The Unlikely Trump–Musk–Zelensky–Putin–Epstein Connection

0:00You're listening to Newsweek Radio. Irreverent news talk and opinion without agenda. From the 72nd floor of One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. This is Newsweek Radio with your host, Jesse Edwards. Today's top trending headlines at Newsweek.com. Links are in the descriptions depending on the way you're listening with a little bit of satire thrown in for today's measure. But first, the top headline, Trump makes major shift on Ukraine-Russia war. Bullshit. Yes, he's now saying that Ukraine can recapture its land and that Russia is nothing but a paper tiger, which is kind of like a taco. It could be that Russia is a paper tiger.

0:36I don't know what they are, but three and a half years of fighting and killing everybody. of killing 7 ,000 people a week, the Ukraine and Russia situation. But I thought that was going to be the easiest one because of my relationship with Putin. But unfortunately, that relationship didn't mean anything, unfortunately. But I feel that way. I really do feel that way. Let them get their land back. I can't wait to see how MAGA spins this one, because you've got to know that's a tough pill to swallow for the isolationist America First crowd, right? No, I'm not trying to invalidate their arguments.

1:05But I am more afraid of this pendulum swinging too far towards the right when we had a relatively neutral position up until this point of simply supplying Ukraine with the weapons they needed to defend themselves and not getting involved directly. But now Donald Trump is signaling that he's ready to start World War 3 over this. I mean, that was the warning we'd all been hearing from the far right of America First crowd, right? That this isn't our war and that Zelensky was a corrupt Nazi and that we shouldn't test Putin because he'll trigger the nuclear holocaust. But now that Trump has flipped on a dime as he so often does, MAGA hats are being forced yet again to abandon their own America First doctrine in order to fall in line with their dear orange leader.

1:43I can imagine that many of them will pivot with Trump as the diehards so often do, but it's important to remember that the seed of distrust has already taken root with many conservatives over his shady behavior around the Epstein scandal, and now they're being asked to side with Zelensky. I think it's great because many people, especially on the far right, are quite simply waking up to the fact that Donald Trump is no more a conservative than he is an opportunist floating from grift to grift, doing anything he can to increase his personal net worth and abuse the authority given to him by the people to lead.

2:16That's not to say we shouldn't support Trump's sudden shift on Ukraine because it's better late than never. Because you can always count on Americans to do the right thing after they've tried everything else. No, there is no record of Winston Churchill ever saying that, actually. But it must be true, otherwise people wouldn't keep saying it. I wish I could applaud Trump's dramatic and sudden shift to being on Ukraine's side of this idiotic war that the weasel-faced KGB thug Putin unleashed on innocent civilians. I should be able to admire Trump's ability to change his opinion after receiving new information about such an important issue because we should all be able to recognize when people see the light and adapt accordingly.

2:53But I just can't see it like that because Trump isn't acting out of compassion for Ukraine here. He's acting out of pure spite and vengeance because he feels personally duped by Putin. And I also can't help but ask myself what's changed. Why the falling out now? It kind of reminds me of all the other times that Trump has had a public falling out with another rich guy like, I don't know, Elon Musk or even Jeffrey Epstein. Oh, the humanity. Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? I know. How could I possibly tie all of these three things together? Well, buckle up, buttercup. I think it might actually have something to do with Jeffrey Epstein.

3:30I can't exactly prove it, but I am going to ask you to look at the timeline with me for just a minute if you want to put on your tinfoil hats. There we go. All right, now stay with me for just a minute here. It is well known that the Russian KGB loves to use what they call Compromat. It's basically a Russian word for compromising material. Much like the kind of compromising material that creeps like Jeffrey Epstein like to gather on rich and powerful men who came to his island to abuse underage girls. They secretly record everything so they can use it against you for financial, political, or even personal gains, and therefore have a loophole to control the most powerful people on the planet accordingly.

4:05This is the deep state and how it operates coming into focus. But here's where it gets interesting. I have a suspicion, a theory, yes, even possibly a conspiracy theory, that Donald Trump had his falling out with Putin not because he keeps murdering civilians in Ukraine, but because Putin unleashed the compromise that he had on Donald Trump through a proxy. That proxy was Elon Musk, who told the world in a soon-after-deleted tweet that Donald Trump was on the Epstein list. I kind of have chills as I say that out loud because I haven't heard anyone else out there propose this as even a theory. And there could be something to it.

4:38It could also be nothing. But it also looks like there could be something there because at least this imaginary scenario would explain a few things, like why these three men, who were all seemingly best friends, predictably turned into mortal enemies before Trump had been back in the White House for less than a year. The assumption would have to mean that Elon Musk is acting on behalf of and or taking orders from Putin directly. And that Trump then would be possibly more involved in the Epstein scandal than the public is aware, which is entirely possible. The only missing piece here is why Putin would find the need to dump Compromat on Trump.

5:11So let's just check the timeline really quick here. February 28th, 2025, Trump hosted Zelensky in the Oval Office in a very high-tension televised meeting. You remember how embarrassingly uncomfortable that was, right? God bless. You don't know that. God bless. God bless. You will not have war. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. I'm not telling you. Because you're in no position to dictate that. Remember this. You're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel. Trump was clearly still in Putin's pocket at that point.

5:44Over the next month, there was some back and forth between Zelensky, Putin and Trump about ceasefires in almost a month until April 24th of 25, when Trump publicly criticized Russia's attacks, telling Putin, stop, 5 ,000 soldiers a week are dying. And that's a quote. And it marks the very first time that Donald Trump had ever called out Vlad the Weasel publicly. And you know what? It upset the weasel bigly. And just six days later, on April 30th, the Ukraine-United States Mineral Resources Agreement was signed, where Ukraine agreed to share half the revenue from most natural resources to a U.S.-Ukraine fund.

