President Donald Trump on Thursday referred to his former adviser Elon Musk as "a friend of mine" and "first buddy" but said the tech magnate became "strange" after leaving the administration.

In remarks to reporters while signing legislation on electric vehicles in California, Trump said he and Musk disagreed over his stance against the EV mandates, saying the Tesla CEO was "very honest" about his opinion but "got a little bit strange … over much smaller things than that."

Trump added, "I used to say I was amazed that [Musk's] endorsing me because that can't be good for him, I'm abolishing the EV mandate."

He noted that Musk told him that "'as long as it's happening to everybody, I'll be able to compete.' You would've thought from day one he would've been, 'You've got to make sure you don't do the EV mandate.'"

Trump previously told CNN that Musk was "crazy" after the X owner claimed on social media that the Trump administration was delaying the release of files on convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in order to eliminate references to the president.

Musk later deleted this post and apologized for these and other claims he made, saying, "I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far."

Trump told the New York Post on Wednesday that he "thought it was very nice that" Musk apologized.

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