"Trump is in the Epstein files": Musk drops "big bomb" on president as war of words continues

Musk turned MAGA's obsession with a supposed cabal of powerful pedophiles on the president

By Alex Galbraith

Nights & Weekends Editor

Published June 5, 2025 3:46PM (EDT)

From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. (Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. (Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)

Elon Musk said President Donald Trump was named in the case files of late child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday.

The former head of the Department of Government Efficiency said that delays in releasing information around the notorious accused sex trafficker were entirely meant to save face for Trump, who was a known associate of Epstein's.

"Time to drop the really big bomb," Musk wrote on X. [Donald Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!"

Epstein was facing charges of sex trafficking when he died in his jail cell in New York City's Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2019. His death was ruled a suicide, and the case against him was dropped. 

Right-wing conspiracy mongers and Republican elected officials have made a good bit of hay out of the idea that the so-called "Epstein files" would reveal a list of his clients and thereby expose a ring of rich and powerful people soliciting underage girls.

The idea that someone involved in a criminal trafficking operation would keep a ledger or list of their crimes seems silly on its face, but that hasn't stopped the Trump administration from garnering press by sharing binders full of Epstein info with notable conservative influencers. Those same influencers turned on the release when the files were found to be nothing more than publicly available information.

Musk has spent the last several days disparaging the president on social media. The billionaire has railed against a Trump-supported spending bill that is forecast to add trillions of dollars to the national deficit, quickly torching the goodwill he earned over months on the campaign trail and in Trump's inner circle.


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