USA

Musk claims Trump is on Epstein's list of sexual abusers

The president has threatened to terminate the federal contracts held by South Africa's companies.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump at a press conference in the Oval Office.
5 min

WashingtonThe amicable divorce between Elon Musk and Donald Trump has quickly degenerated into a dirty war in which the two billionaires have begun insulting each other and airing each other's dirty laundry. The US president has gone from insinuating that the South African is resentful after leaving the White House to threatening to terminate his companies' federal contracts if he continues to attack his tax bill. Musk, on the other hand, brought out the big guns and claimed that without him, Trump "would have lost the election." The latest coup de grâce has been a post on X in which he claims that Trump appears in the papers of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. "Time to drop the big truth bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein papers. That's the real reason they haven't been made public," he wrote. The Epstein papers are the documents and records about the billionaire's sex trafficking ring, where there is speculation that powerful figures appear. The South African tycoon added: "Save this post for the future. The truth will come out."

In response to the accusations, Trump responded in a measured manner: "I'm not bothered by Elon turning on me, but he should have done so months ago." The US president has avoided commenting on the accusations of child abuse and has focused on discussing the discrepancies regarding the tax bill currently before Congress. "This is one of the best pieces of legislation ever introduced in Congress. It is a record spending reduction of $1.6 trillion and the largest tax cut ever. If this bill does not pass, there will be a 68% tax increase and much worse. I did not create this mess. A path to greatness. Make America Great Again!" he wrote, highlighting some words in capital letters.

The White House responded to Musk's accusations shortly after, saying that the Epstein papers were not released so that Trump could appear. "The easiest way to save billions of dollars in our budget is to end Elon's government grants and contracts. I was always surprised Biden didn't do this!" said press secretary Karoline Leavitt on CNN.

Musk, in turn, fired back, proposing to initiate a vetting process.impeachment against Trump. He added, "Given the President's statement regarding the cancellation of my government contracts, SpaceX will immediately begin dismantling its Dragon spacecraft."

Amid the storm, former Trump advisor and one of the president's old guard leaders, Steve Bannon, has called for Elon Musk's deportation. "They should start a formal investigation into his immigration status because I am convinced that he is an illegal immigrant and should be deported from the country immediately," he told The New York Times.

In six days, Trump has gone from handing over to Musk a golden key in the Oval Office to thank him for his work to call him resentful. "If you saw the statements he made about me—which I'm sure you can find very easily, because they're very recent and recorded—he said lovely things about me, and he hasn't said anything bad about me personally (yet), but I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped him a lot," the day after Musk launched an all-out campaign against his tax bill.Big Beautiful Bill"of Trump as an "abomination" and other similar adjectives, the knives have started flying between the two billionaires. "I think Musk misses the office," the president said to justify the Tesla owner's recent attacks. He also insinuated that, like other people who abandoned his government during the good times. Trump." "It's not the first. People leave our administration; they love us, but at some point they miss it so much that some of them embrace us but others become hostile," he declared.

"Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anyone here... He knew everything. He didn't have a problem. All of a sudden he had one, and he only started having one when he figured out that we should cut electric vehicle regulations [regulations to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles], because that's worth billions and billions of dollars," he explained.

Musk quickly responded to her words with.Whatever"[Whatever you say], and then the South African wrote in a second tweet: "False, this law was never shown to me even once and was passed in the middle of the night so fast that almost no one in Congress could read it." The vote Musk is talking about is the first round that was held in the House of Representatives and that was held in the House of Representatives and that.

"Without me Trump would have lost the election"

In response to one of the clips of Trump's statements about the deteriorating relationship with Musk, the Tesla owner commented: "Without me Trump would have lost the election. The Democrats would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate." Trump reacted to Musk's comments by publishing two posts on his Truth Social network in which he hinted that he would terminate federal contracts with the South African's companies. "The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions of dollars, is to end Elon's government grants and contracts. I was always surprised Biden didn't do it!"

The Tesla owner shared a photo on X on Wednesday with the film's poster. Kill Bill and another post with a plea: "Call your senator, call your congressman. Ruining America is not right! Kill the law." The South African was making a pun on the famous Quentin Tarantino film. Kill Bill and the law, which in English is billMusk has long been critical of what Trump considers his flagship plan – the so-called big and beautiful law (Big Beautiful Bill)–, which plans to expand the income tax cuts he implemented in 2017 during his first term, and implement new tax cuts on tips and overtime, key promises of his successful 2024 presidential campaign.

Just this week, Musk had called the bill "abominable," as he believes the resulting deficit will undo all the work he's done with massive cuts within the administration. The draft, which has already cleared the House of Representatives and is now pending in the Senate, is expected to add some $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next ten years if it becomes law. Trump has already let his people know that he wants this text on his desk so he can sign it no later than July 4th, the United States' national holiday.

Although Trump and Musk have tried to stage a peaceful and amicable breakup, the reasons why the South African has left the White House are numerous. After showering millions of dollars on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race and losing, Trump realized that Musk's image had become a political liability. The progressive judge was able to win the seat on the state's high court by campaigning against him. Likewise, within the White House, Musk had stepped on some unwelcome toes (such as that of Chief of Staff Susie Wiles) and had generated internal tensions with government secretaries following the mass layoffs.

The tax bill is another nail in the coffin of the Musk-Trump relationship. The billionaire, who ultimately saw the large economic investment in the Trump administration as a way to try to prioritize his interests and gain more influence over political decisions, has seen how the president has taken the stand when it suited him. Meanwhile, his electric car company, Tesla, has steadily suffered losses in recent months. A few weeks ago, Musk announced that he would reduce his spending on political donations. He has also linked his departure from government to the need to focus on his businesses.

The economic plan, pending before the Senate

Trump's economic plan has not been without controversy within his own party. Several Republican senators, including Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), Rick Scott (Florida), and Rand Paul (Kentucky), have also expressed concern about the overall cost of the legislative package. The large tax cuts threaten many federal programs, which could end up being cut in an effort to keep government spending low. These programs include Social Security and Medicaid.

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