Elon Musk has backed away from his extraordinary claim that President Donald Trump was implicated in ‘the Epstein files.’
As the commander-in-chief and the X boss battled it out in a war of the words over social media, Musk said on Thursday ‘it was time to drop a really big bomb.’
In doing so he, posted: ‘@RealDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
‘Have a nice day, DJT!’
The post recently disappeared from his X profile, and Musk appeared to backtrack on some of the remarks he made against Trump during their war of the words this week.
On Friday, Trump said he would look into canceling the loans and subsidies for Musk’s companies, telling reporters: ‘I would certainly think about it, but it has to be fair.’
He also told reporters that he wished the billionaire ‘well,’ to which Musk replied in a post on X saying: ‘Likewise.’
Musk then responded to the clip of Trump talking about canceling his grants, saying: ‘Fair enough’.
Trump threatened to cut off huge federal loans and subsidies to Musk’s companies after they fell out over the ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’
As the commander-in-chief and the X boss battled it out in a war of words over social media, Musk said on Thursday ‘it was time to drop a really big bomb’
On Friday night Trump said he would look into canceling loans and subsidies for Musk’s companies
Elon Musk dramatically charged that President Donald Trump’s name appears in the files of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein
The remarks from Musk came after he lost around $27 billion from his net worth when Tesla’s stock price tanked on Thursday.
Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI also sent executives to meet with Morgan Stanley bosses to pitch why the bank should lend them billions as the feud between the two played out.
In a report from The Wall Street Journal, bankers are now worried that the bust-up could affect the deal worth $5 billion – in another blow to Musk’s finances.
Trump didn’t directly respond to Musk’s Epstein charge, instead posting what amounted to a shrug on Truth Social, while also continuing to back the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.’
‘I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,’ Trump wrote. ‘This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.’
Following the outbreak of their feud, Trump and his allies have said Musk turned on the bill because it cuts the subsidies. Musk has said he doesn’t need them anyway.
The fallout between Trump and Musk – who were political allies for a little less than a year – started in recent weeks when the billionaire started resisting Republicans’ ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’ arguing that the spending wiped out DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts.
Then, on Thursday, when Trump was supposed to be hosting the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office, he was asked about Musk’s recent criticism.
From there the dam broke. ‘Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more, I was surprised,’ Trump told reporters.
The president suggested that Musk was angry – not over the bill ballooning the deficit – but because the Trump administration has pulled back on electric vehicle mandates, which negatively impacted Tesla, and replaced the Musk-approved nominee to lead NASA, which could hinder SpaceX’s government contracts.
‘And you know, Elon’s upset because we took the EV mandate, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles, and they’re having a hard time the electric vehicles and they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidy,’ Trump said. ‘I know that disturbed him.’
Trump didn’t directly respond to Musk’s Epstein charge, instead posting what amounted to a shrug on Truth Social. He is seen here alongside Epstein in a 1997 picture
In a series of posts to his X account Musk, seemed to have cooled off on going after the president
Over the weekend, Trump pulled the nomination of Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Isaacman worked alongside Musk at SpaceX.
Musk posted to X as Trump’s Q&A with reporters was ongoing. ‘Whatever,’ the billionaire wrote.
‘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,’ he advised.
‘In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that [is] both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this!’ Musk continued.
‘Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill. Slim and beautiful is the way.’
The spat quickly turned personal with Musk then posting that Trump would have lost the 2024 election had it not been for the world’s richest man – him.
Musk publicly endorsed Trump on the heels of the July 13th assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania and poured around $290 million into the Republican’s campaign.
The billionaire also joined Trump on the campaign trail when he returned to the site of the Butler shooting in early October, a month before Election Day.
Musk looks on during a news conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2025
After his meeting with Merz, Trump continued to throw punches online. He asserted that he had asked Musk to leave his administration and said he was ‘CRAZY!’
‘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!’ Trump wrote.
It was after that post that he then threatened to pull SpaceX and Tesla’s government contracts.
Musk then taunted Trump to act. ‘This just gets better and better,’ he wrote. ‘Go ahead, make my day …’
In a follow-up post, Musk said he would ‘begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.’
Trump continued his ‘crazy’ remarks on Friday when speaking with CNN Anchor and Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash.
He said: ‘I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem.’
Their explosive feud comes after a report from the New York Times in which he was accused of using a cocktail of drugs on the campaign trail.
He also made an apparent Nazi salute during a his speech at the inaugural parade inside Capitol One Arena, in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025
The Tesla CEO has previously said he was prescribed ketamine for depression and was taking the drug roughly every two weeks.
But insiders allege Musk, 53, was taking the powerful anesthetic, which is known to have hallucinogenic properties, so frequently that it was affecting his bladder, the bombshell report claims.
He also took ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and travelled with a daily pill box that contained about 20 different drugs, including Adderall, sources allege.
Those around him claim that his consumption blurred the lines between medicinal and recreational, with Musk allegedly having taken drugs at private gathering across the US and in at least one foreign country, according to the NYT report which was based on a series of texts the outlet reviewed, as well as interviews with insiders.
Musk has claimed in interviews that he only takes ‘a small amount’ of ketamine and that ‘I really don’t like doing illegal drugs’, but his erratic behaviors, including making an apparent Nazi salute at Trump’s election day event, seemingly suggest otherwise.
It is unclear if Musk was taking drugs when Trump put him in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he has since stepped down from.