Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world
Elon Musk has lambasted Donald Trump’s signature tax bill as “a disgusting abomination”, in an outburst that threatens to destroy the relationship between the US president and his billionaire backer.
Musk, who abruptly left the Trump administration last week, derided the legislation in posts on X on Tuesday as a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill”.
He added: “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Musk’s aggressive intervention comes at a critical time for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives last month and needs to be approved by the Senate if it is to become law.
Trump has imposed a deadline of July 4 to pass the legislation, which could define his second term and set the course for the US economy. He has heaped pressure on Republican senators who are alarmed about the package, which would slash taxes, reduce social spending and increase the federal debt.
Hours before Musk’s comments on X, Trump attacked Republican Senator Rand Paul, a staunch fiscal conservative who has taken issue with the bill’s provisions to raise the limit on how much the federal government can borrow by $5tn.
“Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming,” Trump said on his Truth Social social media platform on Tuesday morning. “The BBB is a big WINNER!!!”
Other fiscally conservative senators — including Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida — have called for deeper spending cuts in the bill.
Another group of Republican senators — including Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Josh Hawley of Missouri — have criticised the bill’s proposed cuts to Medicaid, a government healthcare scheme for lower-income and disabled Americans.
Trump’s party controls the Senate by a 53-47 margin, meaning the Republicans can only afford to lose the support of three senators if the spending bill is to pass the upper chamber.
Asked about Musk’s comments, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”
But Musk’s intervention is likely to embolden the president’s Republican critics. Paul agreed with Musk, saying on X, “We can and must do better.” Lee replied: “The Senate must make this bill better.”
Musk’s broadside came five days after his high-profile send-off at the Oval Office and escalates his dispute with the White House, which he has criticised over tariff policy and blamed for not fully backing his efforts to cut $1tn from the US budget.
The administration on Tuesday sought to mollify disgruntled supporters of Musk’s cost-cutting task force, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, by presenting Congress with a small slither of cuts the initiative identified — including contracts related to diversity programmes and more than $1bn in funding for NPR and PBS — to be enshrined in law.
Recommended
While the world’s richest man has refrained from criticising the president, whose campaign he backed with more than $250mn last year, he has distanced himself from parts of Trump’s agenda.
He has also indicated he would halt spending on Maga candidates and on Tuesday appeared to call for Republicans to be voted out of office in next year’s midterm elections.
“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” he posted on X.
Musk has said his involvement with the White House has brought “blowback” against his businesses, especially Tesla, whose sales have slumped in Europe.
Last week, he told CBS News he was “stuck in a bind” because he did not want to speak up against Trump but also did not want to “take responsibility for everything this administration’s doing”.
On Tuesday he wrote of Trump’s bill on X: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.”
