Elon Musk mocks Trump over Epstein files — ‘Where is the client list?'
The tech billionaire alleged during the pair's explosive falling-out in May that Trump was named on the so-called Epstein client list.
He later deleted the allegation, but on Wednesday night he criticised the president for suggesting the furore over the files was a 'hoax' perpetrated by his political rivals.
'Wow, amazing that Epstein 'killed himself' and Ghislaine [Maxwell, Epstein's longtime girlfriend convicted of sex trafficking] is in federal prison for a hoax,' he wrote. In more than a dozen posts in an hour to his 222 million X followers, he noted that 'not even one' of Epstein's alleged clients had been prosecuted and said 'so many powerful people want that list suppressed'.
Musk resumed in the early hours of Thursday morning by responding to a number of posts questioning the decision to keep part of the evidence secret. 'Yeah, where is it?' he asked of the client list.
In response to a photo of one of the binders the White House released to conservative influencers earlier this year, entitled 'The Epstein Files: Phase 1', Musk wrote: 'Where is Phase 2?'
He also appeared, in a public exchange with his Grok chatbot, to endorse allegations that Trump flew on Epstein's private plane, nicknamed the Lolita Express.
He asked it for details about Epstein's plane logs and to summarise 'who went to Epstein's island and when?' This was a reference to the financier's private resort in the US Virgin Islands, an alleged base for sex trafficking underage girls.
• Musk reveals fantasy companion based on Fifty Shades of Grey
'Why was the plane called the Lolita Express? How old was Lolita in Nabokov's book?' he added. 'Research throughly [sic] to find the complete lists of who else was on the plane during Trump's 7 flights?'
Epstein was a guest at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's estate in Florida, in the 1990s before the pair fell out in the mid-2000s. Trump once described him as a 'terrific guy'.
Epstein died by suicide in his prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.
In recent days, Trump has struggled to contain the fallout over his administration's decision not to publish all files about his case.
Pam Bondi, the attorney-general, released a memo last week that rebuked the two core allegations among Maga loyalists — that Epstein was murdered and that he kept a 'client list' to blackmail celebrities. However, she refused to publish all the documents from the case.
It was later claimed that a video released by the justice department, purporting to show no one entering or leaving Epstein's cell at the time of his death, had been doctored.
Trump has stood by Bondi and described the controversy as the Democrats' 'new SCAM', but has also encouraged her to release all 'credible' evidence.
In a further development sure to alarm conspiracy theorists, the prosecutor who worked on the criminal cases against Epstein and Maxwell was fired from her job in the Manhattan US attorney's office on Wednesday.
Maurene Comey, 36, is the daughter of James Comey, the former director of the FBI and one of the people Trump has blamed for spreading the 'hoax' along with Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Democrats are looking to exploit the divisions in the Maga movement over Trump's refusal to release the files by forcing a vote in Congress. Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, himself called this week for 'transparency' and the release of 'everything' in the files.
Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, has teamed up with Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, to introduce a bill calling for the files' release that has attracted several Republican co-sponsors, including the Maga firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
'People voted for Trump in part because they were so disgusted in the system — they thought that Washington protected the elite, protects the powerful, protects the wealthy. Epstein is a symbol of that,' Khanna told Politico.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
9 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's Golden Dome to undergo crucial test
A major defense contractor has announced plans to conduct space-based tests on President Donald Trump 's Golden Dome within the next three years. Lockheed Martin, one of the Pentagon 's prime military contractors responsible for the F-35 fighter jet and Black Hawk helicopters, will demonstrate a space-based interceptor missile by 2028, the company has announced. Lockheed is now quickly creating command and control (C2) capabilities to aid in Trump's Golden Dome initiative, the company announced this week. 'Golden Dome for America is a challenge unlike anything attempted at this scale or on this timeline, and we're moving fast to bring together connected C2 capabilities that work now,' Thad Beckert, Golden Dome C2 director at Lockheed Martin, said in a press release. The Golden Dome is projected to cost around $175 billion in total and take three years to be ready, Trump has said, though analysts expect the project to cost more and take longer. Whichever Pentagon contractor can successfully prove a reliable ability to shoot down incoming advanced missiles first could win billions in funding, meaning the race to shoot down missiles in space is on. Congress has already approved $24.4 billion worth of Golden Dome funding in Trump's recently passed domestic policy agenda dubbed the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill.' An estimate from the Arms Control Center shows that the total funding for the project could reach up to $500 billion. The Congressional Budget Office also estimates that the project could cost up to $540 billion over the next two decades. 'We have missile warning and tracking satellites made by Lockheed Martin in orbit today that provide timely detection and warning of missile threats,' said Amanda Pound, mission strategy and advanced capabilities director at Lockheed Martin Space, told Fox News Digital this week. 