Musk says Trump appears in Epstein files as row between them explodes
Elon Musk says Donald Trump appears in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
It’s the latest in a string of barbs between the men as they appear to have dramatically fallen out in a public spat.
In a post on X, the tech billionaire said: “@realDonaldTrump is 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.”
He gave no evidence for the claim. Sky News has approached the White House for comment.
Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida with Jeffrey Epstein in 1997. Pic: Getty Images
Epstein killed himself in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.
It comes after the president said he was “disappointed” with Musk after the entrepreneur publicly criticised Mr Trump‘s signature tax bill.
The president suggested his former backer and adviser missed being in government and has “Trump derangement syndrome”.
President Trump has responded to Musk’s criticisms about his signature tax bill. Pic: AP.
He added: “I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot.”
In a Truth Social post the US president said: “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him 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!”.
Jeffrey Epstein. File pic: New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP
On Tuesday, the world’s richest man called the president’s tax and spending bill “outrageous” and a “disgusting abomination” – days after abruptly leaving his position spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The bill, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks, was passed by the House Republicans in May and has been described by the president as a “big, beautiful bill”. By contrast, Musk has called it the “big, ugly bill”.
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Why doesn’t Musk like Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?
In another post on Thursday, Musk said: “The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year.”
He also asked whether it was “time to create a new political party in Amerca that actually represents the 80% in the middle”.
Musk also said his company SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft “immediately” following Mr Trump’s threats to cancel government contracts with Musk’s businesses.
Dragon is the only US spacecraft available to deliver crew to and from the International Space Station.
Musk claimed responsibility for Mr Trump’s election success. Pic: Reuters.
Shortly after the president expressed his disappointment in Musk on Thursday, the SpaceX boss responded.
“False”, he wrote on X.
“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!”
In another scathing post on X, Musk claimed responsibility for Donald Trump’s re-election success.
He wrote: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”
It came after Mr Trump told reporters the Tesla CEO was unimpressed electric vehicle incentives were being debated in the Senate and could face being cut.
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Last Thursday, Musk revealed on X that his scheduled time as a “special government employee” was coming to an end.
Before the news broke, Musk’s father told Sky News his son was “not a very good politician”.
But speaking to Gillian Joseph on The World, Errol Musk insisted there was “no rift between Elon and Donald Trump”.
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he “will not back down” from Russia’s goals in Ukraine during a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian president spoke to his US counterpart for almost an hour, and Mr Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
In response, Mr Putin said “Russia will not back down” from its aims there, which include “the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Mr Ushakov said.
The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for Moscow’s argument that it was compelled to invade Ukraine in order to prevent the country from joining NATO.
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Trump and Putin’s latest call on Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies say this is a pretext to justify what they call an imperial-style war, but Mr Trump has previously shown sympathy with Russia.
At the same time, Mr Putin told the US president that Russia is ready to continue negotiating, the aide said.
The Russian president said any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine give up its NATO bid and recognise his country’s territorial gains.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seen with Mr Trump in June, is pushing for Ukraine to join NATO. Pic: Reuters
He also briefed Mr Trump on agreements made last month, which saw Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war and dead soldiers.
Specific dates for the third round of peace talks in Istanbul were not discussed – nor was the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s call came after the Pentagon confirmed some weapons due to be sent to Ukraine have been held as it reviews military stockpiles.
The paused shipments include air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, two people familiar with the situation have said.
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The decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington.
Kyiv also cautioned that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s phone call was the sixth they have publicly disclosed since the US president returned to the White House in January.
Donald Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has been passed by the US congress, sending it to the president to sign into law.
The controversial tax breaks and spending cuts package cleared its final hurdle as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the bill with a 218-214 vote.
The bill delivers tax breaks Mr Trump promised in his 2024 election campaign, cuts health and food safety programmes, and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it will lower tax revenues by $4.5trn over 10 years and add $3.4trn to the US’s $36.2trn debt.
But despite concerns over the 869-page bill’s price tag – and its hit to healthcare programmes – Republicans largely lined up in support, with just two rebelling on the vote.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is congratulated following the vote. Pic: Reuters
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the bill, blasting it as a giveaway to the wealthy that will leave millions of Americans uninsured.
House Speaker Mike Johnson made the Republicans’ closing argument for the bill, telling Congress: “For everyday Americans, this means real, positive change that they can feel.”
Earlier, the House’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a record-breaking eight-hour and 44-minute speech against it.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” he said.
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The bill’s spending cuts largely target Medicaid, the health programme that covers 71 million Americans on low incomes.
It will tighten enrolment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments.
The changes could leave nearly 12 million people without health insurance, according to the CBO.
On the other side of the ledger, it will stave off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of the year, when tax cuts from President Trump’s first term were due to expire.
It also sets up new tax breaks for overtime pay, seniors and tipped income.
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The bill narrowly passed the US Senate on Tuesday after vice president JD Vance cast the deciding vote to break a 50-50 tie.
Mr Trump will sign it into law on Friday at 5pm local time (10pm in the UK), the White House said.
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