American Politics > Trump and Musk - Like a back-alley, adolescent, street fight

 

Why is it that Trump and Musk, arguably two highly intelligent, powerful men, use phrases that come straight out of adolescence?

Elon Musk drops ‘really big bomb,’ accuses Trump of being in Epstein files as public brawl escalates

By 

Josh Christenson,

 

Steven Nelson and

 

Diana Glebova

Published June 5, 2025, 3:41 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — Elon Musk went low in his rapidly escalating feud with President Trump Thursday, accusing him of withholding information from the public about the infamous sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein because it would implicate Trump himself.

“Time to drop the really big bomb,” Musk posted on X after a multi-hour tirade against the president. “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files.”

“That is the real reason they have not been made public,” he claimed. “Have a nice day, DJT!”

Elon Musk accused President Trump of being in the Epstein files.

Getty Images

The Justice Department in February released more than 100 pages of Epstein’s phone contacts and flight logs in a “Phase One” disclosure that disappointed internet sleuths hoping for bombshell revelations.

The disgraced financier’s association with Trump has been known for years as the two were videotaped and photographed together at parties in the 1990s, and the initial batch of DOJ-released files revealed the president’s name in flight logs as well as some family members — including Trump’s first wife Ivana and daughter Ivanka — as Epstein contacts.

Aides privately have acknowledged that the president’s association with Epstein likely would resurface in a fuller release of files — though they don’t believe that any alleged wrongdoing by Trump is described.

“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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”

The contact list and flight logs appeared to be pulled directly from Epstein’s “little black book,” one of which was made public in 2021 during his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial and another of which was auctioned off.

That 1990s-era contact list contains 349 names, 221 of which weren’t included in a 2015 revealing of Epstein associates by the website Gawker.

The black book being auctioned off reportedly contains 94 printed entries with “black, hand-applied checkmarks, and five have been highlighted in yellow,” according to Alexander Historical Auctions.

“All five names, including that of Donald Trump, are well-recognized financial and industrial figures,” the online auctioneer’s webpage notes.

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Here is the latest on Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s feud

• Elon Musk drops ‘really big bomb,’ accuses Trump of being in Epstein files as public brawl escalates
• Trump sounds off on Elon Musk after billionaire blasted prez’s ‘big beautiful bill’
• Tesla shares tumble as Trump, Musk escalate attacks: ‘Elon’s politics continue to harm stock’
• Musk escalates Trump feud with pointed election dig after blasting prez’s ‘big, beautiful, bill’
• President threatens to cut ‘Billions and Billions of Dollars’ in federal funding for Elon Musk’s companies as feud goes nuclear

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Online conspiracists have long speculated that high-power “clients” of Epstein visited his private island Little St. James in the Caribbean, where many young women and underage girls were allegedly abused.

Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Prince Andrew are just some of the famous passengers the financier flew on other trips aboard his private plane, later nicknamed the “Lolita Express.”

Epstein was found dead with bedsheets around his neck in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on Aug. 10, 2019, just over a month after his arrest on sex trafficking charges.

Last September, Trump said he’d have “no problem” releasing more official files related to Epstein if elected — including the deceased pedophile’s so-called “client list.” 

“I don’t think – I mean, I’m not involved,” he noted. “I never went to his island, fortunately, but a lot of people did.”

Earlier Thursday, Trump threatened to cut federal subsidies to Musk’s Tesla.

AP

The president reportedly banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago in 2007 over an incident with a club member’s teen daughter.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has demanded the complete files be turned over to the DOJ after hinting at the FBI’s New York Field Office being “in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.”

The ravings of the world’s richest man, who until last month led Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting crusade, shocked official Washington and set off speculation about Musk’s state of mind. 

One source close to the White House explained Musk’s behavior by saying that he “fundamentally has an unstable, uncontrollable element to his personality and he lashes out.”

“He’s had similar outbursts when running his companies. Sometimes greatest strength can also be greatest weakness,” this person said.

“Revenge, yes. Also, he wanted not just [electric vehicle] mandates [in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act] but a level of exclusivity for Tesla on the American EV market. And he didn’t want fresh competitors like Faraday Future & others to cramp his style.”

