Donald Trump Elon Musk fallout: Epstein files, Tesla stock price feature in ugly American political fight
The former besties have traded barbs and insults with the tech titan suggesting the President should be impeached and replaced by JD Vance.
The partnership between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has collapsed in spectacular fashion, with the tech titan claiming the US President was named in the Epstein files and suggesting he should be impeached and replaced with JD Vance.
A torrent of abusive social media posts between the two culminated in Mr Musk linking his former friend to the convicted child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” he posted on his account.
“Mark this post for the future,” he said. “The truth will come out.”
He linked the post to a video of a party at Ma-a-Lago claiming Mr Trump was pointing out young women to Mr Epstein.
The extraordinary claim came after Mr Trump threatened to “terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts” as the former friends traded barbs and insults on social media.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said: “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
Mr Musk responded almost immediately by threatening to decommission Space X’s Dragon spacecraft, which carries astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.
💯😂 https://t.co/HBnLseiDQf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
He went on to predict that Mr Trump’s tariffs, which he has resolutely opposed from the start, would cause a recession in the second half of this year.
The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year https://t.co/rbBC11iynE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
The long simmering row between the two men burst into the open early on Friday (AEST) when Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he was “very disappointed” and “very surprised” at Mr Musk for trying to derail his Big Beautiful Bill, claiming the world’s richest man knew what was in the legislation “better than almost anybody” and was motivated by his own business interests.
He later posted on social media that Mr Musk was “wearing thin,” and the he had “asked him (Musk) to leave.”
“I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
Mr Musk responded to the accusation, posting on his X social media platform: “Such an obvious lie. So sad.”
The Tesla chief executive also contended that, without his support, Mr Trump would have lost the 2024 election. He alleged that the US President was “in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.”
“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out,” Mr Musk said.
He also shared a post calling for Mr Trump to be impeached. A user shared a post on X which suggested that Musk would “win” the row with Trump and recommended that “Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.”
Mr Musk quoted the post and said: “Yes”.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
A sombre looking US President used a press conference in the Oval Office to hit back at Mr Musk’s criticisms over the last two days, saying the Tesla chief executive was angered by the bill’s removal of subsidies for electric vehicles and was suffering from a form of Trump derangement syndrome.
“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” he said.
The comments triggered a sharp response from the world’s richest man who contributed about $250 million to the Republicans’ election war chest.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Mr Musk said. “Such ingratitude.”
Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
The US President – who was hosting the newly elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the White House Oval Office – defended his Big Beautiful Bill as “incredible” and argued it would deliver the “biggest tax cut in history.”
“Elon is upset because we took (away) the EV mandate – which was a lot of money for electric vehicles,” Mr Trump said. “They want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidies … I know that disturbed him.”
Mr Trump also offered a more philosophical explanation for Mr Musk’s behaviour, saying that it was common for people to “become hostile” after they had stepped away from the White House.
“People leave my administration. And they love us. And then at some point they miss it so badly. And some of them embrace it, and some of them actually become hostile. I don’t know what it is,” the US President said. “It’s sort of Trump Derangement Syndrome. I guess they call it. But we have it with others too. They leave and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour is gone. The whole world is different. And they become hostile. I don’t know what it is.”
Mr Trump rejected the foundation of Mr Musk’s criticisms, denying the Big Beautiful Bill would blow out the US deficit over the decade or bring the nation closer to a sovereign debt crisis.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecast on Wednesday that Mr Trump’s legislative centrepiece would massively blow out the deficit by $2.5 trillion over the next ten years. But the US President said the CBO was run by Democrats and they had failed to factor in the revenue that would be raised by his tariffs.
He said that his regime of sweeping tariffs would deliver a “tremendous surplus” for Americans.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that “we keep hearing from the CBO that there’s going to be a large deficit from the bill – which we disagree with. But, using the CBO scoring, they came out and scored the tariff revenue. We think it’ll be the minimum of $2.8 trillion over the 10 year window, which actually puts the bill in surplus – if you include the tariff revenue, which they won’t do.”
During the press conference, Mr Musk was responding in real time to reject the President’s claims and accusations. He posted on social media that he was never familiar with the substance of the Big Beautiful Bill and argued the administration had deliberately kept the details secret.
“False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” he said.
Mr Musk also rejected the argument he was upset by the removal of subsidies for electric vehicles.
“Whatever,” he posted. “Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill.”
“In the entire history of civilisation, there has never been legislation that (is) both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this! Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill.
Slim and beautiful is the way.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
Mr Trump said that Mr Musk had “endorsed me very strongly.”
“I’m very disappointed. Because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here,” he said. “He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem. And he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate – because that’s billions and billions of dollars.”
“But he knew every aspect of this bill. He knew it better than almost anybody, and he never had a problem until right after he left,” he said. “He hasn’t said bad (things) about me personally, but I’m sure that will be next. But I’m very disappointed in him. I’ve helped him out a lot.”
Mr Musk continued to post well after the press conference in the Oval Office came to an end, asking his followers: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”
He also posted a number of previous comments from the US President from more than ten years ago in which Mr Trump had said that no member of Congress should be re-elected if the budget was not balanced.
“Where is the man who wrote these words? Was he replaced by a body double!?” Mr Musk said.
He rebranded the Big Beautiful Bill, labelling it the “Big Ugly Bill” and warned it would “INCREASE the deficit to $2.5 trillion!”
“I have been very consistent. Just stating facts,” he said.
The war of words escalated, with Mr Trump threatening on his Truth Social platform to cancel “Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts.”
Yet Mr Musk was defiant. “Go ahead, make my day,” he said, reposting a suggestion that this would end the International Space Station and provide no way to safely deorbit it.
Time to drop the really big bomb:@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025
Have a nice day, DJT!
Mr Trump acknowledged that Mr Musk was “turning against me,” but said he “should have done so months ago.”
“This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given,” he said. “If the Bill doesn’t pass, there will be a 68 per cent Tax Increase, and things far worse than that.”
Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon, one of Mr Musk’s most vocal critics, also joined the row, telling the New York Times he had advised Mr Trump to cancel all Mr Musk’s contracts and launch several investigations, including into Mr Musk’s immigration status.
“I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately,” he told The Times.
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