Elon Musk has “PTSD from the White House”, his father claimed, adding that he believes the billionaire would likely concede he had “made a mistake” by aiding Donald Trump’s re-election. Errol Musk, 79, made the comments following the Tesla boss’ departure from his US governmental role and the explosive argument with the US President that unravelled under the public eye. Tensions began with Mr Musk heavily criticising the White House’s ‘big beautiful bill’, as dubbed by Mr Trump, which will finance the federal government.
The billionaire’s father spoke to the media in Moscow ahead of an event organised by the Kremlin where he is due to speak. Key Vladimir Putin aides have since offered political asylum to the tech-tycoon after his relationship with Mr Trump publicly broke down. Errol Musk told Russian-controlled media: “So at the moment, Elon is inclined to say that he’s made a mistake.”
“Trump will prevail. He’s the president, he was elected as the president. Elon made a mistake, I think, but he’s tired, he’s stressed.”
He added: “Five months of continuous stress, continuous, continuous stress, stress, stress.
“They are all suffering from a bit of PTSD, a post-traumatic stress disorder over the last few months, they started hitting out at each other.
“And then in the end, it’s just him and Trump left… They still don’t know what to do, so they fight with each other until they can come to normal conditions.”
The father of the world’s richest man explained to the local news outlet Izvestia that the feud between the two is like a “marriage going wrong”.
He said: “It happens in marriages, it happens in partnerships, it happens a lot.
“And people have to understand that at the moment, Elon is having second thoughts…
“He’s not a great politician, he is still learning, he’s a great tech innovator and so forth.
“But his politics is, as I’ve said before, is a swimming pool with no bottom, it’s a swimming pool with no sides.
“When you’re in a swimming pool of politics, you’ve got to really know where to go.
“And he [Elon] doesn’t realise that.”
President Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he has “no intention of speaking to [Elon]”, following their falling out, accusing the billionaire of being “disrespectful to the office of the President.” He told the news channel: “I think it’s a very bad thing, because he’s very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the President.”
The fallout led to a series of accusations and insults across X and Truth Social, with the latter’s owner threatening to cut Mr Musk’s government contracts.
“I’d be allowed to do that,” he later said. “but I have, I haven’t given it any thought.”
In response, the billionaire claimed on Thursday, without providing evidence, that Trump’s administration hasn’t released all the records related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein because Trump is mentioned in them.
However, President Trump said that this was “old news” which had “been talked about for years”. “Even Epstein’s lawyer said I had nothing to do with it,” he added.