Elon Musk’s dad Errol claimed his son was prepared to admit he had ‘made a mistake’ after lashing out against US President Donald Trump during their public fallout
Elon Musk’s father has arrived in Moscow to speak at a forum organised by Vladimir Putin’s closest aides.
This comes after key Kremlin associates offered political asylum to his son – the world’s richest man – in the wake of his spectacular bust-up with Donald Trump. Errol Musk, 79, said there was PTSD in the White House, while also likening the ugly breakup to a marriage going wrong. He told Putin-controlled media: “So at the moment, Elon is inclined to say that he’s made a mistake.” Musk Snr added: “Trump will prevail. He’s the president, he was elected as the president.
“Elon made a mistake, I think, but he’s tired, he’s stressed. Five months of continuous stress, continuous, continuous stress, stress, stress.
“And then in the end, it’s just him and Trump left… They still don’t know what to do, so they fight with each other until they can come to normal conditions.”
Suggesting his son was out of his depth in Washington’s febrile politics, he told pro-Putin media outlet Izvestia: “They’ve been under a lot of stress for five months, a lot of stress for five months.” Errol – a South African businessman – also predicted: “It’s just a small thing. It’ll be over tomorrow.”
And speaking to Tsargrad TV – owned by mogul Konstantin Malofeev, seen as linked to Russian military intelligence – Errol said: “Elon with Trump and the new administration, they took over a somewhat broken United States, broken by the previous administration, with intent, evil intent.
“They’ve had five months at least of intense repair work, removing all the spurious opposition, all the crazies and so on. They’ve been under a lot of stress.
“Recently a new bill was put out – and Elon is still in the ‘Let’s get everything right’ mode. He said, ‘No, we must not include in such a bill more of this Democrat stupid schemes and money for them, it’s not right’.
“But unfortunately, he doesn’t realise that in order to get their votes in the Senate and the Congress, Trump has to do that… In order to take something, you have to give.
“So they had an argument about that, and as they are all suffering from a bit of PTSD, a post-traumatic stress disorder over the last few months, they started hitting out at each other. They are the only two people left in the arena, Trump and Elon, and all they were used to was fighting with the opposition
“So they took to each other, which is understandable. It happens in marriages, it happens in partnerships, it happens a lot. And people have to understand that at the moment, Elon is having second thoughts.
“He’s not a great politician, he is still learning, he’s a great tech innovator and so forth. But his politics is, as I’ve said before, is a swimming pool with no bottom, it’s a swimming pool with no sides.”
Errol is set to speak at the Future Forum 2050, organised by Malofeev as well as Putin ideologist Alexander Dugin. A key speaker is Kremlin veteran foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, a war hardliner.
Earlier Putin crony Dmitry Medvedev – formerly Russian president and prime minister – offered to mediate in the Trump-Musk row. He said on X: “We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don’t fight, guys!”
He also offered asylum to Musk. “Elon @elonmusk, don’t be upset! You are respected in Russia. If you encounter insurmountable problems in the US, come to us and become one of us,” he said. Senior lawmaker Dmitry Novikov also told state media Russia could offer asylum to Musk “if he needs it”.