(AFP) – Donald Trump sat side-by-side with billionaire Elon Musk, a once trusted advisor with whom the US president had a spectacular public falling out, at a memorial event for right-wing leader Charlie Kirk on Sunday. Trump chatted in a manner that appeared friendly with Musk, who once led the Republican’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), which took a hatchet to the US federal workforce and agencies when the Republican took office for his second term.
The pair sat in the stands of a stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where tens of thousands had gathered to pay tribute to Kirk, who was shot dead on September 10 at a Utah university campus. Video of the two sharing a handshake was shared by the official White House account on social media platform X, which Musk owns. Musk donated more than $270 million to Trump’s presidential campaign, barnstorming key battleground states for the Republican.
After the election, he oversaw the launch of the DOGE, a controversial initiative that eliminated thousands of government jobs deemed by the agency to be part of a pattern of waste, fraud and abuse. But Musk broke with Trump over the White House’s flagship tax and spending bill, which Musk called “utterly insane and destructive.” After the falling out, Musk went as far as to announce he was launching his own “America First” party, but little has materialized so far.
Musk on his X account posted an image of him and Trump sitting together at the memorial, captioning it: “For Charlie.”
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