'We are committed to making space-based interceptors for missile defense a reality, leveraging our decades of experience, investments, and industry partnerships, to be ready for on orbit testing in 2028.' Trump first announced the Golden Dome initiative in May, expressing his desire to create a system similar to Israel's Iron Dome, which has proved vital in its war with Hamas. 'This is very important for the success and even survival of our country. It's a pretty evil world out there,' he said. 'Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they're launched from space. And we will have the best system ever built.' Trump declared that the establishment of the Golden Dome would provide 'close to 100 percent protection' of the U.S. and is 'very important for the success and even survival of our country.' The missile defense system, along with others, has been praised for shooting down ballistic missiles launched at the country from Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The U.S. Golden Dome project will feature a vast array of sensors, satellites, land and space-based weapons that all work together to identify and neutralize targets. 'This rapid C2 prototyping effort is one among many within Lockheed Martin demonstrating how we can support the US Government as a Golden Dome for America mission partner,' said Daniel Nimblett, Vice President of Layered Homeland Defense at Lockheed Martin. He said the project aims to deliver 'real-time situational awareness' and 'informed decision-making to defend the nation.' Lockheed demonstrated its ability to intercept hypersonic medium-range missiles in March after testing its Aegis Combat System aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer. Previously, a similar effort was launched in 1983 under President Ronald Reagan called the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was later dubbed 'Star Wars.' That ambitious plan sought to similarly install space-based defense systems. However, it was eventually scrubbed due to inadequate technology and ballooning costs.
Economist
11 minutes ago
- Economist
The long-term effects of hunger in Gaza
FOR two weeks, the world has claimed it is working to end the widespread hunger in Gaza. The UN is pleading with Israel to allow more lorries of aid into the territory. Arab and Western states are airdropping food. On August 5th Donald Trump said America would take a larger role in distributing aid, though he was vague about the details. 'I know Israel is going to help us with that in terms of distribution, and also money,' he said. Yet on the ground, Gazans say little has changed. There is not enough food entering Gaza, nor is there law and order to allow its distribution. Airdrops are hard to reach. Convoys are looted soon after they cross the border. Finding food often requires making a risky trip to an aid centre, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent months, or paying exorbitant sums on the black market. This is a calamity in its own right, one that will have long-term consequences for many Gazans, particularly children. But it is also a glimpse of Gaza's future. Even after the war ends, it will remain at the mercy of others for years to come. Wedged between Israel and Egypt, the tiny territory was never self-sufficient. Its neighbours imposed an embargo after Hamas, a militant group, took power in 2007. The economy withered. Half of the workforce in the strip was unemployed and more than 60% of the population relied on some form of foreign aid to survive. The UN doled out cash assistance, ran a network of clinics that offered 3.5m consultations a year and operated schools that educated some 300,000 children. Still, Gaza could meet at least some basic needs by itself. Two-fifths of its territory was farmland that supplied enough dairy, poultry, eggs and fruits and vegetables to meet most local demand. Small factories produced everything from packaged food to furniture. The Hamas-run government was inept, but it provided law and order. After nearly two years of war, almost none of that remains. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says that Gaza's 2m people need 62,000 tonnes of food a month. That is a bare-bones calculation: it would provide enough staple foods but no meat, fruits and vegetables or other perishables. By its own tally, Israel has allowed far less in. It imposed a total siege on the territory from March 2nd until May 19th, with no food permitted to enter. Then Israel allowed the UN to resume limited aid deliveries to northern Gaza. It also helped establish the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a shadowy outfit that distributes food at four points in southern and central Gaza. In more than two months of operation, it has handed out less than 0.7 meals per Gazan per day—and that assumes each box of aid, stocked with a hotch-potch of dried and canned goods, really provides as many meals as the GHF claims it does. All told, Israel permitted 98,674 tonnes of food aid to cross the border in the five months through July, an average of 19,734 tonnes a month—just 32% of what the WFP says is necessary. Although the volume of aid has increased in recent days, it is still insufficient. 'We're trying to get 80 to 100 trucks in, every single day,' says Valerie Guarnieri of the WFP. 'It's not a high bar, but a realistic bar of what we can achieve.' On August 4th, though, Israel allowed only 41 of the agency's lorries to enter a staging area on the Gaza border, and it let drivers collect just 29 of them. Getting into Gaza is only the first challenge. Distribution is a nightmare. Since May 19th the UN has collected 2,604 lorryloads of aid from Gaza's borders. Just 300 reached their intended destination. The rest were intercepted en route, either by desperate civilians or by armed men. Aid workers are nonchalant about civilians raiding aid lorries, which they euphemistically call 'self-distribution': they reckon the food still reaches people who need it. 'There's a real crescendo of desperation,' says Ms Guarnieri. 