Musk Calls for Trump’s Impeachment and Implies He Is a Pedophile

By Ben Mathis-Lilley

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June 05, 20256:05 PM

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.

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Well, people have predicted for a long time that there would be a falling-out between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, two narcissists with a tendency to blame other people for their many self-inflicted problems. And now it’s very much happening!

The background: Trump is trying to pass his One Big Beautiful Bill Act through Congress, legislation featuring enormous tax cuts that will increase the federal deficit by an estimated $2.4 trillion. Musk, meanwhile, was already moping around about how his work with the Department of Governmental Efficiency had not succeeded in slashing enough money from the federal budget (which is in large part because Musk never really seemed to understand how the United States government works or what it actually spends money on). This week, his frustration boiled over when Musk denounced the Trump budget as “pork” and demanded that Republicans in Congress refuse to pass it.

At what was supposed to be a Thursday press conference about his meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump took a moment to address Musk’s comments, essentially announcing that the world’s richest man was being exiled from the presidential inner circle:

In response, Musk threatened to launch a new political party:

Trump, responding himself, said Musk had been annoying him for a long time, then threatened to terminate the considerable number of government contracts that benefit Musk’s SpaceX company:

At this point, things really got quite rude, with Musk implying that Trump took part in the sexual abuse of minors with the late Jeffrey Epstein:

To be clear, there is no evidence that this is true, or even that Musk is referring to real, actual files, although it is true that Trump and Epstein were friendly, and that minors who competed in the Miss Teen USA competition complained that Trump walked into their dressing room while they were changing clothes.

Musk then retweeted a prominent far-right user who called for Trump to be impeached and replaced by Vice President J.D. Vance, writing, “yes.” He also said he would “immediately” begin decommissioning the Dragon space shuttle, which carries astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Could be bad news for the four astronauts who are up there now.

No response to any of this from the president, although right-wing nationalist Steve Bannon—who has always been suspicious of Musk’s foreign birth and ties to international corporate capital—is calling for him to be deported (and, honestly, with this administration, is anything out of the question here?).

Look, the record of Donald Trump’s second term so far is one of illegal overreach, naked corruption, and dalliance with catastrophe. Its lasting effects could include the end of the United States’ primacy in world affairs and the permanent kneecapping of its prosperity. The qualities that for hundreds of years have made the U.S. a destination for the world’s brightest and hardest-working strivers are being destroyed by men and women whose unfamiliarity with the subjects under their control is matched only by their history of being into weird Nazi stuff online. Trump himself seems to be getting mentally slower and often appears unfamiliar with actions taken by his own government. It’s bad stuff.

On the other hand, this—today—is all pretty funny. Unless you’re an astronaut.