Elon Musk is taking his feud with President Donald Trump a step further, posting on X that the reason the Jeffrey Epstein files haven’t been released is because Trump is in them.
“Time to drop the really big bomb,” Musk posted Thursday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter. ”[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
“Have a nice day, DJT!”
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Epstein was a financier who died in prison while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges in 2019. In February, the White House promised to release a trove of documents related to the case, but what was ultimately released was largely already known.
The billionaire’s “really big bomb” may be more of a dud. It’s long been reported that Trump was on Epstein’s flight logs. But Musk’s post still signals an escalation in his sudden about-turn with Trump.
The two seemed to enjoy a honeymoon period as Musk ripped apart the federal government as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. But on Thursday the two traded barbs after Musk criticized Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill, a spending measure that would cut Medicaid benefits and extend tax cuts for the wealthy.
The name-calling has only escalated since Thursday morning. Trump threatened to terminate Musk’s government contracts in a Truth Social post.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump posted. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
“Go ahead, make my day …” Musk posted on X in response.
Musk then accused Trump of covering up the Epstein files.
“Mark this post for the future,” Musk said in a followup. “The truth will come out.”
Later Thursday afternoon, Trump responded to Musk by defending his bill.
“I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,” Trump posted in part.
The White House called Musk’s behavior “unfortunate” in a statement to HuffPost.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
Last year, Trump denied the previous Epstein associations.
“I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island,” he wrote in Truth Social post.