JD Vance has warned that Elon Musk may not be “welcome back into the fold” after his attacks on Donald Trump.

Speaking on the Theo Von podcast, the Vice President expressed dismay at Musk’s now-deleted post about Trump’s purported links with Jeffrey Epstein. “Ok, wow,” Vance responded. “I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold, but maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear,” he noted.

Vance added that Trump “didn’t do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein” before professing his loyalty to the President. “Elon is an incredible entrepreneur and I think DOGE was really good,” he said. “I’m always going to be loyal to the President”.

When pressed on why Musk decided to go public with his attacks, Vance speculated that the billionaire’s frustration with politics might be to blame. “Elon is new to politics. His businesses are being attacked non-stop — they’re literally firebombing some of his cars,” said Vance. “This guy has gone into politics and has suffered a lot for it. I get the frustration there”.

Earlier this week, Musk had expressed disappointment with Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, calling it a “disgusting abomination”, which precipitated the falling out. Vance acknowledged that the bill “wasn’t perfect” but it was needed to prevent tax increases.

“I understand it’s not a perfect bill,” he said. “If you’re a business leader you probably get frustrated with the progress because it’s more bureaucratic and more slow-moving, so there’s some frustration there”.

Vance warned that Musk had made a “huge mistake,” suggesting it would be bad for the country. “If he [Musk] and the President are in some blood feud, most of it’s going to be bad for the country but I don’t think it’s going to be good for Elon either”.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said that he has no plans to speak with Musk and that he “wasn’t thinking about the Tesla CEO”. With no sign of a detente between the two men, Trump warned that a review of Musk’s extensive contracts with the federal government could be coming. “We’ll take a look at everything,” the President said. “It’s a lot of money”.