Trump Brushes Off Elon Musk's Latest Feud With Defense That Suggests Who's Really In Charge

President Donald Trump seems confident about an AI development deal he made. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has developed a bromance with the US president over the past months and acts as an advisor, has openly spoken against some of the people involved in the deal. However, on January 23, Trump seemed to condone Musk's comments regarding the deal, which showcases the power Musk truly exerts over Trump.

On January 21, Trump revealed that he was investing in Stargate AI, alongside Sam Altman, as well as businessmen Larry Ellison and Masayoshi Son. While Ellison serves as the chief technology officer of computer tech company Oracle, and Son acts as the CEO of SoftBank, Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, which Musk has been highly critical of. After Trump's deal — which will increase AI development through infrastructure — was announced, Musk attacked Altman on X, commenting "They don't actually have the money," under an X post from OpenAI that discussed Trump's Stargate AI deal. Musk then declared that he had faith in SoftBank, inferring that he had doubts about OpenAI. 

Altman ended up clapping back, commenting under an X post where a social media user showcased screenshots in which Altman said positive things about Musk, shortly before calling Musk untruthful, and asked, "Which is his real mask?" "Both are true!" Altman responded. "I don't think he's a nice person or treating us fairly but you have to respect the guy and he pushes all of us to be more ambitious."

During an interview that aired on Fox News and was shared on X, President Donald Trump was asked about whether he was perturbed by Elon Musk publicly slamming the Trump-supported project Stargate AI. The president responded with a simple "No." 

Trump then went into further details, and actually seemed to be supportive of Musk's decision to be critical of Sam Altman. "I've spoken to Elon. I've spoken to all of them, actually," Trump stated. "The people in the deal are very, very smart people. But Elon, one of the people in the deal he happens to hate, but I have certain hatreds of people too."

While Trump seems to be accepting of Musk's online attacks on Altman, this could become a potential hindrance to his Stargate AI deal if Altman decided to pull out due to the negative behavior towards him. According to APNews, on January 21, Trump was extremely positive regarding the deal and the people involved. "It's big money and high quality people," he stated. Since Trump seems so excited about the deal, it feels bizarre for him to back Musk's behavior. Some think Trump may toss Musk out in the cold, but it seems like Musk may be the one truly calling the shots.