Elon Musk may sit at the helm with President Donald Trump today, but approximately five years ago, the tech billionaire allegedly called the president a “f***ing moron” before meeting in the Oval Office, according to a Politico report.
Weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic took over the globe in 2020, Musk headed to Washington D.C. to meet with Trump at the White House to discuss building a Tesla gigafactory.
But before actually meeting with the president, an unnamed person who was near Musk told Politico they heard the tech billionaire call Trump “a f***ing moron” behind his back while in the White House.
The Independent has asked the White House for comment.
At the time, Musk displayed no warm or fuzzy feelings toward Trump – he had criticized the Republican National Committee’s decision to make Trump the nominee and rebuked several of Trump’s policies on climate change and immigration. Musk even removed himself from two White House advisory councils over his disagreements.
Jonathan Swan, a New York Times reporter who has covered Trump for years, said in an interview that before 2024, “Musk thought Trump was kind of an idiot.”
On the day of their meeting in 2020, Musk angered Trump by commenting that the Oval Office looked “more like an outhouse” compared to palaces in China, according to Politico. The two allegedly had an awkward discussion about Tesla vehicles – which Trump claimed to own but had little knowledge of how the cars worked.
But one area they did apparently find common ground over was the impending Covid-19 virus which both reportedly dismissed concerns over – something that would later become a defining moment in Musk’s politics.
The recount of the men’s meeting five years ago is a stark difference from their current relationship, where Musk is given vast unchecked authority to infiltrate federal agencies and departments and begin making drastic recommendations to cut the federal workforce and government spending.
Musk, who is not an official member of the government but rather a “special government employee” has enough authority that he was invited to a cabinet meeting on Wednesday to speak with secretaries who have undergone the confirmation and approval processes.
Within the last year, Musk has publicly shifted his views to support Trump and provided more than $200 million to back the Republican nominee.
It’s a 180º change from 2015 when Musk told Vanity Fair he was “hopeful” that Trump would not obtain the Republican nomination because it would be “a bit embarrassing.”
It’s even a stark difference from 2022 when Musk said Trump was “too old” to be in office for a second term and insinuated he would support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
In response, Trump posted a photo, allegedly from their 2020 Oval Office meeting, and claimed Musk would have dropped to his knees and begged for help funding his projects if Trump asked.
But the two men have found a lot of common ground since then and now are embarking on efforts to remake the government together.
