Elon Musk is back in President Trump’s orbit and expected to receive the National Medal of Science, with insiders now calling their public blowup water under the bridge.
Musk arrived Thursday afternoon at the Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., for President Donald Trump’s New Golden Age Summit, where he is slated to receive the National Medal of Science, the nation’s top honor for scientific and technological achievement. Fox News reported the appearance and the repaired relationship that made it possible.
The visit caps a rapid turnaround. Only months earlier, the Tesla, SpaceX, and X chief had left government after leading the Department of Government Efficiency and then publicly clashed with Trump over federal spending.
Musk had joined the administration after the 2024 election and ran DOGE for about four months, driving cuts aimed at waste. He left in May 2025.
The break came fast. On June 3, 2025, Musk posted on X that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was a “disgusting abomination.” The next day he followed with another post:
"KILL THE BILL,"
Musk saw the spending as the opposite of DOGE’s waste-reduction mission. Trump answered on social media that Musk had been “wearing thin” on him and went “CRAZY” after the administration rolled back what it called a Biden-era “backdoor electric vehicle mandate.”
Musk claimed Trump would not have won in 2024 without his backing, accused the president of ingratitude, and alleged Trump appeared in Jeffrey Epstein files, a charge he never backed with proof. Through America PAC, Musk had helped steer nearly $300 million toward Trump and other Republican campaigns.
A former White House official described the freeze that followed.
"He wasn’t in the office at all,"
Musk had previously worked out of space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building alongside White House staff. After the fight, one former administration official said he was fully cut from the fold.
A current administration official pushed back on that picture, saying Musk continued to be seen at the White House and pointing to his pledges of financial support for Republican candidates in the 2026 midterms. A third source said the thaw began earlier this year.
One former administration official summed up the present mood in plain terms.
"Water under the bridge,"
Trump has also said he likes Musk “a lot.”
Late September brought Musk to the launch of the AI-powered America.gov site alongside engineers from the National Design Studio. Last month he sat at the president’s table for the state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He had already traveled to Beijing aboard Air Force One as part of the Trump delegation for those talks. Recent weeks added still more White House stops.
The pattern fits Trump’s long record of restarting relationships after public breaks, including a September revival of his friendship with former attorney Michael Cohen after Cohen’s testimony in the 2024 hush-money case.
White House spokesperson Liz Huston framed the medal in institutional terms when she spoke about the honorees.
"The Trump administration is grateful for the contributions of these incredible leaders in science and technology. These recipients are helping ensure America keeps leading the world in innovation,"
The choice of venue carries its own history. During Musk’s DOGE tenure, the U.S. Institute of Peace became a flashpoint for the waste-cutting drive. The New York Post reported that Musk and his team publicly thanked federal workers who helped root out waste and fraud, while flagging problems at the institute that included private-jet spending and a $130,000 contract tied to a former Taliban member, matters referred to the Justice Department and FBI. Musk said DOGE would continue as a long-term project after his special government employee status ended, warning that waste would return if the pressure eased.
Resistance inside the building was sharp. The Washington Examiner reported that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed former institute head George Moose and staff for fighting DOGE’s effort to shrink the agency. Moose was escorted out by law enforcement after a standoff. Administration sources said the agency had removed exterior door locks and cut internet connections during the confrontation.
The administration later went further. Breitbart reported that workers installed large silver letters renaming the National Mall building the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace. DOGE had already removed the institute’s president, nearly all staff, and most of the board. A federal judge found the personnel moves were carried out without proper authority and were null, yet declined a restraining order. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly called the old institute “a bloated, useless entity that blew $50 million per year while delivering no peace,” and said the renamed institute would stand as a reminder of leadership that ends wars and builds stability.
Musk once received a ceremonial golden key to the White House during an Oval Office event. Thursday’s National Medal of Science is a higher formal honor, delivered on the same campus where his cost-cutting team met entrenched opposition.
The arc is straightforward. Musk spent heavily to elect Trump, took on the hard job of shrinking government, broke with the president over a spending bill he viewed as wasteful, lost access, then earned his way back through visible support and continued alignment on core priorities. Sources inside and outside the building now describe the June fight as finished business.
Trump rewards builders who deliver results for the country, and in that ranking, old arguments lose to the work still ahead.
