CNN Roasts Trump-Musk Face Makeup Jabs: ‘As Catty As It Gets’

CNN anchor John Berman and correspondent Kevin Liptak roasted President Donald Trump and Elon Musk over their “catty” insults amid a blockbuster falling out.

The political media world was rocked Thursday by the in-hindsight-inevitable explosion of the Trump-Musk bromance. It began with a tiny ember a few weeks ago when Musk told an interviewer he was “disappointed” in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

That ember produced a flame Tuesday as Musk unloaded on the “disgusting abomination” of a bill, and that flame climbed the drapes when Trump fired off a few lit matches when he was asked about Musk in the Oval Office.

But things went absolutely nuclear when Musk unloaded all over X/Twitter and dropped his most explosive barb — a brutal claim about deceased criminal Jeffrey Epstein.

On Friday’s edition of CNN News Central, Liptak cited a lesser shot in the war as an example of how “catty” this feud is — Trump’s self-contradictory jab at Musk over eye makeup:

JOHN BERMAN: That’s just a sampling of the last 24 hours. So where are we now? See it ends, Kevin Liptak at the White House, working the phone, scouring the social media. Where are we?

KEVIN LIPTAK: Yeah, it seems like the big question now is whether these differences are irreparable or not, whether or not these two men can make up or at least stop torching each other online. And it really kind of depends on who you’re talking to.

There are plenty of Trump advisors who do not think that this can be fixed. And they point in particular to that accusation about the Jeffrey Epstein documents as something that President Trump is just not gonna be able to walk away from.

But there are people who are close to both of these men who do hold out hope that they will be able to sort of kiss and make up. And you saw Musk at least open to a thaw saying that you’re not wrong, responding to Bill Ackman, the billionaire investor.

He’s a friend of Trump and of Musk who said that he supported their efforts to make peace for the benefit of our great country.

As all of this was unfolding yesterday and late into yesterday evening. There were people close to both of these men who were trying to broker a peace. They do seem to hold out hope that if they are able to get on the telephone, that they would be able to kind of talk things out.

But as of this hour, it doesn’t seem clear that a conversation is on the books at all. A person familiar saying that Trump’s focus now is getting that massive piece of legislation passed, which at the end of the day is where this feud all started, as catty and as nasty as it became.

And to be clear, one man insulting another man for not wearing makeup in the Oval Office is about as catty as it can get.

This was a policy fight. And President Trump still has to get this massive bill that contains almost his entire domestic agenda through the Senate. And so the stakes here are very high even as some of the insults went very low.

JOHN BERMAN: Yeah, as a makeup-wearing man myself, I did take notice of that, Kevin Liptak.

But I will say, the sticking point here is the bill. And it’s not clear that there is any middle ground there. So we’re going to wait and see on that, on top of everything else.

Terrific reporting. We’ll let you get back to watching things. Let us know if there’s white smoke or black smoke any time soon.

KATE BOLDUAN: You’re beautiful inside and out, John Berman. I just want that stated.

Watch above via CNN News Central.