In the wake of the ongoing partial government shutdown, Elon Musk offered to pay the salaries of TSA staff. A reporter recently asked President Donald Trump what he thought of Musk’s offer. To which he replied, “I’d love it. I think it’s great.”
Trump added, “Let him do that, and I wanna thank ICE because they stepped in so strongly, they’ll do great, and if that’s not enough, I’ll bring in the National Guard.”
‘IT’S GREAT’: President Trump gives praise to Elon Musk for offering to pay TSA workers during the ongoing DHS shutdown, as travelers face massive delays at airports across the nation.
The president also thanked ICE agents who have “stepped up” to help ensure smooth operations… pic.twitter.com/znaVhWcQX2
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 23, 2026
TSA staff falls under the wing of essential workers, and due to the government shutdown, their paychecks are no longer being issued or are nonexistent altogether as Congress has yet to fund DHS. This has resulted in over 50,000 TSA airport agents working with no or reduced wages.
President Trump’s statement was a response to the online offer Musk extended to the TSA. On Saturday, 21 March 2026, Elon Musk shared an X entry, in which he wrote, “I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country.”
I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2026
Earlier, during a media interview, Trump was asked whose idea it was to deploy ICE at the airports. He responded, “Mine,” adding, “That was like the paperclip. Do you know the story of the paperclip? 182 years ago, a man discovered the paperclip. It was so simple. And everybody who looked at it thought, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?'”
COLLINS: Who’s idea was it to put ICE in airports?
TRUMP: Mine. That was like the paperclip. Do you know the story of the paperclip? 182 years ago a man discovered the paperclip. It was so simple. And everybody that looked it thought, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ ICE was my… pic.twitter.com/iAdv3z7SC3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2026
Donald Trump and Elon Musk were involved in a very public feud but the two reunited on multiple occasions. Trump broke his silence on his highly publicized feud with Musk last year. During a media interaction, he described his rift with Elon as a “bad spell.” He also told the reporter, “Elon’s a nice guy. He’s a very capable guy. I like Elon, I’ve always liked him. He had a bad spell, he had a bad period. He had a bad moment. It was a stupid moment in his life, very stupid. I’m sure he’d tell you that. But I like Elon, and I suspect I always will.”
Since then, Elon Musk has been spotted at multiple MAGA events. In the latter half of last year, the billionaire went on to become a regular attendee at almost all of Donald Trump’s events. When Trump hosted Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House in November, last year, Musk was on the dinner guest list.
Last month, Donald Trump gave a shout-out to Musk at a MAGA wedding. The President spotted Elon in the crowd at Dan Scavino’s Mar-a-Lago wedding. Trump mentioned Musk and his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) during the wedding toast. “You know, Elon has a high standard,” he said.
Trump continued the wedding toast, saying, “And that was called Twitter — and now it’s called X. Where’s X? Is there a man?” Trump’s remark was with reference to Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X. “There’s a man over here who has a boy named X. I like X better than anything else. You really have opened up things with what you’ve done. I think most of this room appreciates that,” said Trump signing off the wedding toast.
The icebreaker moment for Donald Trump and Elon Musk was when the two were pictured together for the first time in months during Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in Glendale, Arizona, in September 2025, where the two were seated together and even shook hands.
The sour patch, so to speak, in Trump and Musk’s equations was when Elon started leading DOGE. For the longest time, Musk had Trump’s backing until he fired a large number of federal employees and slashed budgets across multiple departments, all while citing cost-cutting as a major reason for the move.
When the Trump administration decided to let go of Musk, it led to a very public, very bitter rift between the two. What followed was an online war of words. The friction continued and worsened after Elon Musk dropped a bombshell about Trump’s mention in the Epstein Files, which he soon deleted.
