Tech billionaire Elon Musk has retracted a shocking social media allegation linking Donald Trump to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein amid a heated public clash with the U.S. president this week.
Musk, who recently stepped down as a top White House adviser, alleged Thursday that Trump appears in unreleased government files concerning Epstein’s associates. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
The Trump administration has confirmed it is reviewing tens of thousands of documents, videos and investigative materials that the “MAGA” movement says will expose public figures tied to Epstein’s crimes.
Trump was named in a collection of depositions and statements related to Epstein that were unsealed by a New York judge in early 2024. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files,” Musk posted on his social media platform X as his growing feud with the president boiled over into a spectacularly public row.
“That is the real reason they have not been made public.”
Musk did not reveal which files he was referring to and offered no evidence for his claim.
He initially doubled down on the claim, writing in a follow-up message: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
However, he appeared to have deleted both tweets by Saturday morning.
Supporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base allege that Epstein’s associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others.
They point the finger at Democrats and Hollywood celebrities, although not at Trump himself. No official source has confirmed that the president appears in any of the unreleased material.
Trump knew and socialized with Epstein but has denied spending time on Little Saint James, the private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands where prosecutors allege Epstein trafficked underage girls for sex.
“Terrific guy,” Trump, who was Epstein’s neighbor in both Florida and New York, said in an early 2000s profile of the financier.
“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Just last week, Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
But their relationship imploded within days as Musk described as an “abomination” a spending bill that, if passed by Congress, could define Trump’s second term in office.
Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe, and from there the row detonated, leaving Washington and riveted social media users alike stunned by the blistering break-up between the world’s richest person and the world’s most powerful.
With real political and economic risks to their feud, both appeared to inch back from the brink on Friday, with Trump telling reporters, “I just wish him well,” and Musk responding on X: “Likewise.”
But the White House denied reports the two would talk.
