Trump was unhappy when he got to know what he publicly called 'fake news' about Elon Musk: Report

President Donald Trump was utterly unhappy when he got to know that Elon Musk would be briefed on secret plans for a potential war with China at the Pentagon, Wall Street Journal reported taking a look back at Elon Musk's 'shock-and-awe' months in the White House as his term as the special government employee is coming to an end.

Publicly, Trump called it fake news that Elon Musk would be briefed about any secret plan and put out a long Truth Social post on it. "Privately, he called the potential briefing a conflict of interest given Tesla's extensive operations in China and was frustrated he didn't know about it in advance," the report said. On Truth Social, Trump, however, mocked the media on the same point that the media thought just because Elon Musk has business in China, he would tell China about anything he gets to know from the Pentagon.

Susie Wiles was put in charge to improve relations between Musk and agencies

Elon Musk's White House stint was strife-torn as agencies have been up in arms against him. The Journal report said that the president tried to smooth over the cracks. "After an early March cabinet meeting, where several cabinet secretaries aired grievances about Musk, the president pulled aside chief of staff Susie Wiles and told her to improve relations between the agencies and the man he empowered to cut them," the report said.

"Wiles needed to manage Musk, Trump said, making it clear that he backed Musk’s government-cutting zeal but sympathized with complaints from his cabinet. Wiles now has two long meetings a week with Musk, people briefed on the meetings said."

What are Trump's true feelings about Musk?

If there is such a difference between Trump's public and private feelings about Elon Musk, what are his true feelings about the Tesla CEO? Quoting insiders, the report said Trump sees Musk as a business leader who "experienced the pain associated with going from being beloved to ridiculed." Trump told others he finds Musk funny and he appreciated his wealth and the interest other world leaders take in Musk.

Trump also trusts Musk with projects that he is most interested in, Journal said. "He made Musk a key go-between with Boeing over its delayed new model of Air Force One, according to people familiar with the matter, with Musk demanding to speak to the planemaker’s engineers about the progress."