Jeffrey Epstein has been dead for almost six years, but conspiracies surrounding his toxic legacy continue to animate Republican politics.

No one understands that better than Elon Musk, who is now gleefully and expertly wielding it against President Donald Trump. It’s the Tesla CEO’s tacit reminder to the president that he understands the president’s coalition and its pressure points — and he has no qualms about squeezing them.

Epstein — the disgraced New York financier with a private island allegedly used for sex trafficking minors and as a getaway for his powerful friends — died in 2019 while under surveillance in prison. Since then, the circumstances of his death have become the subject of what is arguably MAGA’s best-known and most enduring conspiracy theory. To many in the movement, Epstein was a manifestation of the degenerate behavior that they believe marks elite American society. And his violent fate confirmed to them the lengths to which moneyed elites — with the help of the so-called deep state — will go to cover up their crimes.

Trump’s election was supposed to bring about a reckoning. Many MAGA adherents expected the new president and a reconstituted Justice Department would shine a spotlight on Epstein’s alleged “secret client list” and the truth behind his death while in custody.

When that didn’t come — a Justice Department memo released Monday stated that there was no evidence Epstein had a “secret client list” and that Epstein died by suicide —it was not received well by the online right and many of the president’s most ardent supporters.

Musk has learned a few things since joining Trump onstage to endorse him last year, bankrolling his presidential campaign and romping around the Oval Office and Cabinet meetings. Among them: how to stir up the MAGA base.

It explains why, as he publicly feuds with Trump, Musk has picked the Epstein scab over and over in the past 24 hours — he posted or reposted Epstein-related complaints about the Trump administration eight times on X, sandwiched in between posts about his potential new political party. Some of the posts include an old clip of him on Joe Rogan’s podcast in which he stated “Whenever they raided Epstein’s place, there would have been a mountain of evidence. Where is that mountain? … The public will be rightly frustrated if no one is prosecuted.” Then came a very simple question: “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?” That post has over 483,000 likes and has been viewed 47 million times on X.

In June, when Musk and Trump had their first public feud, Musk employed the same trick. He played the Epstein card right away, signaling to Trump that he was no ordinary political foe. In a now deleted post, Musk wrote, “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Musk understands a simple fact about Trump’s most devoted supporters: They believe Trump when he says he’ll drain the swamp, when he rails against the elites and when he insists that he will look into the conspiracies that have proliferated online, whether about Epstein or anything else. When Trump is perceived to be failing at that, it’s far more damaging than any criticism Democrats throw at the president.

Some of Trump’s best-known allies have given voice to the anger and deep frustration over the lack of Epstein revelations.

“The whole thing that this tape shows that he didn’t kill himself is like a joke, but worse than that it’s a joke that we all get. I feel like we’re at a dangerous point now,” Tucker Carlson said.

“Now, by coming in and becoming part of the coverup, the Trump administration has become part of it. You cannot see it any other way,” Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said in a video recorded in his car. “So, I just got to the office, I’m going to throw up actually. This only happens every few years when something really, really bad happens, I’m physically going to puke probably right now.”

In a press conference on Tuesday, Trump inadvertently revealed that it’s gotten under his skin. He responded to a question about Epstein by saying, “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years … are people still talking about this guy, this creep? … I can’t believe you’re asking a question about Epstein.”

Musk, who seems to be on X all day, every day, understands the MAGA ecosystem perfectly. The new political party he’s called for might not take off. But where the billionaire mogul can be a formidable enemy is online, where he controls the levers of the X algorithm and can shape public opinion around questions that are fundamental to Trump’s appeal and his connection to the party base. He knows MAGA-world and how to push its buttons. And he’s not afraid to do so, starting with thorny questions about a long dead sexual deviant that he won’t let go away.

(C) 2025 Politico