‘It Was a Blast for a While’ (Exclusive Sources)

NEED TO KNOW

• Mar-a-Lago insiders speak with PEOPLE about President Donald Trump’s relationship with Elon Musk, and how often the pair visited the Palm Beach, Fla., estate as their friendship privately took a turn.

• While the feud between the president and his former top adviser went public in recent weeks, sources tell PEOPLE they haven’t paraded around Mar-a-Lago together in months.

• Musk went on a days-long social media tirade against Trump and his administration after leaving the White House, though he has since walked back some of his more personal attacks.

While many have watched Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s relationship sour via social media over the last two weeks, the people who spend time at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club tell PEOPLE that it’s been months since the duo have made a celebratory joint appearance.

According to some insiders, Musk was essentially living in a Mar-a-Lago guest house following the Republican National Convention last summer and through the presidential election in the fall. However, following Trump’s inauguration in January, his near-constant presence quickly faded and he was only spotted at the Palm Beach estate five or six times.

“It was a blast seeing Donald and Elon kicking it up at Mar-a-Lago for a while,” one social source tells PEOPLE. “But seeing them at those holiday and high season parties seemed to have thinned out. We didn’t see them together much in the last couple of months.”

In February, a source told PEOPLE that Musk was working overtime as the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, to the point where he had “holed up” in his EEOB office space and was “sleeping on a couch and sometimes the floor.”

According to members, Trump and Musk last visited Mar-a-Lago together on April 11 for an event held by the Palm Beach County Republicans. Trump was a keynote speaker at the ceremony, and Musk received an award for his work with the administration.

“[It was] so fun watching the boys together at the club,” another social source tells PEOPLE of Musk and Trump’s Florida jaunts. “But it was a while ago. Even before the club closed for the season, I didn’t see Elon around as much at all.”

Notably, Trump didn’t travel to his Florida estate for Easter or Mother’s Day weekend, usually a tradition for the president. According to the Palm Beach Post, he last visited Mar-a-Lago on the weekend of May 1 without Musk, and he has spent his weekends elsewhere since.

The club closed for the season on May 12, so members have had fewer opportunities to spot the political heavyweights; however, the public fallout between Trump and Musk began just a few weeks later, leaving it unclear whether club members’ days of seeing them in tandem are over.

On May 30, the former duo held their final Oval Office press conference together as Musk stepped back from his DOGE role. That was always the plan, as the tech billionaire was limited to a 130-day contract as a “special government employee.”

However, shortly after departing his White House position, Musk went nuclear on the administration in a days-long social media rant on X. He called the president’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” a “disgusting abomination,” took credit for his 2024 election win and even accused him of keeping the Jeffrey Epstein files sealed because he is named in them — an allegation Musk later deleted.

The day after the Epstein post, an airplane flew over Mar-a-Lago with a banner that read, “Save Tesla, Fire Musk.”

In a post just after 3 a.m. ET on June 11, Musk began to walk back his social media attacks. He said he’d started to “regret some of my posts about President [Donald Trump],” adding that a few of his comments “went too far.”

While Trump told the New York Post that he thought Musk’s pseudo-apology was “very nice,” he continued to hint at their fractured relationship on June 12, while signing a congressional resolution to overturn California’s electric vehicle mandate.

Speaking to Musk’s role as CEO of Tesla, Trump said he was surprised that the EV mandate wasn’t a bigger issue for his billionaire backer from the outset of his campaign.

“I used to say, ‘I’m amazed that he’s endorsing me because that can’t be good for him,’ ” the president recounted. “He said, ‘Well, as long as it’s happening to everybody, I’ll be able to compete.’… It was a very interesting answer.”

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There were clearly more serious issues that came between the two toward the end of Musk’s tenure at DOGE. Trump said in his June 12 remarks, “Elon doesn’t like me,” but then laughed it off and retracted the statement.

“He got a little bit strange, but I don’t know why,” the president continued, “over much smaller things than that.”

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