Elon Musk escalates feud with Trump: 'Time to drop the really big bomb'
WASHINGTON – Elon Musk alleged that President Donald Trump's name is mentioned in undisclosed classified files related to the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a feud between Trump and the world's richest man devolved into deeply personal attacks.
"Time to drop the really big bomb," Musk said in a June 5 post on X. "@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!"
Trump did not respond to shouted questions from reporters about Musk's Esptein claim following a White House event with Attorney General Pam Bondi and members of the National Fraternal Order of Police.
The White House sent USA TODAY a statement from Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt in response to the Epstein allegations. "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. The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again," Leavitt said.
More: Trump and Musk's bromance ends after personal attacks over criticism of tax bill
Musk provided no evidence for his allegation but wrote: "Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out."
His attack came after Trump, in posts on Truth Social, threatened to end government contracts with Musk's companies and said Musk left the White House's Department of Government Efficiency because Trump asked him to leave.
More: Trump overpowers Musk's attacks on mega tax bill with blizzard of orders
After hyping up the release of declassified government files on Epstein, Bondi on Feb. 27 disclosed about 200 pages of documents that implicated no one else in Epstein's orbit other than Epstein, who died in a federal prison in 2019.
The 'Epstein list,' and the scandal surrounding the multimillionaire's exploitation of teenage girls offers plenty of red meat for partisans on the right and left. Trump and Epstein were filmed and photographed together at parties, and in 2002 he praised the wealthy businessman as a "terrific guy.'
'He's a lot of fun to be with," Trump told New York Magazine. "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."
Former President Bill Clinton, like Trump, appears on flight logs for Epstein's private jet. Clinton's spokesman said in 2019, after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges, that the former president had flown on Epstein's jet to destinations in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Earlier in the day, Trump said he was "very disappointed" with Musk and signaled his close relationship with the former top White House adviser was over as he publicly addressed Musk's efforts to kill his so-called "big, beautiful bill."
Musk quickly fired back with several attacks, including saying that Trump wouldn't have won a second term and Republicans would be in the minority on both sides of Capitol Hill were it not for the quarter of a billion dollars he pumped into his 2024 campaign.
"Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate," Musk said in a post on X, the social media company he owns. "Such gratitude."
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