'People have no confidence food is going to come the next day.' But the roaring black market suggests that much of it is stolen. Gaza's chamber of commerce publishes a regular survey of food prices (see chart). A 25kg sack of flour, which cost 35 shekels ($10) before the war, went for 625 shekels on August 5th. A kilo of tomatoes fetched 100 shekels, 50 times its pre-war value. Such prices are far beyond the reach of most Gazans. Those with a bit of money often haggle for tiny quantities: a shopper might bring home a single potato for his family, for example. Israel's ostensible goal in throttling the supply of aid was to prevent Hamas from pilfering any of it. Earlier this month the group released a propaganda video of Evyatar David, an Israeli hostage still held in Gaza. He was emaciated, and spent much of the video recounting how little he had to eat: a few lentils or beans one day, nothing the next. At one point a militant handed Mr David a can of beans from behind the camera. Many viewers noted that the captor's hand looked rather chubby. As much of Gaza starves, Hamas, it seems, is still managing to feed its fighters. The consequences of Israel's policy instead fall hardest on children—sometimes even before birth. 'One in three pregnancies are now high-risk. One in five babies that we've seen are born premature or underweight,' says Leila Baker of the UN's family-planning agency. Compare that with before the war, when 8% of Gazan babies were born underweight (at less than 2.5kg). There were 222 stillbirths between January and June, a ten-fold increase from levels seen before the war. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed outfit that tracks hunger, said last month that 20,000 children were hospitalised for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July. Even before they reach that point, their immune systems crumble. Moderately malnourished children catch infections far more easily than well-fed ones, and become more seriously ill when they do, rapidly losing body weight. The body takes a 'big hit' when food intake falls to just 70-80% of normal, says Marko Kerac, a paediatrician at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who has treated children in famine-stricken places. Most children in Gaza are eating a lot less than that. In July the World Health Organisation reported an outbreak of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease that may have links to hunger. Gaza's health ministry says cases are multiplying, including among children. Give us our daily bread Nor is calorie intake the only concern. Although flour and salt in Gaza are fortified with some vitamins and minerals, such as iodine, they are consumed in limited amounts—especially now, since many bakeries have been closed for months, owing to a lack of flour and fuel. In February, during the ceasefire, Israel allowed 15,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetables and 11,000 tonnes of meat and fish into Gaza. Since March it has allowed just 136 tonnes of meat. All of this means there is widespread deficiency of essential nutrients that help children's brains develop. Every child in Gaza, in other words, will remain at lifelong risk of poor health because of today's malnutrition. There is consistent evidence for this from studies of populations that have lived through famine: during the second world war, the 1960s famine in China and, more recently, places like Ethiopia. Children who have suffered acute malnourishment have higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases as adults. They are also at risk of worse cognitive development. A flood of aid cannot undo the damage, but it can prevent it from getting worse. It will have to be sustained. The devastation wrought by Israel's war has left Gazans with no alternative but to rely on aid. In February the UN estimated that the war had caused $30bn in physical damage and $19bn in economic disruption, including lost labour, forgone income and increased costs. Reconstruction would require $53bn. At this point, that is little more than a guess. The real cost is impossible to calculate. But it will be enormous. The first task will be simply clearing the rubble. A UN assessment in April, based on satellite imagery, estimated that there were 53m tonnes of rubble strewn across Gaza—30 times as much debris as was removed from Manhattan after the September 11th attacks. Clearing it could be the work of decades. The seven-week war between Israel and Hamas in 2014, the longest and deadliest before the current one, produced 2.5m tonnes of debris. It took two years to remove. Rebuilding a productive economy will be no less difficult. Take agriculture. The UN's agriculture agency says that 80% of Gaza's farmland and 84% of its greenhouses have been damaged in the war. Livestock have been all but wiped out. A satellite assessment last summer found that 68% of Gaza's roads had been damaged (that figure is no doubt higher today). The two main north-south roads—one along the coast, the other farther inland—are both impassable in places. Even if farmers can start planting crops for small harvests after the war, it will be hard to bring their produce to market. The picture is equally bleak in other sectors: schools, hospitals and factories have all been largely reduced to rubble. The Geneva Conventions are clear that civilians have the right to flee a war zone. Exercising that right in Gaza is fraught: Palestinians have a well-grounded fear that Israel will never allow them to return. Powerful members of Binyamin Netanyahu's government do not hide their desire to ethnically cleanse the territory and rebuild the Jewish settlements dismantled in 2005. Still, the dire conditions have led some people to think the unthinkable: a survey conducted in May by a leading Palestinian pollster found that 43% of Gazans are willing to emigrate at the end of the war. Mr Netanyahu may not follow through on his talk of reoccupying Gaza, which he hinted at in media leaks earlier this month. His far-right allies may not fulfil their dream of rebuilding the Jewish settlements dismantled in 2005. In a sense, though, the ideologues in his cabinet have already achieved their goal. Israel's conduct of the war has left Gazans with a grim choice: leave the territory, or remain in a place rendered all but uninhabitable. ■
