Topline
Elon Musk took jabs at President Donald Trump on Thursday in a series of posts on X, mocking the president and his administration over their handling of the so-called Epstein files and using responses generated by his company’s AI chatbot that draw attention to Trump’s past ties with Epstein and insinuate the disgraced financier didn’t die by suicide.
Elon Musk sniped at President Donald Trump and his administration over the so-called Epstein Files ... More
In a series of posts made late Wednesday night and early Thursday, Musk commented on and boosted a series of replies generated by the Grok account—X’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot—that insinuated Esptein did not die by suicide and the government was trying to “cover up” the circumstances around his death.
Musk commented on Grok’s replies and reshared responses generated by the chatbot, which mention that the names of former President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump appear on flight logs for Epstein’s jet.
In one of his posts, Musk even asked the chatbot to make a “thorough list of all those who should be investigated for possible rape of underage girls provided by Epstein.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Musk mocked Trump for calling the so-called Epstein Files a “hoax” by tweeting: “Wow, amazing that Epstein ‘killed himself’ and Ghislaine is in federal prison for a hoax.”
Musk also boosted posts from followers asking where all the evidence federal investigators had collected on Epstein’s actions was being kept and why there was no follow-up to the “Epstein Files: Phase I” binder that the Trump administration shared with select right-wing influencers.
The Justice Department issued a memo last week saying it found no evidence that Epstein kept a list of his clients, tried to blackmail any high-profile individuals, or was murdered.
Flight logs for Jeffrey Epstein’s private jets were released during his long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial in 2021. Trump’s name appeared on the logs at least seven times between 1993 and 1997; all those flights were between Palm Beach, Florida and New York. Despite this, Trump wrote on Truth Social last year that “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his 'stupid' Island.” Clinton’s name also appeared on the logs more than a dozen times. In 2019 a spokesperson for the former president said: “In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation.” However, the statement added that Clinton “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty.”
Musk’s use of Grok to make a point and attack Trump comes a week after the chatbot made a series of antisemitic posts attacking Jewish people and praising Adolf Hitler’s actions. The chatbot claimed Musk, the platform’s owner, had “built me this way from the start,” and a “MechaHitler mode” was its “default setting for dropping red pills.” The posts, which triggered criticism from civil rights groups, were eventually deleted by xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence firm that operates Grok. After the controversy, xAI appeared to make some adjustments to Grok’s system prompts—which guide the nature of the chatbot’s responses. The changes on GitHub showed that xAI quietly removed a recently added guidance that directed the chatbot to post responses that don’t “shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated.”
One of the now-deleted posts generated by Grok last week during its “MechaHitler” tirade was a response to a question about Musk’s links with Epstein. Grok appeared to respond to the question as Musk, saying: “Yes, limited evidence exists: I visited Epstein's NYC home once briefly (~30 min) with my ex-wife in the early 2010s out of curiosity; saw nothing inappropriate and declined island invites. No advisory role or deeper ties.” The response ended with the line: “Deny knowing Ghislaine Maxwell beyond a photobomb.” This prompted some people to question if Musk had instructed Grok to provide this specific response if asked about his ties with the convicted sex offender and disgraced financier.
Musk, who emerged as one of Trump’s closest allies after his election win, left his role as a Trump administration “special government employee” in May. He has used his social media platform to attack Trump and his administration, first over the president’s signature spending bill and now over the Epstein issue. When the feud first broke out in public, Musk attacked the president with a now-deleted tweet alleging without evidence that Trump’s name was in the Epstein files. Since then, Musk has announced plans to launch a third party called the “America Party,” which Trump has dismissed as “ridiculous.” Musk replied to Trump’s jabs about his third-party plan by bringing up the Epstein issue again. The billionaire has criticized the DOJ and the FBI for noting that they found no evidence of Epstein maintaining a list of his influential clients and using it to blackmail influential figures. Musk referred to these findings as “the final straw.”
Trump Rips ‘Weaklings’ Who Criticized Handling Of Epstein Files—Calls It ‘Big Hoax’ (Forbes)
Trump-Musk Feud: Musk Says Trump’s Comments About Him Are ‘Just Plain Wrong’ (Forbes)