Trump staff ‘furious’ after Musk trashes AI project

 

Technology

Trump staff ‘furious’ after Musk trashes AI project

 

“It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president,” said one ally of the president.

 

By Dasha Burns and Holly Otterbein

01/23/2025 04:48 PM EST

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/23/trump-staff-musk-conflict-00200311

 

Some of President Donald Trump’s key aides and allies are furious with Elon Musk for publicly trashing his $500 billion artificial intelligence mega-deal.

 

A White House official said Musk “very much” got over his skis when the tech tycoon launched a daylong screed against the AI project. One Trump ally said Musk abused his closeness to the president. Another Republican close to the White House went further, saying Trump’s staff is “furious” over Musk using his massive social media platform to pour cold water on the infrastructure deal that Trump called “tremendous” and “monumental” just a day prior.

 

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

 

It is highly unusual for a senior adviser — Musk — to criticize a president’s initiatives in public, and his broadsides renewed speculation within GOP circles about whether he and Trump will eventually have a falling-out. Musk has had seemingly unparalleled access to Trump during the transition since he parked himself at Trump’s side in Mar-a-Lago and heads Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

 

Trump proved in his first term that he has a high tolerance for internal dissent within his White House. But his 2024 campaign, led by now White House chief-of-staff Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, was praised by Republicans for its limited leaks and relative lack of drama spilling out into the public.

 

After Trump won the election, some of his allies were perturbed by Musk’s access and hoped that he would have more physical distance once the president took office. It is unclear exactly how much time Musk has spent with Trump since the inauguration, but Musk said that he was in the Oval Office on Tuesday and he has reportedly been working out of the West Wing this week.

 

“We are now working with him to make sense of his ideas — ideas are innovative. Execution not so much,” said the White House official, who said that West Wing staffers are still hearing out Musk about his concerns over AI.

 

The people interviewed for this story were granted anonymity to speak freely about the sensitive issue.

 

The White House and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Musk, who owns his own AI startup, was not at Trump’s unveiling of “Stargate,” an effort to supercharge the country’s AI infrastructure featuring the tech giants OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, has long been critical of its CEO Sam Altman and spent much of Wednesday trolling him online. “They don’t actually have the money,” he said. Softbank, meanwhile, “has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

 

But Trump, when asked by reporters about Musk blasting the deal, said they were “putting up the money.”

 

“The government’s not putting up anything. They’re putting up money. They’re very rich people, so I hope they do,” Trump said. “And, I mean, Elon doesn’t like one of those people.”

 

Trump said it did not bother him that Musk criticized the deal, saying, “No, it doesn’t. He hates one of the people in the deal.”

 

In an earlier interview on Fox News, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt did not mention Musk by name when asked about his diatribe about the AI project. But she said that “the American people should take President Trump and those CEOs’ words for it,” and that “these investments are coming to our great country, and American jobs are coming along with them.”

 

Musk seems to favor another AI investor, saying Microsoft’s Satya Nadella “definitely does have the money.”

 

Musk even reposted a joke that suggested Altman and his team smoked crack “to come up with their $500 billion number for Stargate.”

 

Altman shot back at Musk on X: “i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put 🇺🇸 first.”

 

Musk’s denunciation of the project prompted Trump’s ex-aides and allies to call for a new approach to the billionaire. Steve Bannon, the former top Trump aide who has feuded with Musk, told POLITICO that Wiles needed to “sit him down” and “sort it out immediately.”

 

Megan Messerly contributed to this report.