"You were not wrong"... Musk, who lost ₩20 trillion in market cap, attempts reconciliation?

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who had engaged in a heated exchange with President Donald Trump of the United States on social media, has extended an olive branch.

According to Bloomberg, on the 5th (local time), Musk responded "You were not wrong" when billionaire hedge fund investor and Trump supporter Bill Ackman posted on X (formerly Twitter), "I support Trump and Musk. They should achieve peace for the good of our great country."

This gesture of reconciliation came after Tesla's stock price plunged 14% from the previous day.

Earlier, Musk had withdrawn his plan to pull out SpaceX spacecraft in response to President Trump’s threat to terminate federal government contracts with Musk-owned businesses.

When a user on X expressed regret, saying, "The exchange of words is unfortunate. Both of you are better than this, so please calm down and step back for a few days," Musk replied, "Good advice. I will not withdraw the Dragon (SpaceX spacecraft)."

Musk is also the CEO of SpaceX, and the Dragon spacecraft is currently the only US spacecraft certified to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

As Musk hinted at easing the conflict, President Trump also seemed, for the time being, reluctant to escalate.

On the same day, when asked about a public split with Musk during a phone interview with the American political media Politico, Trump simply replied, "It's fine."

Politico reported that White House aides persuaded President Trump to refrain from publicly criticizing Musk to prevent the situation from deteriorating and that there were plans to mediate reconciliation through a call with Musk on the 6th.

However, a White House official denied any plans for a call between the two.

Previously, President Trump and Musk had engaged in a war of words on SNS for a while.

Their relationship took a sudden downturn after Musk officially stepped down as head of the Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) under the Trump administration and left the White House on the 30th of last month.

Musk publicly criticized Trump's tax cut legislation, and as Trump did not hide his displeasure, the conflict intensified.

President Trump expressed anger, stating, "Musk is crazy" and "Very disappointed," while Musk responded, calling Trump "ungrateful" and openly supporting 'Trump's impeachment.'

As their battle peaked, Tesla’s stock price plummeted on the New York Stock Exchange that day, with its market cap evaporating by $152 billion (about ₩20 trillion) by the close.

Jongdong Noh, Hankyung.com journalist dong2@hankyung.com