 "Musk deletes controversial post targeting Trump in online feud")
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has deleted a controversial social media post that alleged a connection between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, shared amid a heated exchange with the US president this week.
Musk, who left his position as a key White House advisor last week, said on Thursday that the Republican leader is named in classified government papers on former Epstein associates. Epstein committed suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
The Trump administration has stated that it is evaluating tens of thousands of documents, recordings, other investigation materials, which his “MAGA” campaign claims will reveal prominent people involved in Epstein’s crimes.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files,” Musk posted on his social media platform, X as his growing feud with the president boiled over into a spectacularly public row on Thursday.
“That is the real reason they have not been made public.”
Musk did not reveal which files he was talking about and offered no evidence for his claim.
He initially doubled down on the claim, writing in a follow-up message: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
However, he appeared to have deleted both tweets by Saturday morning.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsSupporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base allege that Epstein’s associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others.
They point the finger at Democrats and Hollywood celebrities, although not at Trump himself. No official source has ever confirmed that the president appears in any of the material.
Trump knew and socialized with Epstein but has denied spending time on Little Saint James, the private redoubt in the US Virgin Islands where prosecutors alleged Epstein trafficked underage girls for sex.
“Terrific guy,” Trump, who was Epstein’s neighbour in both Florida and New York, said in an early 2000s profile of the financier.
“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Just last week Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
But their relationship imploded within days as Musk described as an “abomination” a spending bill that, if passed by Congress, could define Trump’s second term in office.
Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe and from there the row detonated, leaving Washington and riveted social media users alike stunned by the blistering break-up between the world’s richest person and the world’s most powerful.
With real political and economic risks to their row, both then appeared to inch back from the brink on Friday, but the White House denied reports they would talk.
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