Trump and Musk Are Seen Together at Kirk Memorial, Months After Falling-Out

 

Trump and Musk Are Seen Together at Kirk Memorial, Months After Falling-Out

The meeting came just three months after Mr. Musk exited the government in a fit of rage, attacking the president on social media.

 

Shawn McCreesh

By Shawn McCreesh

Sept. 21, 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/us/politics/trump-musk-kirk-memorial.html?searchResultPosition=1

 

President Trump and Elon Musk were seen together at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, shaking hands and apparently getting along, for the first time since their falling-out in June.

 

The televised moment occurred just as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was about to speak onstage. Mr. Musk approached the president and slid into an empty seat beside him. Each extended a hand and then the two began chatting animatedly.

 

It was just three months ago that Mr. Musk exited the government in a fit of rage, attacking the president on social media. During his posting spree, the tech billionaire implied that the president was more tied up in the sordid saga of Jeffrey Epstein than the public knew. (“Time to drop the really big bomb,” Mr. Musk wrote, before posting about the Epstein files.) Mr. Trump threatened to use the power of the state to crush Mr. Musk’s businesses. (“I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” Mr. Trump wrote.)

 

But at Mr. Kirk’s memorial on Sunday, the two were reunited.

 

Mr. Kirk always said he believed that the tech billionaire and the president would make up. “I know both of them quite well,” Mr. Kirk said in an interview with Megyn Kelly over the summer. “I think that at some point they’re going to reconcile.”

 

“I think they’re much stronger together,” he added.

 

Mr. Musk posted a photo of his reunion with the president on social media on Sunday night and simply wrote, “For Charlie.”

 

Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.