President Donald Trump hosted the Golden Age of American Innovation summit on Thursday at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, where about 300 invited guests attended a ceremony honoring technology executives.
Trump presented Elon Musk with a medal and certificate, patting him on the back several times during the presentation. He described Musk as an “industrial titan, ” “brilliant engineer, ” “national treasure” and “modern-day Thomas Edison.” Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Michael Dell, Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices, Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Sergey Brin of Google were also pictured at the event.
Trump told the audience, “We have an extremely high-IQ audience for a change.” He also received an award that had belonged to his late uncle. Hours earlier, Vice President JD Vance had announced Microsoft’s suspension from a program allowing companies to sponsor foreign workers for green cards.
The ceremony brought Trump and Musk together after a public dispute between them. Musk had previously supported Trump’s 2024 election campaign and later accused him on his social-media platform of appearing in the Epstein files; both men were subsequently identified as being in those files. Vance reportedly helped broker a truce, though their relationship remained unsettled before the ceremony.