Elon Musk is back in politics. Does he want to stay a while?

KENNY HOLSTON / NEW YORK TIMES / SEPT. 21

Elon Musk, shown here in Glendale, Ariz., in September, is starting to make political appearances again, and his allies are planning a DOGE reunion party this weekend.

WASHINGTON >> Less than six months after a blowup with President Donald Trump caused Elon Musk to dramatically leave Washington, allies of the world’s richest person are planning a big party to celebrate what the two men did together.

This weekend in Austin, Texas, dozens of people who worked for Musk under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency will converge for a reunion gathering, according to three people with direct knowledge of the event who, like others in this article, insisted on anonymity to discuss Musk’s relationship with Trump.

Musk is expected to attend the event, according to one of the people, though his plans could change. The festivities will be at a high-end hotel where Musk often holes up in a suite.

The two-day reunion, organized by DOGE leaders, will feature two dinners and may include tours of factories for Musk’s companies SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring Co., according to planning materials.

This week is a return to the political arena for Musk, who in September dismissed his time as Trump’s right-hand man in government as “a hell of a side quest.”

This evening, he made his first public appearance in Washington since he left the capital in May, appearing at a formal dinner that Trump is throwing for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, according to a White House official briefed on the plans.

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In the period since he left Washington in a rage — casting aspersions on Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein and floating the creation of a third party — Musk has largely backed down from his feud with the president. The tech billionaire has retreated from his third-party idea, seen a key ally renominated for a top administration role and reached something of an unsteady truce with Trump, people on both sides of the dispute said.

“He had a bad moment,” Trump said on Air Force One late last month. “It was a stupid moment in his life, very stupid,” he added. “I like Elon and suspect I will always like him.”

Musk, who spent almost $300 million to elect Trump last year, is likely to make some contributions to support Republican candidates in the 2026 midterm elections, two people briefed on his thinking said. Last week, he made his first midterm endorsement — of Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla. — and he retains two Trump-aligned campaign consultants on his staff.

But he has not been closely following Republican politics since leaving Washington and is largely thinking about company matters these days, three people close to him said.

After Musk exited Washington — upset about the administration’s domestic policy bill and humiliated by the withdrawn nomination of a top ally, Jared Isaacman, to lead NASA — he promised that he would start a third party to challenge Republicans. It would be called the America Party, he said, and on July 5, he told his more than 200 million followers that the America Party had been “formed.”

In truth, Musk then made no moves to do so.

Even in the immediate aftermath of his angry pronouncements, Musk’s friends detected in private conversations with him that he was not particularly aware of how expensive and complicated it would be to create a viable third party, according to four people who spoke with him at the time.

Some of Musk’s political advisers, who are more familiar with the ins and outs of Republican affairs, were skittish about moving forward with a third party. Doing so would endanger their own professional prospects in Trump’s party, people close to the advisers said. Behind the scenes, some of them made clear to fellow Washington insiders that Musk was not following through and was just blowing off steam.

Jamie LaBranche, a little-known candidate for the U.S. Senate in Louisiana, sent a letter to Musk’s advisers in July, encouraging them to start the party so he could run on its line. “Elon Musk, we have work to do,” he wrote. “Please help me help the America Party.”

A few weeks later, in mid-August, he heard from a lawyer who claimed to represent Musk, who told him there would be no third-party effort, LaBranche recounted.

Musk has still said nothing in public to confirm that he will not pursue the third-party effort. His discussion of the idea in his social media posts — which he is sometimes prone to quietly delete — remains online.

September appeared to be a turning point in Musk’s relationship with Trump.

Musk said then that he had been invited to a high-profile dinner with tech executives that was hosted by Trump. He sent one of his top aides, John Hering, in his place.

Musk then approached Trump at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was assassinated. They held an animated conversation for several minutes that was captured on television, and Musk, who friends say was emotionally affected by Kirk’s death, posted a picture online of the exchange.

A few days later, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, said it had struck a deal with Trump’s administration that would allow federal agencies to use its chatbot for a nominal fee. Musk praised the administration in a statement.

In the weeks since Kirk’s memorial, Trump has spoken with Musk “on and off, a little bit,” he told reporters late last month.

Four officials who work at the White House or for Trump’s political operation said Musk’s name rarely comes up these days. But some recent personnel moves could not have been scripted any better by Musk.

Sergio Gor, a senior White House aide whom Musk steamed about to friends this summer for forcing out Isaacman, was recently confirmed as ambassador to India. At his Oval Office send-off last week, Trump seemed to gesture at the tensions with Musk. “Some people don’t like him so much — I’ll be honest with you, Sergio,” he said.

Musk has also clashed for months with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who is also the acting administrator of NASA. “Sean Dummy is trying to kill NASA!” Musk wrote in a post on the social platform X last month.

A few weeks later, Trump again nominated Isaacman to oversee the space program, in a move that could hand significant government influence to his close friend, Musk. The billionaire celebrated the pick this month.

One top Trump ally has been important in the reconciliation: Musk remains fond of Vice President JD Vance, according to two people who have spoken to him.

“VP Vance has great taste,” Musk wrote on X last week after the vice president praised Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI. Vance is considered a top contender to be the 2028 Republican presidential nominee, and his allies are already eyeing Musk’s potential support in a primary race.

Vance and Musk have continued to talk occasionally, according to two people with knowledge of their conversations, even as the billionaire’s relationship with the rest of the administration deteriorated.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company

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