Musk backs call to impeach Trump, replace him with Vance

Tech billionaire Elon Musk backed a call to impeach President Trump on Thursday, one of the latest swipes at the president by the billionaire in an ongoing war of words between the former allies.

“President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him,” Ian Miles Cheong, a Malaysia-based right-wing writer, said in a Thursday afternoon post on Musk’s social platform X.

“Yes,” Musk said in response to Cheong’s post about 20 minutes later.

On Thursday, Trump and Musk’s relationship quickly fell apart in a very public way. In an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the president told reporters that he was “very surprised” and “very disappointed” in Musk, who has recently mounted a campaign against the president’s signature policy bill.

In response, Musk claimed on social media that he was behind the president’s November 2024 election victory. He also alleged in a midafternoon post on X that Trump had ties to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

“Time to drop the really big bomb,” Musk said in the X post. “[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.”

“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out,” Musk said in a subsequent post.

In his first Truth Social post after Musk’s Epstein files claim, Trump touted the House’s “big, beautiful bill” and suggested Musk should’ve turned against him a long time ago.

“I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn’t pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that. I didn’t create this mess, I’m just here to FIX IT. This puts our Country on a Path of Greatness. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The White House responded later Thursday to Musk’s and Cheong’s posts.

“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an emailed statement to The Hill in response to the posts.

Updated at 7:04 p.m. EDT