Musk appears to delete X posts claiming Trump was in Epstein files
Less than two days after Elon Musk slammed President Donald Trump over the megabill moving through Congress, the billionaire appeared to remove several of his most scathing posts on X that targeted the president, including one that insinuated Trump was in the Epstein files.
Musk posted on Thursday, without providing evidence, a claim that the Department of Justice hasn't released its files into its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sex-trafficking minors in 2019, because Trump is in them.
"Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files," he wrote. "That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!"
That post was removed overnight and had disappeared Saturday morning, with the link to the post now showing a message that said, "Nothing to see here."
Musk's apparent move to remove the Epstein post came just hours after he made another critical post Friday night, in which he wrote he would apologize to Trump "as soon as there is a full dump of the Epstein files." That post was also later deleted.
Trump dismissed Musk's claims in an interview with NBC News released Saturday.
"That's called 'old news.' That's been old news. That has been talked about for years. Even Epstein's lawyer said I had nothing to do with it -- it's old news," he said.
"It's old news. This has been talked about for years and years. And as you know, I was not friendly with Epstein for probably 18 years before he died. I was not at all friendly with him," Trump added.
The president expressed disappointment in the criticism and threatened to cut federal contracts to Musk's businesses.
On Friday, he told ABC News' Jonathan Karl that he was "not particularly" interested in talking with Musk.
"You mean the man who has lost his mind?" he asked.
Later Friday evening, Trump told reporters, "I'm not thinking about Elon Musk. I just wish him well."
Trump has previously posted, "I was never on Epstein's Plane, or at his 'stupid' Island," and he has not publicly objected to the release of the files now under review at the DOJ.
Trump's previous association with Epstein and the appearance of his name in an address book and on flight logs of Epstein's plane has been widely reported. However, that does not indicate Trump had any involvement in Epstein's crimes.
Vice President JD Vance said in a podcast interview released Friday that Musk's accusation is "absolutely not" true, and he added that he hopes Musk "comes back into the fold."
Musk also deleted a repost of an X user who called for Trump's impeachment and for him to be replaced by Vance. "Yes," Musk wrote in response to the post, appearing to support the idea.
It was not clear when exactly the posts were removed.
However, several of Musk's other posts critical of the president remain on his account as of Saturday morning, including one claiming Trump would have lost the election without his help.
ABC News' Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
