And as usual, Trump took the bait and the two exploded their social media with attacks on each other.

But a day later, something that Trump fans have long waited to see happened. The president showed he was the bigger man, calmly deflecting the media’s efforts to whip up the feud further. Pressed on Air Force One Friday to whack Musk, Trump chose the presidential path and said, “I just wish him well.”

President Donald Trump told reporters Friday on Air Force One that he has been so busy working on foreign policy that he has not had time to think about Elon Musk after his feud with the billionaire. “I just wish him well.”

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— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 7, 2025

We’ll see if a truce is in the works, but our friend and author Tevi Troy said he expects the two to make nice, just like they have in the past after public spats.

“In any clash between presidents and CEOs, presidents have the power in the short term, but CEOs have the ability to outlast presidential tenures. This means that both sides ultimately have an interest in accommodation rather than conflict,” Troy told Secrets Friday.

Our graders, Democratic pollster John Zogby and conservative analyst Jed Babbin, were entertained by the public fight but also found more significant issues to focus on.

John Zogby

Grade: C-

Forget Ali versus Fraser, the so-called “Fight of the Century.”

The inevitable blowout of the millennium has now begun, and it is predictably volcanic. The two men characterized by narcissism and unprecedented hyperbole appear to be basically right about their charges against each other. I will probably be writing more about this next week so I will hold for now but thus far Elon Musk is angry that his $300 million investment in President Donald Trump and all things GOP has proven to be a colossal waste because the “big, beautiful bill” Trump is promoting doesn’t reflect his principles and ideas.

Trump, for his part, is riled because his investments in Musk Inc. in the form of government largesse have not produced the undying loyalty that is required. Enough for now!

The May jobs report was slow as expected but still showed some growth in new jobs. However, more Americans, 7.24 million, are unemployed today — the largest since 2017. Inflation is down but the message is not getting out.

In addition to frothing at Musk, the president is attacking Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, former buddy Vladimir Putin, and The Boss, Bruce Springsteen (that is redundant!). Even Republicans are not liking that.

The administration is now privately admitting that too many federal employees were fired. Is this any way to run a circus? Well, actually, it is. The president won a 9-0 Supreme Court case putting another nail in DEI and his polling numbers remain unchanged.

Jed Babbin

Grade: B-

It was another good week for President Donald Trump. Not a great week but a good one. There was some progress on the massive budget reconciliation bill, Trump put a travel ban on a dozen countries and his war with the Ivy League colleges continued. And then there was his personal feud with Elon Musk.

“Progress” on the reconciliation bill was both positive and negative, with Republicans’ slim majorities in both houses of Congress magnifying every dissenter’s impact. The Congressional Budget Office said that Trump’s tariffs could cut budget deficits by $2.8 trillion, but also said that the bill would add about $2 trillion to the national debt. Trump wants to eliminate the statutory debt limit (which Congress raises often), and that didn’t please fiscal conservatives. Many are talking about how the debt is about to strangle our country.

Trump’s new travel ban covers several of what Trump called the “s***hole” countries in his first term. The new list includes Cuba, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Trump is definitely on the right side of this issue but there will, inevitably, be lawsuits.

Trump’s administration was the subject of about six more court orders delaying or supposedly canceling administration actions. The Supreme Court is going to have to take up the question of whether individual judges can issue national bans on Trump’s action.

Trump’s personal feud with Musk began when the Tesla chief condemned the reconciliation bill as a disaster. The two exchanged shots all week which is a fun diversion from the unpleasant tasks each of them face.

Trump has made zero progress on peace in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin or on his nuclear negotiations with Iran. Some day he’ll learn that neither is going to produce any positive result and that both have to be dealt with in another, far more forceful way.

And Trump is continuously helped by the Democrats’ inability to say anything other than “orange man bad.” The latest fun is from former President Joe Biden, whose autopen exercises are at best suspect of manipulation. Biden issued a statement saying, “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.” But as an old man with a bad memory — in the words of Special Counsel Robert Hur — how would Biden even know?

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John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should. His podcast with son and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.

Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on X @jedbabbin.