"I hope not”: Trump unsure if Musk used drugs in White House

Trump said this during the Invest America Roundtable.

The U.S. President was asked whether, as reported by The New York Times, Elon Musk had used drugs toward the end of his time at the White House.

"I really don’t know. I don’t think so. I hope not," he replied.

Trump was also asked whether, amid the dispute with Musk, he planned to drop Tesla and stop using Starlink services at the White House.

He suggested he might consider replacing Tesla, but indicated there were no such plans for Starlink, calling it a good service.

Another question concerned Elon Musk’s relationship with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Previously, Axios, citing its own sources, reported that Musk and Bessent got into an argument in the presence of President Donald Trump and senior officials. Journalists claimed that Musk and Bessent had struck each other in the face.

Trump was then asked whether he had ever seen Elon Musk get into a physical altercation with the Treasury Secretary.

He responded that he hadn't seen it himself and had tried to ask whether they had actually argued, but noted he hadn’t witnessed much physical force involved.

Background

Tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk began to rise in May, when Musk stepped down from his position at the U.S. Government Efficiency Department.

At first, Musk avoided directly criticizing Trump, but that changed on June 5. On that day, the SpaceX owner began actively reposting Trump’s old statements on his social media platform X.

Notably, he reshared a video in which he and the president answered questions from reporters in front of a Tesla. At the time, Trump had called Musk “a great patriot who never asked me for anything.”

“Remember this?” Musk wrote under the post, tagging the White House account.

On June 4, Musk stated that President Donald Trump’s proposed domestic policy bill would, in his view, further increase the already massive budget deficit.

The following day, Trump said he had had a great relationship with Elon Musk - though he wasn’t sure if that would remain the case. Later, the president remarked that Musk had “gone crazy.”

In response, Musk claimed that current leader Donald Trump would have lost the presidential election if it weren’t for him. Later, Musk also wrote that files related to Epstein, who was accused of pedophilia, contain mentions of the current White House chief.

Meanwhile, this dispute caused both Musk’s and Trump’s fortunes to drop by billions of dollars.

Then, on June 6, Elon Musk announced the creation of a new political party - the “American Party.”

On June 7, U.S. President Donald Trump said his relationship with billionaire Elon Musk was over and warned of “serious consequences” if Musk were to fund American Democrats.

• South African politician and entrepreneur Errol Musk, father of American billionaire Elon Musk, has arrived in Moscow to take part in a propaganda forum hosted by Alexander Dugin, the main ideologist of Russian fascism.