Yikes…
Former DOGE head Elon Musk called President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending package a “disgusting abomination,” ramping up his criticism as the Senate is trying to pass the measure and get it signed into law by July 4.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” said Musk, in comments on his X social-media platform. Musk, who left the administration last week, called the package a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.”
Musk’s comments are his latest sharp words about the package, which includes tax cuts as well as reductions to spending on Medicaid and food assistance. Last month he gave new fuel to GOP critics of the Republicans’ multitrillion-dollar agenda, saying that the current measure failed to reduce the federal deficit.
Last month, the House of Representatives voted 215–214 following a turbulent 48 hours that saw late-night committee sessions, procedural skirmishes, and lobbying by House Speaker Mike Johnson to get Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” over the line.
The bill — titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” adopting Trump’s slogan for the measure — extends the tax cuts enacted by the president in 2017; boosts funding for border, deportation, and national defense priorities; imposes reforms, like beefed-up work requirements, on Medicaid that are projected to result in millions of low-income individuals losing health insurance; rolls back green energy tax incentives; and increases the debt limit by $4 trillion, among many other provisions.
It also does away with taxes on tips and overtime — two of Trump’s campaign promises — among other provisions.
The White House defended the President Donald Trump-endorsed “big, beautiful bill” on Tuesday.
Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday when asked about Musk’s social-media post. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”
In May, when Trump was asked about Musk’s criticism of the bill on CBS, he responded, “Well, our reaction’s a lot of things,” before pivoting to talk about the votes needed to support pass the bill.
“Number one, we have to get a lot of votes, we can’t be cutting — we need to get a lot of support and we have a lot of support,” he said. “We had to get it through the House, the House was, we had no Democrats. You know, if it was up to the Democrats, they’ll take the 65 percent increase.”
Trump hosted Musk at a farewell Oval Office news conference last week, where the two men heaped praise on each other, aiming to counter the perceptions that their partnership had frayed.
The bill narrowly passed the House last month by one vote. It is now in the hands of the Senate, which is weighing a number of changes to the bill, including on Medicaid and clean energy.
Hes correct in spending vs CUTs made via DOGE
I had the feeling from the start of the partnership of Trump and Musk that it would end up being a mess. President Trump and Elon Musk are both strong minded that was bound to cause a clash of these strong minds.
For everyone’s sake, I do hope President Trump and Elon Musk can come to terms with their differences. Otherwise, all the work done the last few months will be for naught.