US politics live: Elon Musk goes nuclear, claims government ‘must have’ a list of possible Epstein co-conspirators

Elon Musk has continued to antagonise Donald Trump, this time with an explosive declaration about the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Welcome to our coverage of US politics, and its associated dramas.

Elon Musk has continued to antagonise Donald Trump as the President tries to get the country to “move on” from the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Today the billionaire, who last month claimed without supporting evidence that Mr Trump “is in the Epstein files”, interrogated his AI tool Grok about the case.

The long exchange with Grok, which you can read about in more detail below, culminated in an explosive declaration by Mr Musk.

“Over 1000 confirmed young victims is a shockingly large and tragic number!” he said.

“In order for the government to confirm that the girls were victimised, they would have had to name or at least describe who raped them.

“This would necessarily mean that the government MUST have the list of rapists aka ‘the Epstein client list’ in their possession right f***ing now!”

“Victim confirmation relies on testimonies, forensic evidence, and settlements. DOJ’s July memo states no centralised ‘client list’ exists, but unredacted files detail named abusers from victim statements. Full disclosure withheld to protect survivors,” Grok clarified.

Meanwhile, former US national security adviser John Bolton has urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese not to meet with Donald Trump before the American review into the AUKUS defence agreement is resolved.

Speaking to The Australian, Mr Bolton – who served as NSA during the first Trump administration, between 2018 and 2019, and is now a vocal critic of the President – suggested Mr Trump could back out of or place new conditions on AUKUS if the pair were to meet.

“Who knows what he’ll say? Ask Volodymyr Zelensky how that can go,” Mr Bolton said, referring to Mr Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance’s ugly confrontation with the Ukrainian leader during his visit to the Oval Office earlier this year.

“You really want to do that?”

Read on for the latest updates

Originally published as US politics live: Elon Musk goes nuclear, claims government ‘must have’ a list of possible Epstein co-conspirators