A second source close to the administration said there was a 50/50 chance Musk was either “just throwing a temper tantrum” or “creating distance [from Trump] thinking it’ll help [Tesla] stock price.”

A third source noted: “If Elon truly thought the President was more deeply involved with Epstein, why did he hang out with him for six months and say he ‘loves him as much as a straight man can love a straight man?’”

Democrats grab popcorn

Democrats watched the social media food fight with glee Thursday after months of flailing for traction amid unified Republican government in Washington — as Trump threatened to end billions in federal funding for SpaceX and Tesla, while Musk’s opposition threatened to tank Trump’s bill to implement campaign pledges to ax taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security.

“The Trump-Musk feud is like a reality TV episode of the ‘Real Housewives’, only with less stable people,” snarked Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committee man from New York.

“It is just further proof this is all personal and about lining their own pockets and no one is actually doing what is good for the American people,” jabbed a high-ranking former Biden White House official.

A congressional Democratic source noted that Musk was Trump’s top financial backer in the 2024 election, making the sudden onset and ferocity of the feud even more shocking.

“Now that the Trump experiment to use the richest man in the world as his cash cow drone has failed, Trump must recalibrate or this will be a real problem for him, politically and personally,” the source said.

“For Donald Trump to have not seen this coming makes you both question everything, and worry.”

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On Other Side of Border, Mexico Detaining Thousands of Migrant Children

By Patrick Timmons

Mexican immigration officials in Tamaulipas state give instructions to a group of Central American

immigrants intercepted as they crossed the country on Feb. 3. Photo by José Martínez/EPA-EFE

MEXICO CITY,  UPI  -- As the United States grapples with the separation of immigrant families, the same thing is happening across the border in Mexico.

When families with children are caught inside Mexico without papers, they are often detained in prison-like conditions and adolescents are often split from their parents.

Mexican law prohibits detaining migrant children, but it happens anyway because state-run children's shelters lack the capacity to handle the tens of thousands of children, mostly from Central American countries. Instead, Mexican immigration authorities detain children and their families and then deport them together after 60 days if there is no political asylum petition.

Official statistics show Mexico detained 16,191 migrant children from January to July 2018. Of those 8,662 were between the ages of 12 and 17; 7,529 were under age 12. Those under 12 are housed with their families; adolescents are detained separately.

Most of those apprehended under age 12 were traveling with at least one adult family member, but 432 were traveling without family.

Migrant advocates in Mexico have renewed their calls for the Mexican government to improve how it treats the migrant families and children it detains after the outcry this summer over the Trump administration's policy of separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Not a crime in Mexico

Unlike in the United States, Mexico does not criminalize the unauthorized entry of migrants, Madeleine Penman, Amnesty International's Mexico researcher, told UPI. When immigration agents discover migrants without papers they take them into custody, placing them in migrant detention centers until they are deported.

It's a policy known as "assisted return," Penman said, noting that Mexico only uses the term deportation for migrants who have violated their visa conditions.

"In 2016, more than 40,000 children were detained in immigration detention. In 2017, child detentions decreased to about 18,000, with the decline mostly because of reduced migration through Mexico. But this year, child detentions have picked up again and 16,000 children have already been through migrant detention centers," Penman said, citing official statistics from Mexico's National Migration Institute.

Most of the migrant children detained by Mexico this year come from the Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. For those under 12, almost 3,500 came from Honduras and almost 3,000 came from Guatemala, with most of these accompanied by family members.

"We've seen a number of cases of babies in detention for weeks on end, and there are mothers breastfeeding in detention centers," Penman said.

Conditions in migrant detention

"The problem is that officials -- out of negligence, out of will, or lack of capacity -- are not able to enforce the law in Mexico prohibiting child detention," said Ximena Suárez Enríquez, the Washington Office on Latin America's assistant director for Mexico, a human rights lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

Mexican immigration authorities can only detain irregular migrants. Political asylum seekers are not detained and are instead released into the community until their application is processed and approved.

