President Donald Trump is throwing a major party in the White House’s recently paved-over Rose Garden for some of the biggest names in tech — but billionaire Elon Musk’s name isn’t on the list.
As The Hill first reported, the upcoming event will see high-profile tech executives swing by for a visit, including Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google founder Sergey Brin and CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The event will take place following a meeting of the White House’s new Artificial Intelligence Education task force, which is chaired by first lady Melania Trump.
While Musk won’t be part of the proceedings, his longtime collaborator and private SpaceX astronaut Jared Isaacman will be on the guest list. Musk had recommended Isaacman for the role of NASA administrator, but the nomination was suddenly withdrawn earlier this summer following the escalation of a bitter feud between the SpaceX CEO and Trump.
David Limp, the CEO of SpaceX competitor Blue Origin, is also on the guest list, further highlighting Musk’s glaring omission.
The news comes a day after Trump called Musk a “good man” during a Scott Jennings Show interview, though hedging out that he has “some problems.”
“And when he works out the 20 percent [of problems], he’ll be great, but he’s got some difficulty,” Trump said of Musk, arguing that he has “no choice” but to return to the Republican Party.
Last month, Musk, who founded AI startup xAI, sued Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of unfairly favoring the ChatGPT maker in the App Store. Now, leaders of both companies are invited to attend an AI-focused event at the White House — and Musk isn’t on the list.
Musk’s relationship with Trump took a major turn for the worse in June when the mercurial CEO blasted the president’s so-called “big, beautiful bill,” describing it as a “disgusting abomination.”
He’s also vowed to create his own “America Party” in a declaration of war on Republicans, though there hasn’t been any evidence to suggest that such a plan is currently in the works.
More on the feud: Trump Confronted Musk in Private Before Their Blowout Public Fight