President Donald Trump is pushing back at people who claim he wants to destroy tech mogul Elon Musk's businesses, following their acrimonious split earlier this year.
"Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon's companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large-scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government," Trump wrote on his Truth Social page Thursday.
"This is not so! I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that's good for all of us. We are setting records every day, and I want to keep it that way!"
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday Trump doesn't want federal agencies to enter into contracts with xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by former Trump administration official Elon Musk.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Leavitt was asked if Trump supports "federal agencies contracting with Elon Musk's AI company," to which she responded, "I don't think so, no."
When asked if he would want the Department of Justice to cancel its contract with "Grok," the name of the AI chatbot that xAI operates and a possible reference to "Grok for Government," a suite of AI tools aimed at US government customers, Leavitt said, "I'll talk to [Trump] about it, yes."
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.