Musk-Trump row explodes as Tesla boss claims US president appears in Epstein files

Elon Musk says Donald Trump appears in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

It's the latest in a string of barbs between the men as they appear to have dramatically fallen out in a public spat. In a post on X, the tech billionaire said: "@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files.

That is the real reason they have not been made public. "Mark this post for the future.

The truth will come out." He gave no evidence for the claim. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the comment.

In a statement, she said: "This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill [a Republican tax and spending 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." Epstein killed himself in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.

Read more:Analysis: Trump v Musk has got very messy very quicklyTrump and Musk's extraordinary spat minute-by-minuteJanuary 2024: Epstein list - Who is named in unsealed documents? In another post on Thursday, Musk, the owner of social media platform X, attacked Mr Trump's tariffs, saying they "will cause a recession in the second half of this year." The Tesla boss shared a post calling for Mr Trump's impeachment and asked whether it was "time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle". ???? Follow Trump100 on your podcast app ???? Musk also said his company SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft "immediately" following Mr Trump's threats to cancel government contracts with Musk's businesses.

Dragon is the only US spacecraft available to deliver crew to and from the International Space Station. The spat has already hit Tesla shares, which lost about $150bn (£111bn) in value, closing down 14.3% for the day.

It comes after the president said he was "disappointed" with Musk after the entrepreneur publicly criticised Mr Trump's signature tax bill. The president suggested his former backer and adviser missed being in government and has "Trump derangement syndrome".

He added: "I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot." In a Truth Social post, the US president said: "Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, 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!".

On Tuesday, the world's richest man called the president's tax and spending bill "outrageous" and a "disgusting abomination" - days after abruptly leaving his position spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The bill, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks, was passed by the House Republicans in May and has been described by the president as a "big, beautiful bill".

By contrast, Musk has called it the "big, ugly bill". Shortly after the president expressed his disappointment in Musk on Thursday, the SpaceX boss responded.

"False.