During a signing ceremony to override California state rules to cut vehicle emissions this past week, President Donald Trump shared new details about his conversations with former political ally Elon Musk.

“I used to say I’m amazed that he’s endorsing me because that can’t be good for him. I’m abolishing the EV mandate. And I once asked him about it, ‘You never talked to me about that.’ He said, ‘Well, as long as it’s happening to everybody, I’ll be able to compete,’ Trump said. “It’s a very interesting answer. I thought it was a very honest answer, to be honest with you, and I talked about it that, incredible, you know, you would have thought he would have been from day one, ‘You got to make sure you don’t do the EV mandate, the abolishing.’ He never did.”

The president and Musk had a recent public falling out in a series of social media posts that quickly turned personal, including one in which Musk said Trump “is in the Epstein files.” That post has since been deleted. On Wednesday, Musk posted on X that he regretted some of his posts about Trump, but didn’t say which ones. “They went too far,” he said.

The falling out was triggered by disagreements over Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” that Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, called a “disgusting abomination.”

“I’m sorry but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote on X. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

“It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt,” he added.

Musk said he took issue with the bill’s price tag after he spent months spearheading the administration’s effort to slash federal spending. Trump argued Musk’s real reason for coming out against the bill was its language to end electric vehicle incentives and subsidies.

On Thursday, however, Trump reiterated that while he and Musk worked together, the Tesla CEO did not pressure him on electric vehicle policy.

“I actually asked him because it was like really strange how, I’m with him, he’s very, you know, a friend of mine and he makes electric cars and we’re saying you’re not gonna be able to make electric cars you’re not gonna be forced to make all of those cars,” Trump said. “You can make them, but it’ll be by the market, judged by the market. And that’s what he said, he said, ‘As long as I’m on the same plane as everybody else, we’re gonna do good. We make a better product.’ I said, ‘That’s very cool. It’s very good.’ That was my answer. After that he got a little bit strange, but I, I don’t know why, over much smaller things than that.”

In March, after a series of vandalism incidents at Tesla locations, Trump bought a red Model S Tesla in a public show of support for his then-friend, a move that drew ethical scrutiny. On Thursday, Trump derided electric vehicles as inefficient and unreliable.

When asked by a reporter if he will keep the car, which as a sitting president Trump is not allowed to drive for security reasons, Trump said he might “move the Tesla around a little bit.” Trump had been keeping it in a high-profile spot in a driveway near the West Wing.

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