The president’s former first buddy is doing everything he can to rub salt into Trump’s wounds.

Elon Musk speaks during a news conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2025. Musk, who stormed into US politics as President Trump's chainsaw-brandishing sidekick, announced on May 28 that he is leaving his role in US government, intended to reduce federal spending, shortly after his first major break with the President over Trump's signature spending bill. (Photo by Allison ROBBERT / AFP) (Photo by ALLISON ROBBERT/AFP via Getty Images)
ALLISON ROBBERT/AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk launched into an all-night X posting spree about Donald Trump’s handling of the so-called Epstein files, as the president makes desperate attempts to get his MAGA base to talk about anything else.

A flurry of posts on Wednesday afternoon, in which Musk asked why “Ghislaine [Maxwell] is in federal prison for a hoax,” proved to be a precursor to a marathon of posts piling pressure on Trump and his administration.

Musk, 54, posted about Epstein 13 times in just over an hour on Wednesday afternoon. He followed this by firing off another barrage of tweets about the subject from Wednesday afternoon into the early hours of Thursday morning, barely taking a break between posts.

“It’s a cover up (obviously),” he said in response to a tweet from a large conservative account, which referenced President Trump’s recent rebuke of the matter by saying: “It’s not a hoax.”

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 30: Elon Musk speaks during a news conference with President Trump on May 30, 2025 inside the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. (Photo by Tom Brenner For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Musk, alongside President Trump in the Oval Office, has been frequently posting about Epstein on X, where he has over 200 million followers.The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im

Asked in another post from a large right-wing account whether he thinks anyone will be “held accountable,” Musk responded: “I sure hope so. This is a fundamental verdict on justice in America.”

“If even a few of the very worst Epstein ‘clients’ were to be prosecuted, that would be something. But zero?” he asked quizzically in an earlier post.

The Tesla CEO also referenced previous Trump administration actions on the Epstein files. As part of an earlier PR stunt, the Trump administration handed binders to right-wing influencers labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.”

From left to right, Rogan “DC Draino” O‘Handley, Chaya Raichik, and Liz Wheeler show off a binder labeled as phase one of the “Epstein Files.” The binders did not contain new information, it was revealed after they met with President Donald Trump.
From left to right, Rogan “DC Draino” O‘Handley, Chaya Raichik, and Liz Wheeler show off a binder labeled as phase one of the “Epstein Files.” The binders did not contain new information, it was revealed after they met with President Donald Trump.Brian Snyder/REUTERS

On Wednesday, Musk shared an image of one of the binders and asked: “Where is Phase 2?” He also demanded evidence collected from Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion, as well as digital evidence. “Where is it?” he demanded.

Trump’s Department of Justice and the FBI have since released a memo that concluded that Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. They also concluded that Epstein did not keep a “client list,” despite Attorney General Pam Bondi saying in February that the list was on her desk to be reviewed.

During his posting spree, Musk also asked questions about the Epstein case to his Hitler-praising AI chatbot, Grok. When Musk queried about whether the U.S. government holds electronic records of who visited Epstein’s private island, Grok answered yes. He then asked if the government has “a list of all unaccompanied minors on those flights, along with a list of all adults on those flights.”

Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, 1997.
Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, 1997.Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images

It again answered yes, saying that early DOJ files reported 250 abused girls. The bot then said that an “exhaustive review” of the recent memo that caused a MAGA meltdown identified over 1,000 victims.

“Over 1000 confirmed young victims is a shockingly large and tragic number! In order for the government to confirm that the girls were victimized, they would have had to name or at least describe who raped them,” Musk replied to his bot.

“This would necessarily mean that the government MUST have the list of rapists aka ‘the Epstein client list’ in their possession right f——g now!”

Explaining his motivations for the latest posting spree, Musk said in an earlier tweet: “We were all told that the list was going to be released.”

He said in a separate message: “So many powerful people want that list suppressed.”

Musk also targeted Trump directly, referring to his flights on Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” a reference to a 12-year-old character in Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel Lolita. The protagonist, Humbert Humbert, becomes obsessed with the child.

“Why was the plane called the Lolita Express? How old was Lolita in Nabokov’s book?” Musk demanded. “Research [thoroughly] to find the complete lists of who else was on the plane during Trump’s 7 flights?”

Trump’s name appears in flight logs disclosed in the 2021 trial of Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. The logs were also included in the information released by Bondi to conservative influencers in February.

Trump, who had a relationship with Epstein for almost two decades, said he was “not a fan” of the financier after his arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019. No evidence has emerged that Trump was aware of, or involved in, Epstein’s offending.

The White House has been contacted for comment.