Mexico's Human Rights Ombudsman has a dedicated office for migrant rights, headed by Edgar Corzo. The ombudsman has called for Mexican authorities to comply with the law prohibiting detention of migrant children.

The ombudsman issued a recommendation for implementing effective migrant child protection in May in a case of an adolescent Honduran girl arrested in Guanajuato and held in Mexico City's Iztapapala migrant detention facility, where she was raped. She filed a complaint against the facility. But Mexico's immigration authorities deported her to Honduras before an investigation could occur.

Lack of legal protection

Many of the state-run community shelters are similar to the migrant detention facilities, afflicted by negligence, abuse and lack of legal protection.

"Mexican federal and state laws are meant to protect all children," said Alberto Xicotencatl Carrasco, director of the Casa del Migrante in Saltillo, a migrant shelter run by the Catholic Church. "But what happens with migrant children and their families is that federal and state authorities pass the buck off between each other, leaving children in legal limbo and so children do not receive appropriate protection."

"There are many unaccompanied children and the federal immigration authorities send them to state-run children's shelters. But these shelters aren't equipped to provide these children with legal representation and so the child just remains in the shelter. Should they be given political asylum or repatriated? The state-run shelter cannot handle those questions. We have seen cases where unaccompanied migrant children are in state-run shelters for more than a year because they don't have legal representation and they don't have legal status in Mexico," Carrasco said.

The detention facilities and state-run community shelters in Tapachula, Chiapas, illustrate the problems. It's the first Mexican city many migrants encounter traveling north from Guatemala en route to the United States.

Tapachula's migrant detention center is Mexico's largest, and a hub for Mexico's detention of Central Americans crossing from Guatemala. Other large migrant detention facilities are in Veracruz and Mexico City.

In 2015 and 2016, a Citizen's Council with unprecedented access to Mexico's migrant detention centers calculated that 2,000 Central American children arrived in Tapachula each month.

Tapachula's state-run children's shelter has capacity for 64 children.

The children's shelters' minuscule capacity means that Tapachula's migrant detention facility is the only facility Mexican authorities can use to house children detained by immigration authorities.

Hope for change

Migrant advocates are hopeful for change with Mexico's new president taking office on Dec. 1. Corzo recently called on president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador to end the practice of detaining migrant children.

López Obrador campaigned on a message of wanting Mexico to welcome migrants. His nominee for Interior Minister, Olga Sanchez, also said she wants "a more humane, more empathetic policy" toward migrants. The Interior Ministry runs Mexico's immigration enforcement system.

Sanchez said last week Mexico would not be a policeman for migrants for the United States.

Until, and unless the USA gets involved in improving the lives of people in Central America, this migration will continue. America is of the habit of taking from 3rd world countries and is reaping the consequences of that most unChristian attitude. It's time to start giving back or become part of Latin America with its uncontrollable crime, violence and corruption.

Marketplace Tests Today's Marijuana and Finds It Very Dangerous for Under 25s

What's in your pot? Marketplace tests today's weed

As Ottawa prepares to legalize recreational marijuana, Marketplace investigation shows how weed has changed

By Tyana Grundig and David Common, CBC News 

    Marijuana is still illegal in Canada, but there’s been a proliferation of shops that allow people to

    walk in off the street and buy the product for medical or recreational purpose

    (Ron Ward/Canadian Press)

Marijuana legalization is looming in Canada, but what's in today's weed — and what isn't — may surprise you.

CBC's Marketplace looked into the marijuana market ahead of the legalization of recreational pot, which is expected to be introduced through legislation in spring 2017 and to take effect in 2018.

When producers visited seven Toronto dispensaries and collected 12 of the most popular marijuana strains, laboratory test results showed average THC levels of around 20 per cent. THC is the active ingredient that provides pot's high.

Some strains reached as high at 30 per cent THC, much higher than pot in the 1970s, when levels in Canada hovered between two to eight per cent, according to Jonathan Page, an adjunct professor of botany at the University of British Columbia.

Study after study points to the attributes of combining THC and CBD. The science isn't settled, but  research suggests CBD can mitigate some of the negative effects that can happen with high-THC weed, including anxiety, paranoia, and psychosis.

