Billionaire and former White House chief advisor Elon Musk said he was invited to a summit of technology leaders in the recently renovated White House Rose Garden. However, Musk does not intend to attend the event, CNN reports, writes UNN.
Details
I was invited, but unfortunately, I won't be able to attend. My representative will be there
According to a White House official, the guest list for Thursday's event includes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Relations between Musk and the White House have deteriorated recently. The billionaire was once called "first buddy" and was almost constantly by President Donald Trump's side, but this summer Musk had unpleasant conflicts with the president after leaving his position in the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk even promised to support Republican rivals in the primaries who voted for Trump's funding bill, and said he would create a new political party, although there seems to have been no progress in that direction.
In recent days, public comments by Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance seem to indicate that Musk will be welcomed back into the party's ranks. In a conversation with CNN correspondent Scott Jennings on his podcast this week, Trump said that Musk is "a man of common sense," "a good person," although he "left the party incorrectly."
He's 80% super genius, and then 20% - some problems. When he sorts out those 20%, he'll be great. I liked him… I like him now
In an interview last month with the far-right publication Gateway Pundit, J.D. Vance called Musk's relationship with the Trump White House "complicated." But he said he expects and hopes Musk will support the Republican Party by the midterm elections next November.
My argument to Elon is this: you won't be a leftist, even if you wanted to - and he doesn't want to - they won't support you. That ship has sailed. So I really think it's a mistake on his part to try to break away from the president
Musk has refrained from attacking the administration on X and, in some cases, seems to fully support the White House. Last month, he responded with fire emojis and laughing emojis to a post by White House communications advisor Margo Martin, who captioned a photo: "President Trump shows President Zelenskyy and President Macron his '4 More Years' hat."
The White House invitation may also be a history lesson: Musk was famously not invited to the White House electric vehicle summit in 2021 during President Joe Biden's administration. Part of the reason was likely that Tesla is not a unionized automaker. Musk has openly stated how much he continues to be upset by this snub.
On Thursday, he reposted a 2023 interview in which he said that Biden "added insult to injury" and harmed the company by stating at an event that General Motors was "leading the EV revolution," while Tesla produces far more EVs.
Musk reposted a 2023 video with the comment: "I try not to start fights, but I finish them."
Addition
Elon Musk's startup xAI filed a lawsuit in a US court against Apple and OpenAI. The accusations concern an illegal conspiracy to hinder competition in the field of artificial intelligence.