Monday 05 January 2026 11:55 GMT Bookmark Elon Musk has revealed he had a “lovely dinner” with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on Saturday evening, just hours after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “Had a lovely dinner last night with POTUS and FLOTUS,” Musk posted the following evening, including a photo of the trio together at their table. “2026 is going to be amazing!” The event was held hours after Trump gave the go-ahead for the U.S. military to launch surprise missile strikes on Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning that led to the capture of Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, who have since been taken to New York to answer drug and weapons charges. The president subsequently held a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida – flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, and White House adviser Stephen Miller – in which he explained the U.S. would “run” Venezuela until a stable new government could take over. The social engagement with Musk that followed comes after the latter signalled a return to politics on New Year’s Day. open image in gallery Elon Musk posts a picture of himself having dinner with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on X on Sunday January 4, 2026 (Elon Musk/X) “America is toast if the radical left wins,“ he wrote in another X post. “They will open the floodgates to illegal immigration and fraud. Won’t be America anymore.” Those comments were in response to another user’s post reporting that he would be “going all-in funding Republicans to help President Trump take back full control in the November midterms.” The two billionaires now appear to be firmly reconciled after their spectacular falling out last summer. The Tesla and SpaceX boss had been a passionate supporter of Trump during the 2024 presidential race and donated almost $290 million towards his campaign. After the president’s victory over Kamala Harris, Musk was appointed to oversee the newly-founded Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with cutting excess federal expenditure, which led to a public backlash against his companies, notably Tesla, whose cars were boycotted and dealerships vandalised. open image in gallery