Congressional Republicans faced their latest curveball Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda when Elon Musk abruptly blasted Trump’s tax and spending legislation as a “disgusting abomination” for adding to the deficit.
Musk’s takedown of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” offered a Freaky Friday moment for Republicans and Democrats, who suddenly swapped places.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) labeled Musk’s take as “terribly wrong” and “very surprising,” based on recent conversations the two had. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) expressed optimism Musk would “come to a different conclusion” once he had “an opportunity to further assess what this bill actually does.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sang Musk’s praise while bearing a printout of his social media posts trashing the proposal designed to be the heart of Trump’s legislative agenda on taxes, the border, and energy.
“I agree with Elon Musk,” Schumer said. “He’s right. Republicans should listen to him.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) piled on: “Breaking news: Elon Musk and I agree with each other.”
Musk, who departed his special government role leading the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts in the Department of Government Efficiency just last week, laid into the bill and its GOP supporters for propping up legislation projected to add trillions of dollars to the national debt and raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion to avoid a summertime default.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk said on his social media platform X. “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.”
He later followed up, “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
Despite the seething review and his influence with Trump, GOP senators said Musk would unlikely jeopardize the bill’s fate with Republicans in the upper chamber or affect changes senators are making to the House-passed version.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said Musk was “entitled to his opinion” and responded with a curt “no” when asked if it might turn colleagues against the measure.
Johnson seemed to connect the bill rolling back federal tax credits for electric vehicles to Musk’s bottom line at Tesla.
“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 will admit that,” Johnson said. “For him to come out and pan the whole bill is, to me, just very disappointing, very surprising based on the conversation I had with him yesterday.”
Even fiscal hawks who vehemently opposed the legislation did not appear to be holding their breath that Musk would start a revolt.
“I’m just hoping the White House, our leadership, is noticing what the bond market is telling us, what [JPMorgan Chase CEO] Jamie Dimon is saying, what Elon Musk is saying,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said. “Maybe even listen to me a little bit. [I’m] not holding my breath on that one.”
WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS TRUMP’S TAX BILL THAT MUSK BLASTS AS ‘DISGUSTING ABOMINATION’
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) suggested there was little that could convince leadership or Trump to make drastic alterations to satisfy those such as him and Ron Johnson, short of two more GOP senators threatening to deny it the necessary support to pass.
“The president will negotiate if he needs to,” Paul said. “He won’t if he doesn’t need to.”