War of the Right-Wing Populists – How Elon Musk Shakes Donald Trump with a Single Sentence

It wasn't the first time Elon Musk wielded his verbal wrecking ball. But what he posted on his platform X on June 5, 2025, was more than a provocation. It was a frontal assault – personal, political, explosive. In a single sentence, Musk brought the unspeakable into the public discourse: "@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!" One sentence, an abyss. For it touches perhaps the most dangerous taboo of the American power elite: the Epstein case. The file of a deceased sex offender who remains ever-present in the narrative of American shame. For years, victims, journalists, and activists have demanded the full disclosure of the so-called Epstein Files – and for months, even parts of the MAGA camp have wondered why President Trump has repeatedly delayed their release.

Now, of all people, Elon Musk says what many only whispered: Donald Trump himself is part of these files – and that's precisely why they have not been fully released. It's a rupture that could hardly be more dramatic. Just a year ago, Musk was the declared star of the Trump era 2.0 – the tech mogul who took over the new "Department of Government Efficiency," the evangelist of innovation, the man who was supposed to dismantle the "Deep State." Now, Trump calls him a madman. He claims to have "fired" Musk and stopped his "electric car mandate" – after which Musk supposedly went crazy. The public mudslinging takes on the dimensions of a Shakespearean power struggle: wounded vanity, sacrificed loyalty, impending downfall.

But what if Musk isn't acting out of spite? What if there's a deeper plan behind his attack – or simply a remnant of conscience? Because he's not just making a rhetorical point; he's planting a time bomb: "Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out." The reactions didn't take long. The MAGA camp is rumbling. The long-promised Epstein documents, whose first "phase" Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi had already presented in February – grandly staged, but in truth insignificant – have yet to be followed up. The public waits. The victims wait. And part of the right begins to doubt: Why is their president hesitating?

Trump, who in 2002 called Epstein a "terrific guy," was later mentioned in court documents – among other things, in connection with Virginia Giuffre, whose dramatic suicide earlier this year triggered a wave of dismay. Although Trump was never criminally charged – the shadow cast by this past can no longer be smiled away. What follows is a war of alpha males. Musk, the flamboyant destroyer, against Trump, the president of escalation. For both, the law is secondary, the stage crucial, their own ego sacred. But as they tear each other apart, more than political theater looms: the self-destruction of a movement that long claimed to stand for truth and transparency – and whose icons now themselves become symbols of the darkness they once claimed to fight against.

It's a power struggle, a war of faith, a disintegration in the glaring light of the public eye. And while Musk prepares his next tweet and Trump stages his next appearance, one truth remains inescapable: Those who fight with right-wing populists can only lose – even if they are one themselves.

In the coming days, we will also report on Peter Thiel in connection with the Epstein files – the co-founder of Palantir, whose software is now used by police authorities in Germany. The entanglements run deeper than they appear at first glance.