Bezos and Blue Origin try to capitalize on Trump-Musk split

Jeff Bezos and his space company talked to Trump in recent weeks

- Josh Dawsey, Dana Mattioli & Micah Maidenberg

The simmering feud between President Trump and Elon Musk is producing a potential winner: Jeff Bezos.

The Blue Origin founder talked to Trump at least twice this month, and the space company's CEO, Dave Limp, came to the White House to meet with Trump's chief of staff, according to people familiar with the matter.

In at least some of the conversations with Trump and his staff, Bezos and other Blue Origin executives have appealed for more government contracts, the people said.

The outreach came just days after the spectacular, early June breakup of Trump and Musk, who served as one of the president's top advisers and owns his own rocket company, SpaceX.

Musk and Bezos have been space rivals for years, but SpaceX has pulled far ahead of Blue Origin, launching rockets at a record pace and becoming the dominant contractor at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Blue Origin executives worried since last summer about Musk's proximity to Trump and how that could affect access to government contracts, some of the people said.

Trump's falling out with Musk created a potential opening.

In May, Trump rescinded his nomination of a Musk-backed nominee for the head of NASA. After Musk criticized Trump-backed legislation on X in early June and floated the idea of a new political party, the president suggested that Musk's businesses could suffer.

"The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!"

Limp, the Blue Origin CEO, met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in mid-June, the people said, a meeting that was bookended by calls with Bezos and Trump.