Despite a rollercoaster journey from friends to enemies, and now what seems like a relationship of 'frenemies', SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was not seen at the massive dinner US President Donald Trump hosted for the titans of the tech industry.
The dinner, which was earlier set to take place in an outdoor setup at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, was moved to the White House State Dining Room due to bad weather conditions.
While Musk was missing at the dinner table, one of his main rivals in artificial intelligence, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was present at the event.
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Others in the guest list included Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google founder Sergey Brin, OpenAI founder Greg Brockman, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive, Palantir executive Shyam Sankar, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, Blue Origin CEO David Limp, and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman was a Musk ally chosen by the US President to lead NASA. However, his nomination was withdrawn because, according to Trump, he is "totally a Democrat".
Was Musk invited?
{{/usCountry}}Isaacman was a Musk ally chosen by the US President to lead NASA. However, his nomination was withdrawn because, according to Trump, he is "totally a Democrat".
Was Musk invited?
{{/usCountry}}Reacting to his absence from the dinner, the Tesla chief said that he "was invited, but unfortunately could not attend". "A representative of mine will be there," Musk added.
However, a White House official had confirmed that Musk, previously a Trump advisor, was not on the invitees' list.
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The real reason behind Musk's absence at Trump's dinner remains unclear.
Earlier on Tuesday, Musk replied to a video posted by a journalist, a snippet of his interview where he said that former President Joe Biden had snubbed Tesla from the EV summit at the White House despite having been the highest producer of electric vehicles. Slamming the Democrat leader, he told the interviewer that he would not vote for Biden in the Presidential elections.
Musk responded to the posted video on Thursday and said, "I try not to start fights, but I do finish them."
Earlier this week, during an interview with the Scott Jennings Show, Trump said that Musk has no choice but to return to the Republican Party.
"I don't think he has a choice," the President said after a highly public verbal spat with Elon Musk earlier this year.
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But Trump did not entirely slam the SpaceX CEO. Rather, he complimented Musk and called him a "good man".
"He got off the reservation, incorrectly, and that’s okay, because, you know, it’s just one of those things,” the US President said.
He added that Musk was "80% super genius, and then 20% he’s got some problems. And when he works out the 20% he’ll be great, but he’s got some difficulty".
Trump-Musk feud
Elon Musk and Donald Trump's camaraderie began in July last year, when the Tesla CEO endorsed the Republican for the race to the White House after an attempted assassination on him in Pennsylvania. Musk spent millions of dollars on Trump's presidential campaign and quickly grew closer to him.
Their bond had gotten so nice that Musk was appointed an unpaid presidential advisor under the "special government employee" category and became the co-chair of the newly introduced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
However, the duo had a massive fallout earlier this year over the US President's 'Big Beautiful Bill'. Musk criticised the Trump administration's spending bill, warning that it would increase the federal deficit and undo DOGE's efforts.
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Trump accused Musk of trying to sabotage the bill due to its removal of EV tax credits, an alleged blow to Tesla's bottom line. "Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will any more," the President had said at the time.
Musk hit back at Trump, and the escalation resulted in the once-close allies engaging in a public verbal spat on social media.
Elon Musk also stepped down as DOGE chief amid the crisis with Tesla. He had said that he would devote more time to his EV-producing company.