Elon Musk sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” incorporating vast swathes of his legislative agenda as “disgusting abomination” in a tweet posted to X on Tuesday.
Musk, who recently departed Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and contributed more than $200 million in support of the president’s reelection effort, slammed House Republicans for passing the president’s landmark bill in May. The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s public tirade comes as congressional Republicans are racing to hand the sweeping tax and spending bill to the president for signature by July 4.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk, who previously voiced concern that the bill increases budget deficits, wrote. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Just two House Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio — voted against the bill. Massie, who has argued the legislation is “a debt bomb ticking,” wrote on X that Musk’s views are “right.”
The bill notably includes historic investments in border security funding, an extension of the president’s 2017 tax cuts that will avert a $4.5 trillion tax increase on the majority of Americans and provisions that eliminate taxes on tipped wages and overtime pay for certain individuals. Trump has characterized the legislation as a “historic opportunity to turn our country around after four disastrous years under [former President] Joe Biden.”
Musk previously criticized a GOP-backed spending bill in December for including alleged wasteful spending, dubbing it a “criminal bill.” Musk’s criticism led to that bill’s demise and a slimmed-down version ultimately cleared both chambers.
Musk specifically excoriated the bill for adding $2.5 trillion to budget deficits and burdening Americans with “crushingly unsustainable debt.”
Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of several deficit-concerned Republicans who are opposed to the House-drafted bill, agreed with Musk’s critique of the president’s tax and spending package.
“We have both seen the massive waste in government spending and we know another $5 trillion in debt is a huge mistake,” Paul wrote in a reply to Musk’s post. “We can and must do better.”
The president gave Paul a tongue-lashing earlier Tuesday in a series of posts to Truth Social excoriating the Kentucky Republican for refusing to vote against the bill, citing its inclusion of at least a $4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling.
“Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”
Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, another senator pledging to vote against the bill unless more aggressive spending cuts are incorporated, also voiced support for Musk’s position.
“The Senate can make this bill better,” Lee wrote on his personal X account. “It must do so now.”
Though Musk exerted considerable influence over the administration’s cost-cutting efforts thus far, his public criticism of the president’s landmark bill could land on deaf ears among a majority of GOP senators.
Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville pointed out to the Daily Caller News Foundation that Musk does not get to vote on the bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson described Musk’s tweet storm as “very disappointing” to reporters Tuesday afternoon and suggested that his opposition may stem from the bill effectively rescinding tax breaks for electric vehicles (EVs).
“With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the ‘one, big beautiful’ bill,’” Johnson told reporters. “I know the EV mandate’s very important to him. That is going away because the government should not be subsidizing these things as part of the Green New Deal.”
The speaker also defended the substance of the legislation, arguing it “is the key to the economic resurgence in America.”
“We’re making permanent a massive tax cut and we are making a massive reduction in spending — $1.6 trillion is the calculation,” Johnson said. “I’ve said this many times, I’ll be saying it until we get this thing over the line. This is the most amount of money that any government has ever saved on planet Earth in a piece of legislation ever.”
Johnson also told reporters that Musk previously said the legislation is “a very important first start” in a phone call with the speaker.
The House speaker and Trump administration officials have denied the bill increases budget deficits and will add to the $37 trillion national debt, citing scorekeepers’ failures to use dynamic scoring which assumes a higher level of economic growth.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune attributed Musk’s “difference of opinion” to the fact that the former DOGE head is accepting congressional scorekeepers’ projects that the president’s budget bill will increase budget deficits.
“You couple the growth with the biggest spending reduction in American history and you will see a reduction, not an increase, in the deficit,” Thune told reporters Tuesday during a Senate GOP leadership press conference. “He’s [Musk] entitled to that opinion. We’re going to proceed full speed ahead.”
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us. We know that none of this is easy,” Thune added. “At the end of the day, failure is not an option.”
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
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