off a mixed-race baby and the sexuality of men in the US navy when he opened for Trump at a military base in Qatar.
The vice-president told Von that as Musk for days was calling on social media for Congress to kill Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, the president was “getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon, but I think has been very restrained because the president doesn’t think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk”.
“I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine,” he added.
Musk appeared by Saturday morning to have deleted his posts about Epstein.
The interview was taped on Thursday as Musk’s posts were unfurling on X, the social media network the billionaire owns.
During the interview, Von showed the vice-president Musk’s claim that Trump’s administration hasn’t released all the records related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein because Trump is mentioned in them.
Vance responded to that, saying: “Absolutely not. Donald Trump didn’t do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein.”
“This stuff is just not helpful,” Vance said in response to another post shared by Musk calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced with Vance.
“It’s totally insane. The president is doing a good job.”
Vance called Musk an “incredible entrepreneur”, and said that Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, which sought to cut government spending and laid off or pushed out thousands of workers, was “really good”.
The vice-president also defended the bill that has drawn Musk’s ire, and said its central goal was not to cut spending but to extend the 2017 tax cuts approved in Trump’s first term.
The bill would slash spending but also leave about 10.9 million more people without health insurance and increase debt by $2.4tn over the decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Musk has warned that the bill will increase the federal debt and called it a “disgusting abomination”.
“It’s a good bill,” Vance said. “It’s not a perfect bill.”
He also said it was ridiculous for some House Republicans who voted for the bill but later objected to some parts and claim they hadn’t had time to read it.
Vance said the text had been available for weeks and said: “The idea that people haven’t had an opportunity to actually read it is ridiculous.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Vance laughed as Von cracked jokes about famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s sexuality.
“We’re gonna talk to the Smithsonian about putting up an exhibit on that,” Vance joked. “And Theo Von, you can be the narrator for this new understanding of the history of Frederick Douglass.”
The podcaster also asked the vice-president if he “got high” on election night to celebrate Trump’s victory.
Vance laughed and joked that he wouldn’t admit it if he did.
“I did not get high,” he then said. “I did have a fair amount to drink that night.”
The interview was taped in Nashville at a restaurant owned by musician Kid Rock, a Trump ally.