Elon Musk made his return to the White House Tuesday night, as a guest at President Donald Trump’s candlelit dinner in honor of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Musk, who was put in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, was a constant figure at Trump’s side during the early months of the president’s second term.
But in June, Musk and Trump had an explosive break-up, with the billionaire Tesla, SpaceX and X head charging that the president’s name was in the Epstein files.
Coincidentally, a bill that would force the release of the remaining Epstein files was moving its way through Congress, as Trump was hosting Musk and MBS.
Musk and Trump’s falling out occurred over the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ which Musk charged undid much of the cost-cutting work he had accomplished at DOGE, where he tried to fire droves of federal workers.
Musk, the world’s richest man, became a prominent fixture in the MAGA movement after endorsing Trump in the hours following the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Amid Trump and Musk’s infighting, Musk claimed Trump only won last year’s election thanks to Musk bankrolling the effort.
‘Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,’ Musk said. ‘Such ingratitude.’
Musk’s claim infuriated Trump with the president threatening to pull SpaceX and Tesla’s government contracts.
The fight got even wilder when Musk brought up Jeffrey Epstein, the serial pedophile who died in prison in 2019.
‘Time to drop a really big bomb,’ Musk posted to X. ‘@RealDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.’
‘Have a nice day, DJT!’
Trump has denied that there’s anything incriminating about him in the files, pointing to Democratic figures like former President Bill Clinton, who were known to have hung out with the pedophile.
But he also hasn’t signed off on their full release.
That prompted Republican Representative Thomas Massie and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna to sponsor a bill that would force the files to be public.
That bill passed both the House and the Senate Tuesday and is awaiting Trump’s signature.
Massie was already in the president’s crosshairs when he backed the Epstein bill, as he refused to back Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill.’
Musk, however, vowed to step in if Trump decided to back a Republican primary challenger against Massie, who leans libertarian.
In recent weeks, Trump had signaled that his relationship with Musk was improving after their June spat.
The Saudi dinner presented an opening as Trump had previously invited Musk to attend meetings with him in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, in May.
