President Donald Trump and Elon Musk attend a UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden last November. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
Unprompted, Trump added that while Musk may be a South African native, he doesn't want to "get [him] involved" in the ongoing foreign diplomacy matters that played out during Tuesday's meeting.
"I don't want to get Elon involved. That's all I have to do, get him into another thing," Trump said to light laughter. "But Elon happens to be from South Africa. This is what Elon wanted. He actually came here on a different subject — sending rockets to Mars — OK? He likes that better. He likes that subject better. But Elon's from South Africa, and I don't want to talk to him about that. I don't think it's fair to him."
Musk, who was present at the Oval Office meeting Tuesday, has been an open critic of his native-born country's government and has described the ongoing conflict there as a "genocide."
HOUSE DEM BLASTED FOR 'UNHINGED' ELON MUSK RANT TELLING HIM TO 'GO BACK TO SOUTH AFRICA'
Unprompted, Trump evoked Elon Musk's name during an Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. (Getty Images | Associated Press)
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Ahead of the meeting with Ramaphosa earlier this month, Musk-owned X garnered backlash over its AI chatbot, Grok, providing unsolicited responses about attacks against white farmers in South Africa.
Musk's artificial intelligence company, which makes the technology for Grok, said following complaints that an "unauthorized modification" to Grok's algorithm is the reason why it kept talking about race and politics in South Africa, according to the Associated Press.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/south-african-born-musk-evoked-trump-during-meeting-nations-leader-dont-want-get-elon-involved