Last week, Elon Musk’s media tour included telling CBS Sunday Morning he was “disappointed” by the Republican domestic policy bill backed by President Trump. Now, the former White House employee is calling it a “disgusting abomination” and claiming that Congress is making America bankrupt in posts on X on Tuesday.
Elon’s problem isn’t the provisions we noted that would strip state legislatures of AI oversight and scale back consumer protection and climate initiatives, while funding increased border surveillance. Instead, he claims, “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.” The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has reported that the bill’s tax provisions would increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion over the next decade.
Despite Musk continuing and threatening that “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” the White House and other Republican political leaders have not shown much regard for his statements. In a briefing Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “…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.”
Democrats had a different response, as ABC News reports that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held up a printout of Musk’s tweets during his press conference following a policy luncheon. Schumer told reporters, “Trump’s buddy says the bill is bad — you can imagine how bad this bill is,” while his counterpart in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, said, “…breaking news: Elon Musk and I agree with each other.”
Politico reports that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told reporters he spoke to Musk on Monday for about 20 minutes regarding the bill, and said, “With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the one big, beautiful bill.” In the Senate, Republican Majority Leader John Thune told reporters, “On this particular issue, we have a difference of opinion,” and that he believes Musk is using outdated data.