White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has called President Trump’s falling out with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk “very troublesome” but ultimately a “little hiccup” for the administration on the latest episode of “Pod Force One,” out Wednesday.

Wiles agreed with Post columnist Miranda Devine’s contention that the South Africa-born billionaire “almost … had a sort of fatherly fixation with Donald Trump that I guess inevitably was going to blow up at some point.”

“The president was very, very kind to him, and Elon had so much to offer us,” Wiles responded. “He knew things we didn’t know. He knew people and technologies that we didn’t know. It was a great thing when it was a great thing, and had a very, I think, a very troublesome ending.”

Every week, Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington. Subscribe here!

Near the end of Musk’s time as a special government employee, he dropped some not-so-subtle hints that he was perturbed and “disappointed” by the deficit impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law last week.

At the end of May, Trump had given Musk a chummy Oval Office send-off, predicting that the world’s richest man “will always be with us, helping all the way.”

But days later, Musk went nuclear and savaged Trump’s marquee agenda package as “pork-filled” and a “disgusting abomination,” before turning against the president in a dramatic social media storm.

After a brief pause in hostilities, Musk, 54, announced plans to form the America Party to contest next year’s midterm elections and seize the balance of power in Washington. Trump, 79, responded by calling his former “first buddy” a “train wreck” and dismissing his idea of forming a third party as “ridiculous.”

“I don’t understand it. I don’t know,” Wiles said when asked why Trump and Musk fell out. “I enjoyed working with Elon. I think he’s a fascinating person and sees the world differently. And I think that’s probably what the president saw, too. [He’s] just a little bit different than the average Joe, but certainly [it] came to not a good ending.”

Full Episode

The chief of staff added that Musk “might be the world’s smartest man” and pointed out that he provided input about “business and organizations and government and insight into people that were really important, I think, in the very early days, particularly during [the] transition.”

Wiles expressly dismissed the idea that Musk’s animus was driven by jealousy, telling Devine “that doesn’t sound like Elon.”

Trump and other Republicans have suggested that Musk’s decision to turn on the president was motivated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s slashing of Biden-era tax credits for the green energy sector.

Musk has denied that, though he has publicly griped over the megabill’s approach to green energy.

The new law is projected to add about $3.9 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.