Elon Musk says he was invited to White House reception but will not attend

Elon Musk, seen here during a news conference at the White House on May 30, was invited to a tech leader summit at the White House’s newly renovated Rose Garden. (Allison Robbert/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Billionaire and onetime top White House advisor Elon Musk said he was invited to a tech leader summit at the White House’s newly renovated Rose Garden on Thursday, but will not be attending.

“I was invited, but unfortunately could not attend. A representative of mine will be there,” Musk said on Thursday, replying to an X user who asked why the xAI, SpaceX and Tesla leader was not invited.

The guest list for Thursday’s event includes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to a White House official.

The fact that Musk was invited could be a sign that the relationship between Musk and the White House is thawing. Once referred to as “the first buddy,” and near constant presence at President Donald Trump’s side, Musk had a messy blowup with the president this summer after leaving his position at the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk even vowed to support primary challengers of Republicans who voted for Trump’s signature funding bill, and he claimed he would be starting a new political party, although there does not seem to have been any movement on that front.

The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

In recent days, public comments from Trump and Vice President JD Vance seem to suggest Musk would be welcomed back into the fold.

Speaking to CNN contributor Scott Jennings on his podcast this week, Trump said Musk is “a man of common sense,” a “good man,” even though he “got off the reservation incorrectly.”

“He’s got 80% super genius and then 20% he’s got some problems. When he works out the 20%, he’ll be great,” Trump said. “I liked him… I like him now.”

In an interview last month with far-right outlet Gateway Pundit, Vance called Musk’s relationship with the Trump White House “complicated.” But he said he expects and hopes Musk will support the Republican Party by next November’s midterm elections.

“My argument to Elon is like, you’re not going to be on the left, even if you wanted to be — and he doesn’t — they’re not going to have your back. That ship has sailed. So I really think it’s a mistake for him to try to break from the president,” Vance said.

Musk has backed off attacking the administration on X and, in some cases, appears to be fully supporting the White House. Last month, he replied with a fire emoji and a laughing emoji to a post from White House communications adviser Margo Martin, who captioned a photo: “President @realDonaldTrump showing President Zelenskyy and President Macron his 4 More Years hat.”

The White House invitation could also be a lesson in history: Musk was famously not invited to a White House summit on electric vehicles in 2021 during President Joe Biden’s administration. (Part of the reason appeared to be because Tesla is a nonunion automaker.) Musk has been vocal about how much he continues to be upset over the snub.

On Thursday, he reposted a 2023 interview where he said Biden “added insult to injury” and hurt the company by claiming at the event that General Motors was “leading the electric car revolution” while Tesla made far more EV cars.

Musk reposted the 2023 video with the comment: “I try not to start fights, but I do finish them.”

CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.