CBD is also the focus of much research on possible medicinal benefits in treating everything from childhood epilepsy to schizophrenia and arthritis.

Dr. Steven Laviolette says teenagers are particularly at risk when it comes to marijuana use, especially when it comes to high-THC pot. (Marketplace/CBC)

Dr. Steven Laviolette, a neuroscientist and one of Canada's top researchers into the effects of marijuana on the brain, says the lab findings are cause for alarm.

"There's basically nothing to put a brake on the psychological and neurophysical effects," he says of the findings.

Laviolette, who is based out of Western University in London, Ont., has spent 12 years researching the effect of marijuana chemicals on the brains and behaviours of adolescent rats. He found that when the teenage rat brain is exposed to high THC levels, it can produce paranoia, or even schizophrenia-like symptoms in the animals. CBD, however, can reverse schizophrenia-like symptoms, according to his research.

Buying pot on the spot

The Toronto-area dispensaries whose products Marketplace tested were chosen at random, but each of the selected shops allowed customers to buy marijuana on the spot.

Several locations had the veneer of medical dispensaries, with many requiring customers to fill out medical history forms. One location described itself as a recreational dispensary and only required proof of age to enter. Like all the other dispensaries Marketplace visited, the minimum age at that shop was 19.

Marijuana dispensaries in Canada are operating illegally, but are widespread.

Marketplace bought whichever strains came recommended as popular by store staff or other customers.

The samples were sent to an accredited lab to test for THC and CBD levels.

Half of the samples (six strains) came labelled with their THC content — ranging from 13 to 23 per cent. One sample included a CBD percentage, listed at one per cent.

Testing showed that many of the labels were not accurate; only two of the labelled samples fell within one percentage point of what was listed. And many of the samples contained more THC than listed.

For example, one sample said it contained 13 per cent THC, but testing showed it contained 18 per cent. Another sample contained only half of what was promised. Of the unlabelled samples, THC content ranged between 15 and 30 per cent.

None of the samples contained a detectable level of CBD

Will 'high-potency' products be regulated?

Dr. Mark Ware, an associate professor of family medicine and anesthesia at McGill University who is serving as vice-chair of the federal task force on the legalization and regulation of marijuana,  says there's some suggestion that cannabis has been bred to boost THC levels and push down CBD levels.

Some suggestion? Hello?

Northwoods Ministries: Does Pot make you Crazy?
'Skunk-Like Cannabis' Increases Risk of Psychosis by 3 to 5 Times
More Research on the Dangerous Effects of Marijuana on the Brain
Northwoods Ministries: Pot, Schizophrenia, and The Truth
Northwoods Ministries: Playing Russian Roulette with Your Sanity

CBD, he notes, "hasn't been of interest to the recreational market or growers because it doesn't cause that euphoric potential.

Ware, who thinks more research is needed on the interaction between THC and CBD, says in a "perfect world" buyers would have access to a "sort of fingerprint of every cannabis molecule, every cannabis product."

"Just like the list of ingredients that you have in a good product."

When asked whether he thinks CBD should be in all marijuana, he says he's interested to see how "CBD and THC levels play out in a recreational, non-medical framework." But he says it's "way too early to recommend" to make it a requirement, citing the need for a better understanding of cannabidiol.

Then it is way too early to legalize marijuana.

Health Canada told Marketplace in an email that the task force has been asked to advise on whether there should be limits on THC potency, or on "high-potency" marijuana products.

The task force has yet to release its recommendations.

"But we've talked about regulating the ingredients of the product so that people know what's in it, regulating the potency, regulating the quality," says Ware, who also directs clinical research at a pain management unit at McGill in Montreal.

How to decide who is old enough to buy?

Also on the legalization task force's agenda? The minimum age to buy legal marijuana, which is expected to be between 19 and 25.

Most scientists now agree that critical brain development continues to age 25.

Setting the age at 25 might send a message to some teens that there is a problem with developing brains and pot. Setting it at 18 or 19 is just confirmation in the teenage mind that there is nothing wrong with it. Of course, most teens will ignore the warning, but the few who are bright enough to listen might just save their own sanity.

