Musk goes nuclear on Trump with Epstein: Will DeSantis step in for 2028?

Will Stephen & Katie Miller’s real marriage survive this?

Welcome back to The Red Letter.

I never thought the breakup between Donald Trump and Elon Musk would be this messy… Earlier this week, I was pressure testing administration sources and Trump’s allies to see how they saw the inevitable breakup playing out after Musk blasted Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill. Some suggested the obvious, that Musk would terrorize House and Senate candidates who back the bills by putting millions of dollars behind their primary challengers, but they noted that Musk has bad political instincts and thought he’d get distracted with Tesla. Others, like Steve Bannon, said Musk, a man without a party or even a country, will go hard Left to save Tesla.

“Stephen A. Smith could run as a Democrat and he could write him a check,” Bannon told me. “You have to be careful with Elon. He could do a 180 on Tesla, he could say, ‘Trump’s a monster, he wants to burn up the earth.’ He could go back to climate change. He could say ‘They want to drill, baby, drill.’ The fucking Left would embrace him in a New York second.”

It seems hard to imagine the Democrats taking him back after all of the heinous, racist comments he’s made. He would need to self-flagulate, write a whopping check, and shut up forever, and I’m not even sure that would fly.

And then there were some who correctly predicted that he could end up backing an anti-Trump candidate in the 2028 Presidential cycle.

But by the time that it became apparent that Ron DeSantis was raising his hand to be that person, full-on World War III broke out. Trump suggested they cut Musk’s government subsidies and contracts to pay for his tax cuts, and then Musk claimed Trump won’t release the Jeffrey Epstein files because he’s in them. Musk went even further, agreeing with a tweet that Trump should be impeached.

I’ve reported extensively on Trump’s relationship with Epstein, including interviewing Brad Edwards who subpoenaed him for a victim’s case. More on that deposition below.

This may seem like Jerry Springer, but the Republican party hangs in the balance with this feud. All day, operatives for high-level House and Senate campaigns have been trying to reach Musk’s political advisor Chris Young to find out if this meltdown is legit or a bargaining chip.

By 4pm it became