6:19In other words, we'll keep shipping you bombs to fight Russia if you pay us and half of your crude exports, basically. I mean, do you think that's how Putin saw it? Because that's how Dmitry Medvedev saw it. Yes, the man whose name sounds like you're talking backwards, Dmitry Medvedev, said after that deal was signed that, quote, Trump has broken the Kyiv regime into paying for American aid with minerals, unquote. Just a few days after that, on June 4th of 25, is Operation Spiderweb, the coordinated Ukrainian drone strike that hit multiple air bases across western and central Russia. It was a big deal, Trump calls Putin.

6:50Putin says they plan to retaliate against Ukraine for the drone attack. And the very next day, June 5th, 2025, Elon Musk decides to tell the world that Donald Trump was on the Epstein list. Tell me the timing of that isn't at least suspicious. Obviously, this is pure speculation, but look at the arc. Months of friendly back channels and deal making that tilt towards Putin's interests, A mineral rev share that makes him angry. Ukrainians strike with Operation Spiderweb on June 4th. And then the very next day, June 5th, Musk drops the PDF file on Trump and then deletes it. I mean, the timing alone demands a few questions.

7:24I mean, who benefits from changing the news cycle then? Was it designed to distract or to pressure? I'm not saying it's proof. I'm just saying the sequence is too interesting to ignore because it almost reads like a screenplay. Let's look at Elon Musk for just a minute. Assuming, of course, that this is all hypothetical. it's no secret that he's been in private contact with Putin and the Kremlin in the past, at least between Starlink and SpaceX. I even see evidence that Russians helped Elon with his purchase of Twitter, never gonna call it X, which raised concern from Congress multiple times. To be fair, Musk also had his own reasons to be upset with Trump at the time, namely that big, not so beautiful spending bill that Trump pushed.

8:00But could there be any other reason to believe that Musk dropped the Twitter Epstein bomb on behalf of Russia? Not much, to be honest. Where did Elon Musk come across this information? Was he simply repeating things he had seen online, or did he have some sort of insider knowledge? He quickly deleted the tweet, but it didn't matter because the damage had already been done. He was Trump's single bestest billionaire buddy one day and sworn enemy the next. And now Trump hasn't been able to control the narrative or the country ever since. This hurt Trump more than anything the left has ever been able to do to him.

8:31And yet, despite all of Trump's talk about how he doesn't forgive his enemies while on stage at the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service, decides to sit down offstage with none other than Elon Musk himself to shake his hand, exchange a few words, and pat him on the arm like an old friend he hadn't missed a beat with. How is that possible for our notoriously petty and vindictive president can sit down and shake the hand of the one person on the planet who has single-handedly caused more political fallout than his worst enemies have ever been capable of? Just think about what damage Musk has been able to cause that Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, James Comey, Robert Mueller, Jack Smith, Fannie Willis, Lolita James, the list goes on.

9:14But none of them were able to inflict as much damage as when Elon Musk tweeted back on June 5th of 2025, quote, Time to drop the really big bomb. Ad real Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, Donald J. Trump, unquote. What's really going on here? Because Trump has lost control of the narrative ever since. Which isn't exactly an easy thing to do with a master manipulator like him. He knows exactly how to get us all thinking and talking about anything other than what we're interested in. But he just can't shake the Epstein scandal.

9:46Which is only hurting the connection he has with his own base because the rest of us gave up on trusting the man about anything years ago. But now at least we get to watch MAGA jump ship one by one as they realize that Donald Trump is in fact a deep state swamp monster. I don't know, either that or get ready to see some Ukraine MAGA flags everywhere you look. Oh, this does mean that liberals and conservatives are on the same page over Ukraine now and that we can at least get along in this space, right? Don't be surprised if the Democrats suddenly begin clutching their pearls and turn on Zelensky and the Ukrainians.

10:17Oh man, I could see Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders now lecturing us all about how we shouldn't get involved in other people's wars all of a sudden. No, I wouldn't be surprised at all, and it is unfortunate that I find the need to remain this cynical all the time, but I absolutely cannot help it. These clowns have us all spinning around like cats trying to chase our own tails while we're constantly being pitted against each other, so we don't form a united front to make sure that people like Donald Trump don't get a hold of the steering wheel because he's bound to drive us off the cliff sooner or later.

10:44And I don't know if Putin was somehow behind getting Musk to say something public about Trump and Epstein, but this has KGB written all over it. They didn't have to release or leak any information themselves in this case, they just had to get the idea out there and let the rest take care of itself when the public inevitably demanded answers. I get it, this would require a highly sophisticated form of intelligence, not only to design, but just the idea that a foreign adversary could implement such an elegant thought weapon should really open anybody's eyes to exactly how susceptible every single one of us are to propaganda in its purest forms.

11:17And make no mistake about it, they are messing with our minds. I mean, everybody from our own government to the Russian government to the Chinese government to Facebook to Google to Twitter to TikTok to Amazon to Microsoft to Apple, BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, News Corp, CNN, Warner Brothers, Discovery, Disney, Comcast, Sinclair, Next Star, NBC Universal, Planeteer, Bill and Melinda Gates, Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, World Economic Forum, Bilderberg Group, Rothschilds, the Carlyle Group. You can take your tinfoil hats off now.

11:46Time to go outside and touch some grass. And until we can do it again, it's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards. Catch you next time. Bye. And we say bye-bye. Newsweek Radio is a member of the Trust Project. It could be that Rush is a paper tiger.