The world’s richest man has backed down further in his feud with US President Donald Trump, saying he regrets some of his posts and admitting he went “too far”.
Elon Musk‘s mea culpa this evening came days after he deleted a string of scathing social media posts written as the once-vibrant political bromance fell apart rapidly and publicly earlier this month.
“I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far,” he wrote on X, the social media network he owns.
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The Tesla CEO had posted several times on X last week, alleging Trump’s links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files,” he wrote, without providing any evidence for his claim.
“That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
He didn’t specify today which posts he regretted.
Musk’s online attack had come as Trump portrayed him as disgruntled and “CRAZY” and threatened to cut government contracts held by his businesses such as rocket company SpaceX and internet company Starlink.
The billionaire was a vocal presence on the campaign trail as he poured at least $US250 million ($389 million) into Trump’s successful election.
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He then took centre stage in the White House in the early months of the administration, leading controversial budget-cutting efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which ripped billions of dollars out of government programs.
The public partnership ended amicably late last month with a mutually praiseworthy Oval Office press conference but the fragile peace quickly deteriorated as Musk took aim at Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill”.
Musk lambasted Trump’s centrepiece tax cuts and spending bill, suggested Trump should be impeached and claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump at the weekend said he had no desire to repair their relationship and there would be “serious consequences” if Musk used his billions to back Democrat rivals.
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“I’m too busy doing other things,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker in a phone interview.
“You know, I won an election in a landslide. I gave him a lot of breaks, long before this happened, I gave him breaks in my first administration, and saved his life in my first administration, I have no intention of speaking to him.”
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