Washington DC - President Donald Trump presented Elon Musk with the top US science medal on Thursday, as the rocket tycoon fully returned to the president's orbit after an explosive bust-up.

Six US tech titans received prestigious awards from the president at a Washington peace institute that was itself recently renamed after Trump.

But all eyes were on trillionaire SpaceX and Tesla boss Musk following his acrimonious departure from Trump's cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last year.

Trump called Musk a "national treasure" and said that "Elon is our modern-day Thomas Edison," referring to the American inventor of the lightbulb.

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"Elon, I want to congratulate you. You're my friend, and all of that, but you are a very, very special guy," Trump added at the summit, dubbed "Science: A New Golden Age.

Along with Musk, Google co-founder Sergei Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and AMD chief Lisa Su all received the National Medal of Science from Trump during the ceremony.

Computer mogul Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella got the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, also the top US award in its field.

Trump and Musk gave an amiable if awkward performance on Thursday, with the president patting the tycoon on the back and giving him a wooden case containing his medal. The pair largely avoided eye contact.

It was a far cry from May 2025 when Musk's brief and tempestuous time at DOGE flamed out over his opposition to the White House's "utterly insane" tax and spending bill.

Musk – the biggest donor to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign – had spent months working out of a small office in the White House complex as DOGE took a hatchet to the federal workforce and agencies.

He appeared at Trump's side in cabinet meetings and brought his young son X into the Oval Office alongside the president. After they fell out, relations between the world's most powerful person and its richest person quickly turned bitter.

Trump threatened to deport the South African-born Musk, while Musk, who also owns the X social media platform, alleged links between Trump and late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But Musk has returned to the fold in recent months, and his SpaceX rockets have continued to be a lynchpin of the US space and defense program.

He attended Trump's state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping in September and then joined talks on artificial intelligence at the White House last week.

Musk, Huang, and other leaders promised at that meeting to self-regulate against possible threats from artificial intelligence.