In an explosive allegation, Elon Musk — amid a real-time escalating feud Thursday with President Trump — claimed that Trump is “in the Epstein files.”
Musk, in a post on his X social media platform, wrote, “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” Musk later added, “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
“The Epstein Files” is a reference to U.S. government documents about Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced multimillionaire financier and convicted sex offender. Epstein died in 2019 in what authorities said was a suicide while he was being held in a Manhattan jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Musk’s allegation.
On Feb. 27, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, who was appointed by Trump, declassified and publicly released the “first phase” of files related to Epstein and “his sexual exploitation of over 250 underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida, among other locations,” according to a Department of Justice announcement. Many of the documents had already been public and they did not include a list of Epstein’s clients; Bondi had told Fox News in a Feb. 21 interview that the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now.”
Before Epstein’s death, federal prosecutors had charged Epstein with sex trafficking of girls as young as 14 years old and collecting child pornography. He pleaded not guilty but was denied bail after a judge determined he posed a significant flight risk.
Epstein’s network of friends in Hollywood, Wall Street and Washington, D.C., had included Trump and many others, including Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Mick Jagger, Kevin Spacey and former President Bill Clinton.
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According to the New York Times, Musk was “photographed at a party in 2014 with Ghislaine Maxwell, one of Epstein’s longtime associates and a former girlfriend who was convicted in 2021 on charges that she aided Epstein in his sex-trafficking activities.” Maxwell received a 20-year prison sentence in the case. In 2018, Epstein told the Times that he had been advising Musk but Musk denied that at the time.
Musk, who owns X, has more than 220 million followers on the platform (formerly called Twitter). Among his other business activities, he serves as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk had become a major donor to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and went on to head the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with eliminating waste and fraud in the federal government. Musk exited as a “special government employee” last week. “I expect to remain a friend and adviser, and if there’s anything the president wants me to do, I’m at his service,” Musk said at a press conference last Friday (May 30) in the Oval Office, where Trump gave him a ceremonial gold key to the White House.
Their alliance rapidly deteriorated after Musk on Tuesday (June 3) slammed the Trump-backed spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” and wrote that “Congress is making America bankrupt.” On Thursday, Trump said he was “very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill” and suggested that Musk — like some others who have left his administration — suffered from “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Trump later Thursday posted on Truth Social, “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!” Musk responded on X, “In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”
Amid the back-and-forth, Musk claimed on X, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude.” Musk also wrote, “The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year.”
From Variety US