WASHINGTON—As Elon Musk unleashed criticism on President Donald Trump on social media, accusing the president of shielding the Jeffrey Epstein files to protect himself, White House officials suggested that Musk was merely upset about the fallout from the reconciliation bill.
Musk and Trump’s feud escalated throughout the day on Thursday, reaching a fever pitch when Musk posted on X: “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!” Musk added, saying in a follow-up post: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized Musk’s statements as the billionaire’s reaction to not getting what he wanted in the reconciliation bill.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon,” Leavitt said in a statement to The Daily Wire, “who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.”
“The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,” Leavitt added.
A White House source familiar with the day’s events pointed out that the Trump administration has already released the Epstein files that included the president’s name.
“This is not a new surprise Elon is uncovering,” the source shared. “Everyone already knew this.”
The White House source also questioned why he would work so closely with the president and say he “loves him as much as a straight man can love a straight man” if Musk really thought Trump had deeper ties to Epstein.
The president, who is known to have banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago resort, has denied any involvement with the late sex offender’s criminal acts. Some Epstein materials that have been made public mention social links between Trump and Epstein but show no evidence implicating the president in his wrongdoing.
Epstein died at the age of 66 in his New York City jail cell in August 2019 after being arrested on sex trafficking charges involving young girls and pleading not guilty. Despite high-profile theories that Epstein did not commit suicide, top officials in Trump’s FBI insist Epstein killed himself, and recently teased the release of video proving this as fact.
Epstein’s cohort, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was found guilty of conspiring with Epstein to traffic and sexually abuse underage girls. She has since appealed the conviction.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.