Amid Trump's White House Rose Garden Event Snub, Elon Musk Says He Was Invited But 'Unfortunately Could Not Attend'

Badar Shaikh

September 04, 2025

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk says that he was invited to the Rose Garden event at the White House by President Donald Trump, but he wouldn't be able to attend.

Elon Musk Says He ';Unfortunately Could Not Attend' The Event

Taking to the social media platform X on Thursday, the billionaire responded to a post by user Natalie F Danelishen who questioned the White House's decision to invite Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) founder Bill Gates but not Musk at the exclusive event with eminent business and tech personalities, including Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI founder Sam Altman.

Bill gates but not Elon Muskâ€¦.wtf? https://t.co/3mLD1vKVgv
— Natalie F Danelishen (@Chesschick01) September 4, 2025

"I was invited, but unfortunately could not attend," Musk said in his response to the post, acknowledging the event. He added that a "representative" will be there at the event in his stead. He did not elaborate on who the representative will be.

I was invited, but unfortunately could not attend. A representative of mine will be there.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2025

Trump Calls Musk "80% Super Genius,"

The comments come as Trump had recently hailed Musk as a genius in a recent phone interview. "He's 80% super genius," Trump said of Musk before adding that there were "20% problems" with the SpaceX founder. "When he works out the 20%, he'll be great," Trump said in the interview, adding that he "liked" Musk.

Trump had also called Musk a good person in a White House press briefing in August, acknowledging that the billionaire just had "a really bad moment," signaling that tensions had eased between the pair following a wave of back and forth between the two over several topics, including Trump ending the $7,500 Federal EV Credit as part of the Big, Beautiful Bill and the Epstein files row.

Musk's Possible MAGA Return, Tesla Sales Decline

Interestingly, Vice President JD Vance had earlier said in an interview that he was hopeful that Musk would return to the GOP and the MAGA contingent, something other prominent MAGA voices have also called for.

Musk had reportedly donated more than $250 million to the Trump camp in the run-up to the 2024 Presidential Election, as well as extensively campaigning for Trump last year. Musk’s endorsement of right-wing political ideals, as well as Trump’s, among other reasons, has hurt Tesla sales, which fell over 40% in Europe recently.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

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Photo courtesy: RKY Photo on Shutterstock.com

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