Fake Trump post on Musk's drug use spreads amid blowup

"Elon Musk or 'Mediocre Musk' is constantly high on ketamine. Always making promises he can't keep. NOT TO BE TRUSTED! He wants to go to Mars, how about you go back to Africa," reads the alleged post from Trump, timestamped to June 5, 2025 at 6:07 pm (2207 GMT).

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Screenshot from X taken June 6, 2025

The image rocketed across platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram and Threads as the US leader and world's richest man traded barbs in what began as a dispute over the "big, beautiful" spending bill before Congress.

The pair hurled insults at each other online after Trump expressed disappointment in his top donor's criticism of the legislation, with Trump threatening to strip Musk of his huge government contracts and Musk claiming credit for the Republican's 2024 election victory. At one point, Musk alleged that the president was referenced in government documents on the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial for sex crimes. 

The fallout came days after the New York Times reported that Musk used so much of the powerful anesthetic ketamine while on the 2024 campaign trail that he developed bladder problems -- a charge Musk has denied.

But a review of live and archived versions of Trump's Truth Social feed reveals he did not invoke ketamine in his attacks on Musk.

"That is fake," the White House said of the purported screenshot circulating online, in a June 6, 2025 email to AFP.

The president did not post during the 6 pm (2200 GMT) hour on June 5. Two hours earlier, he championed his bill and wrote: "I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago" (archived here).

His next post, after 10:30 pm (0230 GMT), shared a link to a Newsmax article about his approval ratings (archived here).

Keyword searches returned no credible news articles referencing the alleged post.

AFP has debunked several fake Truth Social posts erroneously attributed to Trump. 

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation about US politics here.