Trump Insider Says ‘The President Doesn’t Have Any Leverage Over’ Musk: ‘Elon Gives Zero F*cks’

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Allies of President Donald Trump are peeved at Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO cast doubt on a pledge by tech CEOs to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the U.S.

On Tuesday, Trump announced the plan at a press conference at the White House while flanked by Sam Altman of OpenAI, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank. Afterward on his X social media platform, Musk – who spent more than a quarter billion dollars to return Trump to office – pooh-poohed the announcement.

“They don’t actually have the money,” he tweeted in a reply to a post from OpenAI. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

Musk’s remark has apparently rankled members of  Trump’s inner circle, according to Politico.

“It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president,” one presidential ally told the publication. “The problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.”

Musk has reportedly been working out of the West Wing after Trump named him to lead the “Department of Government Efficiency,” an advisory commission of sorts whose ostensible purpose is to cut back on waste in the federal government – though it has its share of skeptics.

“We are now working with him to make sense of his ideas — ideas are innovative. Execution not so much,” one White House official told Politico.

On Thursday, Trump fielded a question about Musk’s remarks.

“Does it bother you that Elon Musk criticized a deal that you made publicly?” a reporter asked.

“No, he hates one of the people in the deal,” Trump responded, almost certainly referring to Altman, who has long feuded with Musk.