Well, well, well. The entirely predictable yet explosive end to Donald Trump‘s relationship with oligarch Elon Musk was catnip for late night hosts on Thursday evening, with the likes of Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and Michael Kosta fully leaning into their glee at the billionaire breakup.
Trump and Musk’s previously mutually beneficial bromance has ended in a messy and very public divorce, after growing tensions over the Tesla and SpaceX boss’ declining influence at the White House, failures at DOGE and Trump’s hugely controversial “Big Beautiful Bill” that Musk feels will explode the U.S. deficit. Musk has spent the last few days tweeting his displeasure about the “debt slavery bill” that was “a disgusting abomination.” Things came to a head on Thursday, when Trump fired back at Musk, suggesting the Tesla CEO was salty and went “crazy” over the removal of EV credits in the spending bill. That led to a frankly unbelievable social media cat fight that escalated to the point where Musk alleged that the reason why the Epstein Files had not been released was because Trump’s name was in them.
On the Late Show, a giddy Stephen Colbert ran through the entire Trump-Musk back and forth. After showing a brief clip of the president saying he “helped Elon a lot,” Colbert impersonated Trump and said, “it’s true. I’ve helped Elon a lot during the campaign. I helped him declutter his bank account of $288 million. He would hand me every dollar out, hold it, and I would say ‘this one sparks joy.’ And in the pocket it goes safe and sound with Daddy.”
Recapping some of the social media posts between the two men, Colbert said, “Trump escalated by threatening Musk, [reading a post] ‘The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts. I was always surprised Biden didn’t do it.’ To which Elon Musk replied, ‘go ahead, make my day.’”
“Oh, you two bitches have already made mine,” Colbert replied with relish.
The Late Show host then moved on to Musk’s Epstein bombshell, and wondered if this phase of the Twitter war was a “Cheesy Gordita Crunchwrap Supreme? Because it’s dripping hot, messy filth, and I’m eating up every sloppy bites.”
Mimicking Musk’s accent and mannerisms, Colbert said, “Donald Trump, was a sexual predator that preyed on young women, which is something I’ve only decided to tell you because he hurt my feelings. I am the hero of the story!”
Wrapping up the feud, Colbert joked that “the most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world, each with their own missiles, are throwing haymakers at each other, like Real Housewives on a girls trip. He added, “This could easily get out of control, but thankfully, a cooler head has stepped in to calm things down. Kanye tweeted, ‘Broooos please noooooo [hug emoji]. We love you both so much.’ Ye has entered the chat! Kanye, Elon and Trump? The easiest game of f**k, marry, kill! Because obviously I’d kill myself. You know things are bad when the rational voice mediating your dispute is Kanye West.”
Over at Jimmy Kimmel Live!, host Jimmy Kimmel admitted that the Trump-Musk going nuclear had derailed his planned monologue. Kimmel zeroed in on the Epstein allegation, “Whoa! You know, I knew this day would come and yet, somehow, it’s even better than I imagined. It’s like coming downstairs on Christmas morning, finding a second tree.”
Kimmel continued on the Epstein issue, “That’s a serious accusation. What does Elon know? What evidence could there possibly be that Trump was in league with Jeffrey Epstein…” Kimmel then showed several pictures and clips of Trump and Epstein socializing together. “I don’t know what information Elon has, but I doubt he’s just making it up because it’s not true. He could get sued for a zillion dollars for something like this,” Kimmel added.
“I feel bad for Donald Trump. I mean, first, he lost Jeffrey Epstein. Now, he’s running out of friends. This is so hard for everyone, except me, of course,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel ended by saying, “There’s a huge faction of the MAGA-verse that is obsessed with the Jeffrey Epstein case. They see any list of names any lunatic posts anywhere online, they treat them like they’re the Dead Sea Scrolls. But now you’ve got one MAGA hero accusing another MAGA hero of withholding the Epstein Files because he himself is a part of them. And what do they do? I can’t wait to find out. At the end of this one of them’s in a cell with Diddy, that’s what I think.”
The Late Late Show‘s Seth Meyers touched upon the Trump-Musk feud during his “Closer Look” segment, hinting that the late breaking news meant he could only touch on the break-up rather than devote all his energies to it.
Recapping a dizzying day, Meyers said, “In the span of three hours, they went from Elon criticizing the bill, to Trump threatening to take Elon’s contracts away, to Elon suggesting the Trump might be a pedophile. Also, if we are to take you at your word Elon, you already knew that, and it wasn’t a dealbreaker.”
Meyers added, “It’s clear as ever that neither of these guys really believed in anything. Elon spending $300 million to get Republicans elected and now he’s shocked that they’re doing the thing everyone said they would do. And in the process, Trump used Elon to get back into power. You know, in a way, they were right, watching these guys destroy is both big and beautiful.”
On Thursday’s edition The Daily Show, Michael Kosta’s monologue also recapped a wild day describing the break-up as “World War Douche.” Kosta was incredulous at the thought of two incredibly rich and powerful men debasing themselves so publicly. “Can we just point out how crazy 2025 is?” Kosta said. “Most people can’t afford to eat eggs anymore. Meanwhile, these two billionaires are attacking each other from different social media platforms that they each own. Maybe we should eat the rich?”
Regarding the Epstein accusation, Kosta said, “It’s not a big surprise that Trump might be in the Epstein Files. We’ve seen the party together. Of course, Trump is in the Epstein Files. This is like saying, ‘guys, they’re aliens in The X-Files.’ Yeah, obviously. But for his own best friend/sugar daddy to say this, that is huge. Although I like [how Musk ended his tweet with] ‘have a nice day.’ I don’t know if Trump is, but I sure am.”
And lastly, The Tonight Show‘s Jimmy Fallon also touched upon the feud. “Trump and Elon have been brutally attacking each other all day, seriously, the relationship went completely off a cliff faster than a self-driving Tesla. I’m not saying it’s bad right now, but Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are saying, ‘guys take it easy, this is getting out of hand.’”