Reuters
11 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump says progress made in US envoy Witkoff's meeting with Putin
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, Aug 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his special envoy Steve Witkoff had made "great progress" in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Washington continued its preparations to impose secondary sanctions on Friday. The meeting came two days before a deadline set by Trump for Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine or face new sanctions. Trump has been increasingly frustrated with Putin over the lack of progress towards peace and has threatened to impose heavy tariffs on countries that buy Russian exports. A White House official said that while the meeting had gone well and Moscow was eager to continue engaging with the United States, secondary sanctions that Trump has threatened against countries doing business with Russia were still expected to be implemented on Friday. No details were provided. "My Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come," he added. A Kremlin aide earlier on Wednesday said Witkoff held "useful and constructive" talks with Putin on Wednesday. The two met for around three hours on a last-minute mission to seek a breakthrough in the 3-1/2-year war that began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the two sides had exchanged "signals" on the Ukraine issue and discussed the possibility of developing strategic cooperation between Moscow and Washington, but declined to give more details until Witkoff had reported back to Trump. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed pressure had worked on Russia and Moscow was now more amenable to a ceasefire. "It seems that Russia is now more inclined to a ceasefire. The pressure on them works. But the main thing is that they do not deceive us in the details – neither us nor the U.S.," Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. Writing separately on the X social media platform, Zelenskiy said he had discussed Witkoff's visit to Russia with Trump, adding that he had reiterated Ukraine's support for a just peace and its continued determination to defend itself. "Ukraine will definitely defend its independence. We all need a lasting and reliable peace. Russia must end the war that it itself started," Zelenskiy said, adding that European leaders had joined the call with Trump. Trump on Truth Social said he had updated some of Washington's European allies following Witkoff's meeting. Trump took a key step toward punitive measures on Wednesday when he imposed an additional 25% tariff on imports from India, citing New Delhi's continued imports of Russian oil. No similar order was signed for China, which also imports Russian oil. The new measure raises tariffs on some Indian goods to as high as 50% — among the steepest faced by any U.S. trading partner. The Kremlin says threats to penalise countries that trade with Russia are illegal. It was not clear what Russia might have offered to Witkoff to stave off Trump's threat. Ushakov, who was present, told Russian news outlet Zvezda: "We had a very useful and constructive conversation." He added: "On our part, in particular on the Ukrainian issue, some signals were transmitted. Corresponding signals were also received from President Trump." Bloomberg and independent Russian news outlet The Bell reported that the Kremlin might propose a moratorium on airstrikes by Russia and Ukraine - an idea mentioned last week by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a meeting with Putin. Such a move, if agreed, would fall well short of the full and immediate ceasefire that Ukraine and the U.S. have been seeking for months. But it would offer some relief to both sides. Since the two sides resumed direct peace talks in May, Russia has carried out its heaviest air attacks of the war, killing at least 72 people in the capital Kyiv alone. Trump last week called the Russian attacks "disgusting." Ukraine continues to strike Russian refineries and oil depots, which it has hit many times. Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Russia had attacked a gas pumping station in southern Ukraine in what he called a deliberate and cynical blow to preparations for the winter heating season. Russia said it had hit gas infrastructure supplying the Ukrainian military. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Zelenskiy, said on Wednesday that a full ceasefire and a leaders' summit were required. "The war must stop and for now this is on Russia," he posted on Telegram. Putin is unlikely to bow to Trump's sanctions ultimatum because he believes he is winning the war and his military goals take precedence over his desire to improve relations with the U.S., three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters. The Russian sources told Reuters that Putin was sceptical that yet more U.S. sanctions would have much of an impact after successive waves of economic penalties during 3-1/2 years of war. The Russian leader does not want to anger Trump, and he realises that he may be spurning a chance to improve relations with Washington and the West, but his war goals are more important to him, two of the sources said. Putin's conditions for peace include a legally binding pledge that NATO will not expand eastwards, Ukrainian neutrality, protection for Russian speakers, and acceptance of Russia's territorial gains in the war, Russian sources have said. Zelenskiy has said Ukraine would never recognise Russia's sovereignty over its conquered regions and that Kyiv retains the sovereign right to decide whether it wants to join NATO. Witkoff, a real estate billionaire, had no diplomatic experience before joining Trump's team in January, but has been simultaneously tasked with seeking ceasefires in the Ukraine and Gaza wars, as well as negotiating in the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme.
