The once-amicable relationship between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk appears to have fractured, as a series of incendiary social media posts — including allegations tying Trump to Jeffrey Epstein — have been deleted from Musk’s X platform.
The feud erupted late last week when Musk posted a message alleging Trump’s name appears in files related to Epstein, the convicted sex offender whose connections with powerful figures have drawn ongoing scrutiny. Musk offered no evidence for the claim, and the post disappeared from X by early Saturday. Users attempting to view it were met with a message that read: “Sorry, that post has been deleted.”
Musk also deleted another controversial post in which he appeared to support Trump’s impeachment and backed Senator J.D. Vance as a replacement. The flurry of posts, and their subsequent removal, suggests tensions between the two high-profile figures may be easing—at least publicly.
The public spat began after Musk denounced a Trump-backed Senate proposal, calling it a “disgusting abomination” and urging Americans to lobby their lawmakers to vote against it. In response, Trump lashed out, threatening to pull government contracts from Musk’s companies, including SpaceX.
Despite the back-and-forth, Trump said Friday night that he has no plans to speak with Musk. “I’m not even thinking about it,” the President told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I’m really interested in the country, and solving problems.”
Still, Trump struck a softer tone when asked whether he would revoke the symbolic White House key he once gave Musk. “I don’t take things back,” Trump said. “He tried very hard,” referring to Musk’s work leading the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The President also defended Musk over reports from The New York Times alleging the Tesla CEO used ketamine, MDMA, and psychedelic mushrooms while campaigning with Trump in 2024. “I thought it sounded very unfair to me,” Trump said, declining to comment further on Musk’s alleged drug use.
Earlier Friday, however, Trump took a harsher stance in an interview with ABC News, declaring that Musk had “lost his mind.”
While Musk’s post linking Trump to Epstein has been scrubbed from the platform, it has triggered political consequences. Several Democratic lawmakers are now demanding the full unsealing of the Epstein case files, with one group issuing a press release titled “Is Trump Suppressing the Epstein Files?”
Trump’s history with Epstein has long drawn scrutiny. In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump described Epstein as “a lot of fun to be with.” Years later, in 2019, NBC released video footage from 1992 showing Trump and Epstein socializing at Mar-a-Lago. After Epstein’s arrest that same year, Trump claimed they had fallen out and hadn’t spoken in 15 years.
With the deleted posts and softened rhetoric, the Musk-Trump clash may be entering a quieter phase — though the political and personal fallout appears far from over.
