Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that the “real reason” government documents on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have not been fully released is because they mention U.S. President Donald Trump, the latest example of a growing rift between the once-close allies.
“Time for a really big bombshell: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. This is the real reason they were not released. Have a great day, DJT!” Musk wrote on X, adding, “Bookmark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
Musk and Trump traded increasingly harsh insults on Thursday after the tech billionaire left the administration and continued to rally opposition to Trump’s sweeping spending and tax bill.
Trump had earlier hinted on Thursday that he might retaliate against his once-close aide by cutting billions of dollars in government funding for Musk’s companies.
“The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to cut off Elon’s government subsidies and contracts,” he said in a social media post. “It always surprises me that Biden didn’t do it!”
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election”
Musk has previously said that Trump would have lost the 2024 US election without his support and suggested that it might be time for the country to form a new political party.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Democrats would have controlled the House of Representatives, and Republicans would have been 51:49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote on X, adding: “What ingratitude.”
Musk posted a poll asking his more than 220 million followers whether it was time to form a new political party in the US. With 23 hours left in the poll, nearly 83 percent of respondents said it was time.
The comments and apparent testing of political waters mark the latest escalation in a growing feud between the once-close political allies after Musk left the White House where he led Trump’s government-shrinking efforts.
Trump said Thursday he was “very disappointed” with Musk amid the tech billionaire’s campaign against the president’s signature spending and tax bill.
The president suggested Musk’s criticism of his “great, beautiful law” may have its roots in jealousy. “I think he’s out of place. I think he went out there and suddenly he wasn’t in this beautiful Oval Office,” he said.
“I’m very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this law better than almost anyone sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed a problem when he found out that we were going to have to reduce the mandate for electric vehicles,” Trump said in the Oval Office, where he was hosting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Tesla Shares Fall
The “Electric Vehicle Mandate” refers to a long-standing one-time tax credit of up to $7,500 for those who buy electric vehicles.
Tesla shares fell sharply in late-day trading, with the automaker down nearly 16 percent amid the intensifying dispute.
Musk quickly responded by tweeting “whatever” to X, and rebutting Trump’s suggestion that he had even seen the bill before he left the White House, calling the claim “false.” However, he acknowledged that part of his opposition stems from the elimination of the electric vehicle tax credit.
“This bill was never shown to me once and was passed so quickly in the middle of the night that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” he wrote.
“Keep the electric/solar fuel subsidy cuts in the bill, while leaving oil and gas subsidies untouched (very unfair!!), but get the mountain of disgusting crap out of the bill. There has never been a bill in the entire history of civilization that is both big and beautiful. Everyone knows that! You either get a big, ugly bill or a thin, beautiful bill. Thin and beautiful is the way to go,” he added.
Musk stepped up his campaign on Wednesday to convince lawmakers to repeal Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which is estimated to add $2.42 trillion to the U.S. budget deficit over the next decade.
“Bankrupting America is NOT OK!” Musk tweeted on X on Wednesday.
