Trump and Musk, Together Again, Point at Mars

The world’s richest man has reconciled with the world’s most animated leader. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump appear to have fully recovered from last year’s very public falling out, and both are dedicated to ushering in an American golden age of science. The president also vowed to dedicate a portion of this ambitious project to an out-of-this world mission, one that must have sounded like music to Musk’s ears.

On Thursday, Trump lauded Musk as “an industrial titan, a brilliant engineer, and one of the greatest technology founders to ever live,” adding that “there’s nobody like him.” He praised Musk over SpaceX’s accomplishments and cutting-edge innovation, calling him a “national treasure.” He told the audience about how Musk moved quickly in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and brought Starlink, another one of his creations, to North Carolina to help with communication for recovery efforts. Trump also mentioned Musk’s other companies, Tesla and Neuralink, calling him “our modern day Thomas Edison.”

This happened during the White House’s “Science: A New Golden Age” summit on Thursday, where the president awarded the National Medal of Science to Musk. The event was a nod to American tech leaders. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and AMD CEO Lisa Su also received that award. And Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Destination: Mars

During his speech on Thursday, Trump said the United States will return to the moon to establish “a permanent presence.” But the plan is to go further, to go where no man has gone before. “And then we will go to Mars,” Trump said.

Propelling humanity to Mars has been one of Musk’s longtime goals. He believes humans need to settle another planet in case a cataclysmic event destroys this one and everyone on it. Getting the government to buy into going to Mars was a goal Musk expressed during Trump’s reelection campaign in 2024, when he was on the campaign trail for Trump. And now, with these two back on good terms, the president is hitting all the right notes about American space exploration.

The White House published on October 8 a presidential executive order that aims to “revitalize the American scientific enterprise.” According to the EO, the $6 billion initiative will “equip scientists with the tools to harness [AI]-driven scientific revolution, support the best and brightest American STEM students and early-career scientists, revive the pursuit of ambitious national scientific missions, and encourage the creation of new scientific institutions.”

All-in on AI

Trump is very gung-ho about AI, or as he recently began calling it, “SI” for “superintelligence.” He’s even signed an EO directing the federal government to replace the AI moniker with SI and recently said that anyone who doesn’t use that label is an enemy. Musk was among the many tech leaders who went along with this rebranding. As we speculated in a previous article, the move could be a Trumpian ploy to improve the public’s perception toward AI, which is in the gutter right now. The president has a long track record of renaming things to change public perceptions about them. AI is certainly in need of rebranding. The majority of the American people see it negatively. Despite the promises and hype, it has generated more problems and drawbacks than perks. So naturally, people have reacted accordingly.

Trump’s most recent EO touches on the Genesis Mission Consortium, a public-private project established at the beginning of this year. The consortium is meant to be a single coordination hub that links the Department of Energy, national laboratories, National Nuclear Security Administration sites, companies, universities, nonprofits, and philanthropies in a grand effort to take science to the next level with AI. The website for the consortium lists a slew of big-name private companies, including Palantir, OpenAI, Microsoft, IBM, Google, Dell, and Amazon.

Genesis Mission

The government is infusing $5 billion into the Genesis Mission in an arrangement that has earned the White House accusations of supporting socialism. While the public has developed a negative view of AI, the White House frames it as a gateway to scientific breakthroughs that will boost space exploration and provide answers to elusive human ailments.

Musk is no opponent of infusing government money into private endeavors. According to reports, his businesses have raked in at least $38 billion in state and federal contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits since 2003. And that doesn’t include classified deals. SpaceX has taken in the bulk of that money. “NASA, the Department of Defense and the National Reconnaissance Office rely on the aerospace giant to launch satellites, travel to the International Space Station and deliver broadband connectivity, among other critical services,” according to reports.

Falling Out

Musk’s relationship with Trump publicly ruptured in 2025 over the president’s signature legislation, the One Big Beautiful Act bill, which the Tesla chief called a “disgusting abomination.” This was back when Musk was still under the naïve impression that GOP talking points about fiscal conservatism were meant to be taken seriously. By the time the president was pushing the OBBA, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk unofficially headed, was also being dialed back over intense pushback from many sides.

By May, Musk left DOGE and Trump gave him a golden key to the White House in a PR ceremony designed to soften the blow that ultimately led to the agency’s shuttering. A few days after receiving his golden key, Musk posted his “disgusting abomination” tweet about the OBBA. Trump shot back with threats to terminate Musk’s government contracts. Musk immediately responded with a tweet saying Trump was in the Epstein Files, which turned out to be true. The president comes up in the files numerous times, in good and bad lights.

During their fight, the president accused Musk of going crazy. He said Musk had a problem. Rumors emerged that the tech genius had come unglued because he was using more drugs than usual. A May 30, 2025 a New York Times report alleged that he increased his drug use while campaigning for Trump in 2024. Musk poured about $280 million to help get Trump reelected. He spoke at rallies. And he used his large social-media following on the platform he owns to convince people to vote for Trump. The Times said Musk was using more ketamine and also taking Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms.

America Party

By July of 2025, after Trump signed the OBBA into law, Musk said he would start a third party, the America Party, one that would represent the 80 percent of the people in the middle. But that never happened. One of the first public signs that these two would patch things up came about during Charlie Kirk’s funeral, where Musk and Trump were seen talking. And by January of this year, Musk said he would fund Republicans to help them win in the midterms. The GOP will need all the help it can get.

Both Trump and Musk are driven and enigmatic. Their relationship appears to be one of convenience, shared goals, and even some degree of dependency. Trump wants to leave his mark on the world, and Musk has the ability to propel humanity onto another planet. Trump brags about being high IQ, while Musk is actually a genius. The president needs Republicans to win in November, and Musk has the means to help them do that. Trump believes AI will help with scientific breakthroughs, and Musk has built brain chips that can turn people into cyborgs. Musk believes out-of-control migration will ruin America, and Trump has basically closed the border to mass migration. And both men seem to agree that government and corporations should work together on big national projects.