Cliff Notes
- Elon Musk claims Donald Trump is mentioned in undisclosed files related to Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting this is why they remain unreleased, though he provided no evidence.
- The public feud escalates as Trump and Musk trade barbs; Musk criticises Trump’s tariffs and opines on creating a new political party to represent moderates.
- Musk’s online posts led to a significant drop in Tesla’s stock value, losing around $150 billion, as the fallout from their disputes continues.
Musk says Trump appears in Epstein files and $150bn wiped off Tesla’s value as row between them explodes
Elon Musk says Donald Trump appears in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
It’s the latest in a string of barbs between the men as they appear to have dramatically fallen out in a public spat.
In a post on X on Thursday, the tech billionaire said: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
He gave no evidence for the claim. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the comment.
In a statement, she said: “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill [a Republican tax and spending bill] because it does not include the policies he wanted.
“The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
Musk’s post appeared to have been deleted by Sunday with users greeted with the message: “Hmm…this page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else.”
Epstein killed himself in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.
In another post on Thursday, Musk, the owner of social media platform X, attacked Mr Trump’s tariffs, saying they “will cause a recession in the second half of this year.”
The Tesla boss shared a post calling for Mr Trump’s impeachment and asked whether it was “time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle”.
