Vice President JD Vance said Elon Musk was making a "huge mistake" going after President Donald Trump in a storm of bitter and inflammatory social media posts after a falling out between the two men.
But the vice president, in an interview released Friday after the very public blow up between the world's richest man and arguably the world's most powerful, also tried to downplay Musk’s blistering attacks as an "emotional guy" who got frustrated.
"I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear," Vance said.
Vance’s comments come as other Republicans in recent days have urged the two men, who months ago were close allies spending significant time together, to mend fences.
Musk's torrent of social media posts attacking Trump came as the president portrayed him as disgruntled and "CRAZY" and threatened to cut the government contracts held by his businesses.
Musk, who runs electric vehicle maker Tesla, internet company Starlink and rocket company SpaceX, lambasted Trump's centerpiece tax cuts and spending bill but also suggested Trump should be impeached and claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president's association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
"Look, it happens to everybody," Vance said in the interview. "I’ve flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours."
Vance made the comments in an interview with "manosphere" comedian Theo Von.
The vice president told Von that as Musk for days was calling on social media for Congress to kill Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," the president was "getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon, but I think has been very restrained because the president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk."
"I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine," he added.
The interview was taped Thursday as Musk's posts were unfurling on X, the social media network the billionaire owns.
"This stuff is just not helpful," Vance said in response to a post shared by Musk calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced with Vance.
"It’s totally insane. The president is doing a good job."
Vance called Musk an "incredible entrepreneur," and said that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, which sought to cut government spending and laid off or pushed out thousands of workers, was "really good."
The vice president also defended the bill that has drawn Musk's ire, and said its central goal was not to cut spending but to extend the 2017 tax cuts approved in Trump's first term.
The bill would slash spending but also leave some 10.9 million more people without health insurance and spike deficits by $2.4 trillion over the decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Musk has warned that the bill will increase the federal deficit and called it a "disgusting abomination."
"It's a good bill," Vance said. "It's not a perfect bill."
He also said it was ridiculous for some House Republicans who voted for the bill but later found parts objectional to claim they hadn't had time to read it.
Vance said the text had been available for weeks and said, "the idea that people haven't had an opportunity to actually read it is ridiculous."