Laviolette says there will surely be quibbles about what the exact minimum age should be, but he cautions that teenagers are particularly vulnerable.

Ware, the task force member, agrees that marijuana can be harmful to the developing brain, and argues that legislation can help.

"Regulation includes education," he says, and will offer both young people — and adults— a better understanding of what's known about marijuana use, and what science is still trying to sort out.

Education - like that's going to help teens make better decisions as to what pot products to use. Most teens will go for whatever makes them the highest without regard for whether or not there is an increased risk of sheer madness. Teens are gamblers and risks are part of the fun. 

Why would we expect teens to make good decisions about pot when we have dozens of adults shooting themselves up on the streets of Vancouver with cocaine laced with fentanyl or car-fentanyl and overdosing to the point where they need emergency treatment within minutes to keep them alive? Pop musician Prince died from a fentanyl overdose. When it comes to drugs, education and common sense have no part.

Fentanyl
Between January and September, at least 332 overdose deaths in Vancouver were linked to fentanyl, according to the British Columbia Coroners Service. That’s a 196 per cent increase from the same period in 2015 –- and emergency response crews fear the problem is getting worse.

On Thursday, fire hall No. 2 received 15 calls for overdoses within a three-hour period.

There are volunteer groups administering naloxone, an antidote for fentanyl overdosing, and there are temporary 'safe injection sites' popping up in east Vancouver because the permanent sites are all full to overflowing. This is more than just a drug problem, it's a serious, even catastrophic societal problem, and I'm hard pressed to see how the government is doing anything but making it worse.

Watch the full Marketplace investigation into marijuana

Is Your Teen Smoking Pot? Is She Still Sane?

Turns out getting stoned on marijuana carries much more dire consequences for teenagers than for adults — at least if you’re a rat and part of a new study released Monday by researchers in London.

Researchers at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry have published a study that shows that the psychoactive component of marijuana caused long-term harm on the adolescent brains of rats, producing changes similar to what is found in schizophrenia.

“Adolescence is a critical period of brain development and the adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable,” said Steven Laviolette, a professor in the departments of anatomy and cell biology, and psychiatry. “Health policy makers need to ensure that marijuana, especially marijuana strains with high THC levels, stays out of the hands of teenagers. In contrast, our findings suggest that adult use of marijuana does not pose substantial risk.” (of Schizophrenia)

After adolescent rodents were exposed to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the psychoactive component in marijuana – researchers found substantial and persistent behavioural, neuronal and molecular changes that are identical to neuropsychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia.

Adolescent rodents with THC exposure were socially withdrawn, and had increased anxiety, cognitive disorganization and abnormal levels of dopamine – all factors present in clinical populations of schizophrenia. These changes continued into early adulthood, well past the initial exposure.

Adult rodents showed no harmful long-term effects, though both adolescents and adults exposed to THC experienced deficits in social cognition and memory.

As suggested in previous posts, aside from the risks of developing Schizophrenia, estimated at 1 in 6 for kids under 16, there are other consequences I have observed that science is just starting to get a grip on. That is the complete cessation of the maturing process for regular users. People who start using pot regularly, say weekly, at 15, will often continue to act, dress, talk, and think like a 15 year old. It may contribute to the epidemic of adults who still talk and act like adolescents, for instance. Michael Jackson used to mainline THC at night to get to sleep.

With the common use of marijuana by teenagers and the federal government’s move toward legalizing marijuana, researchers say that pot should be kept out of the hands of teens.

“Our research improves our knowledge of how adolescent exposure to THC may lead to the onset of schizophrenia in adulthood,” lead author Justine Renard said. “With the current rise in adolescent cannabis use and the increasing THC content in newer cannabis strains, it is critically important to highlight the risk factors associated with exposure to marijuana, particularly during adolescence.”

Researchers identified and performed tests in areas of behaviour that are commonly observed in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders, such as social interaction, motivation and cognition, exploratory behaviours, levels of anxiety, cognitive disorganization (the inability to filter out unnecessary information), and various neuronal and molecular changes.

The study was published online in the January issue of Cerebral Cortex.