Elon Musk has built his reputation as a man who never backs down—a tech gladiator convinced he’s always right. When he responds to criticism, it’s usually to mock it. The word sorry doesn’t live in his vocabulary. Or at least, it didn’t.
For the first time, the billionaire Tesla CEO engaged in an unprecedented act of humility.
On June 11th, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO did something shocking: he explicitly apologized. And not just to anyone—to Donald J. Trump, the president with whom he very publicly severed ties just six days earlier in a barrage of social media posts that stunned the MAGA movement and fractured the online right where their alliance, forged last year to help return Trump to the White House, had been widely celebrated.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week,” the tech mogul posted on X (formerly Twitter), his platform. “They went too far.”
The post quickly garnered nearly 20 million views as of this writing. No follow-up. No memes. His uncharacteristic conciseness underscores the profound damage he’s done by going scorched-earth on President Trump, a figure who has successfully cultivated a cult following within the American right.
The posts Musk alludes to are presumably those where he expressed support for impeaching President Trump, suggesting Vice President J.D. Vance as a replacement. More significantly, he’s referring to the one where he dropped what he called the “big bomb.”
“Time to drop the really big bomb,” Musk posted on June 5. “Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That’s the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day.”
This tweet, which he later deleted, escalated his feud with Trump to a point of no return. It also sewed significant confusion and unease within the MAGA movement and the far-right, for whom the infamous Epstein files have become a central obsession within conspiracy circles.
In these circles, Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019, is seen not just as a predator but as the gatekeeper to a mythical list of elites who abused underage girls. That list, they believe, includes top Democrats and liberal icons. For the conspiracy-minded right, Epstein’s plea deal during the initial sex trafficking investigation is seen as proof that key information is being deliberately withheld. The fact that Epstein died in his cell while Trump was president is irrelevant to them.
In fact, Trump himself leaned into the conspiracy while campaigning in 2024, promising to release “the full Epstein files” on Day One of his return to the White House.
When the first portion of the documents was finally released in February, it revealed little beyond what was already public knowledge, prompting outrage among Trump’s supporters on social media. Kash Patel, the FBI director appointed by Trump, and his deputy, Dan Bongino, both of whom had previously promoted the conspiracy theory, became targets of this frustration.
Patel and Bongino have spent the past few weeks doing damage control across right-wing media, insisting there’s no cover-up.
“I’ve been putting out the truth my entire career,” Patel said in a June 5 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the same day Musk made the outlandish accusation against Trump. “Why would I risk all of it on this guy?”
Musk’s post didn’t help. He merely added fuel to the fire. While many of his followers praised his willingness to admit fault, others had a far more pressing question: Is it true that Trump is linked to Epstein?
“So did you lie about him being on the Epstein list?” asked one user, who goes by “professional racist.”
“You said that Trump was in the Epstein files — don’t try to backtrack now. Did someone threaten you?” another chimed in.
A common refrain was along the lines of “What about the one calling him a pedo?”
“Since you guys are back together, this can be used to clarify your claim regarding Trump’s name on the Epstein list,” someone suggested.
One curious poster asked, “Did you lie or do you just not mind that he is a predator?”
“So which one is it? Is he in the Epstein files, or did you just lie about it?” a confused follower wanted to know.
“Some? Which ones? You called the Commander-in-Chief a pedo. You not only hurt his reputation, you hurt his family. Friendly fire is the worst,” a MAGA diehard insisted.
Given the numerous comments in this vein, Musk’s regrets are unlikely to extinguish the fire he ignited.
Trump and Epstein, both prominent members of the New York jet set, did cross paths, a fact the president acknowledged in a 2002 interview with The New Yorker, stating he had known Epstein for 15 years. Last fall, controversial journalist Michael Wolff played tapes of an interview with Epstein recorded in 2017 in which Epstein described himself as Trump’s “closest friend.” However, the appearance of Trump’s name in criminal files related to Epstein does not imply that he was complicit in the crimes attributed to the multimillionaire.
So, basically, we find ourselves in a familiar position. Elon Musk has implied someone is a pedophile or at least involved in nefarious activities involving one. The people who could clear that up aren’t doing much to help. And Musk’s quest to rectify his public position carries on.
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