Congressional Republicans are largely shrugging off billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s social media rampage to torpedo the legislative centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s second term known as the “one big, beautiful bill.”
Musk, who departed his post overseeing the president’s Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) cost-cutting efforts Friday, has fired off more than 40 posts on X urging his 200 million-plus followers to contact their representatives to “Kill the Bill.” Musk’s public attacks on Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill appears to be falling on deaf ears among GOP lawmakers who argue that failure to pass the president’s landmark bill is not an option.
“If he was giving me advice on how to raise several billion dollars from other billionaires, I’d listen,” Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer told reporters Wednesday. “But he doesn’t govern. To be honest Elon is not just that big of a factor.”
The House-passed budget bill is now under consideration in the Senate where Senate GOP leadership is racing to meet a July 4 deadline to pass the tax and spending package and assuage deficit-concerned holdouts threatening to tank the package.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has asked Congress to send the “big, beautiful” bill to the president’s desk for signature by mid-July to avoid a default on the government’s debt. The House product included a $4 trillion hike in the debt ceiling, which Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to oppose in the Senate-amended version to the White House’s ire.
Musk has launched a similar critique of the legislation’s inclusion of a debt ceiling hike, characterizing Trump’s spending as akin to “debt slavery.” Multiple reports suggest the former DOGE head’s real motivation for going to war against the House-drafted bill stems from his anger that the legislation proposes to nix electric vehicle tax credits that are important to Tesla’s future profits and in light of the president’s decision to withdraw the nomination of a Musk ally to run NASA.
“I know that the EV mandates [is] very important to him,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday. “That is going away because the government should not be subsidizing these things as part of the Green New Deal. I know that has an effect on his business. And I lament that.”
Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, one of two House Republicans who opposed the bill who is advocating for complete rewrite of the legislation, criticized Johnson’s suggestion about the billionaires opposition as “insincere” on X.
However, Musk and GOP skeptics’ appeals to go back to the drawing board will likely fall short in convincing most GOP lawmakers, even fiscal hawks, to halt the momentum in passing the legislation incorporating vast swathes of the president’s agenda.
“I don’t think it goes far enough,” Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy told reporters Wednesday. “I thought that at the time [I voted for it] — I was public in saying that. You go to war with the army you got and this is the Congress we have.”
“The bond markets are telling everybody this doesn’t do well enough,” Roy added. “I don’t know what else they need to see. Everybody’s screaming guys this is not working. We need more spending restraint.”
Republican Texas Rep. Troy Nehls also dismissed concern that Musk’s public broadside would derail the process as just “noise” and “chatter,” and argued the bill would be on the president’s desk by July 4.
“When you look at the bill and all the good things in it, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak,” Nehls told reporters Wednesday.
Republican South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, a deficit hawk who declined to criticize Musk’s tweet storm, voiced optimism that the former DOGE chief’s comments about the bill’s projected multi-trillion increase in budget deficits would lead the Senate to make it more fiscally responsible.
“I actually think he’ll help with senators and others who now know that it’s not perfect from a deficit standpoint,” Norman said.
Congressional GOP leadership and Trump administration officials have disputed the president’s landmark bill would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over ten years, arguing that extending current tax rates has zero deficit impact. Additionally, the House-drafted bill proposes to cut $1.6 trillion over a decade.
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