In the middle of their very public breakup, a scorned Elon Musk decided to drop a “really big bomb” on Donald Trump, accusing the president of appearing in the Epstein files. Sometime Saturday, it seems the billionaire decided he wanted to try to disarm that bomb, as he deleted his posts claiming that Trump has links to the famous child sex trafficker.
Musk and Trump had been acting catty for a couple of days by the time Musk went nuclear, going back and forth over Musk’s opposition to Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”—a proposal that includes the largest cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs in history. Musk objected to the bill, not because it would be devastating to low- and middle-income households but seemingly rather because it was going to hurt his own bottom line by ending electric vehicle tax credits that Tesla benefits from.
Musk tried to kill the bill by posting incessantly about it, creating a rift among Republicans who will essentially need everyone in the party to be on board in order to get the thing passed. Trump, annoyed, took some shots at Musk for his dissent, which led to Musk’s drastic escalation. He said Trump appeared in the Epstein files and “That is the real reason they have not been made public.” He added: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
Those posts are now deleted—though have, of course, been archived, screenshotted, and quoted many times over. So, too, has a post in which Musk supported the idea that Trump should be impeached. He hasn’t gotten around to taking down his post claiming that Trump’s tariffs will soon cause a recession.
We’re starting to get a better picture of what has been happening behind the scenes while these two lash out at each other via their respective social media platforms (X and Truth Social). A report published Saturday by the Washington Post claims that Trump was “dejected” during Musk’s crash out and tried to rationalize Musk’s behavior by calling him “a big-time drug addict.” Musk had apparently been acting erratically for quite some time (not exactly a shock, if you’ve scrolled through his posts on X for like, 30 seconds). A reported physical conflict with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that saw Musk supposedly throw his shoulder into Bessent was the breaking point, after which the billionaire started to get pushed out of his privileged position in the administration, per the Post.
Trump opted not to pour gasoline on the situation—a shocking decision from a guy not exactly known for his restraint—but he is apparently not interested in reconciling with Musk. An official within the administration told the Post that, even if they do make up, “It’ll never be the same.”