July 20, 2017: 2:44 PM ET Elon Musk's Boring Company releases slick video New York to DC in half an hour. Elon Musk -- the serial entrepreneur who heads Tesla — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2017 When asked about Musk's tweets, a White House spokesperson said: "We have had promising conversations to date, are committed to transformative infrastructure projects, and believe our greatest solutions have often come from the ingenuity and drive of the private sector." The Department of Transportation declined to comment and referred questions to the White House. The Boring Company -- the tunnel-digging firm that Musk launched earlier this year -- will apparently handle at least the digging portion of the project. The company appeared to walk back Musk's declaration of "verbal approval" in a separate statement issued later Thursday, saying instead that the company has received "verbal support" from the government. "The Boring Company has had a number of promising conversations with local, state and federal government officials. With a few exceptions, feedback has been very positive," the statement reads, "and we have received verbal support from key government decision-makers for tunneling plans, including a Hyperloop route from New York to Washington DC." The company added that it expects to cinch all the "formal approvals necessary to break ground" by the end of the year. Even if the ultra-high speed rail does receive all the required approvals, it's not clear who would build the hyperloop rail system. While the hyperloop is Musk's idea, he hasn't taken on the project personally. Rather, he challenged other inventors to create it -- and a couple of companies have cropped up to tackle the challenge, most notably, Hyperloop One. Related: All the quirky details you need to know about Elon Musk's Boring company