Less than six months after falling out with Elon Musk, US President Donald Trump had kind words for the tech billionaire on Monday.
"I like Elon, and I suspect I'll always like him," Trump told journalists during his trip to Asia.
Musk donated more than $250 million to Trump's election campaign last year. In the first months of Trump's term, he became a close confidant of the president and was tasked with rapidly cutting government expenditure.
But then in early summer, a rift emerged over a major budget bill being pushed by Trump, and the two soon began to attack each other via social media. Musk then stepped back from his political role.
In July, Musk announced the formation of his own party, but nothing more was heard about it after that.
Since then, Musk has limited his political activity to expressing right-wing views on his online platform X.
In September, Trump and Musk spoke to each other at the memorial service for slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Since the memorial, Trump said he had a little contact with Musk from time to time, describing it as "nothing much."
Trump said the tech billionaire had been going through "a bad moment."
"It was a stupid moment in his life. Very stupid," he said.
