Does Trump want to ‘destroy’ Elon Musk’s companies or is he trying to shut him up about Epstein?
President Donald Trump on Thursday denied wanting to harm Elon Musk’s companies despite alluding to taking away Musk’s lucrative government contracts and subsidies during the heat of their feud last month.
“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so! I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE, in fact, THRIVE like never before! The better they do, the better the USA does, and that’s good for all of us. We are setting records every day, and I want to keep it that way!” the president posted to his Truth Social account Thursday morning.
The world’s most powerful man got into a very public spat with the world’s richest man last month amid Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Trump claimed Musk was upset about electric vehicle subsidies being discontinued under the legislation — a measure that would harm one of Musk’s company: the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla.
Musk called the bill a “disgusting abomination.”
Days later, Trump claimed Musk was “wearing thin” and went “crazy.”
“I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump posted last month.
Musk then dropped a “big bomb,” alleging that Trump has not lived up to his promise of releasing the Epstein files because the president is mentioned 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!”
The tweet is no longer on Musk’s timeline on X, but the world’s richest man has continued to tweet about the Epstein files.
Some observers claimed Trump’s Truth Social post on Thursday was a message to Musk: keep quiet about the Epstein files and your companies will continue to receive subsidies.
“Ok so maybe Elon knows even more about Trump and Epstein,” tweeted Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter to President Barack Obama and co-host of the “Pod Save America” podcast.
The Republicans Against Trump account on X had a similar reaction to the president’s Truth.
“Is Trump warning Musk to stay quiet about the Epstein scandal, or risk losing his subsidies?” the account wondered.
Trump has been dogged by the Epstein scandal this month, when a joint Department of Justice and FBI memo was released saying there was “no incriminating ‘client list’” and “no credible evidence” that Epstein blackmailed co-conspirators who sexually abused underaged girls provided by him, Axios first reported.
The memo stirred outrage among Trump’s most ardent supporters who trusted the president’s word during the campaign to release the files.
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