AP (“Musk calls Trump’s big tax break bill a ‘disgusting abomination,’ testing his influence over the GOP“):
Elon Musk blasted President Donald Trump’s“big, beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts as a “disgusting abomination” on Tuesday, testing the limits of his political influence as he targeted the centerpiece of Republicans’ legislative agenda.
The broadside, which Musk issued on his social media platform X, came just days after the president gave him a celebratory Oval Office farewell that marked the end of his work for the administration, where he spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted on 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.”
[…]
The tech titan’s missives could cause headaches for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who face conflicting demands from Trump and their party’s wealthiest benefactor.
Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, said “it’s not helpful” to have Musk criticizing the legislation, but he doesn’t expect lawmakers to side with Musk over Trump.
“Senate Republicans are not going to let the tax cuts expire,” Conant said. “It just makes leadership’s job that much harder to wrangle the holdouts.”
Trump can change the outcome in Republican primaries with his endorsements, but Musk doesn’t wield that level of influence, Conant said.
“No matter what Elon Musk or anybody else says — and I don’t want to diminish him because I don’t think that’s fair — it’s still going to be second fiddle to President Trump,” said Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
BBC (“Musk urges Americans to tell lawmakers to ‘kill the bill’“):
Elon Musk hit out at US President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill again on Wednesday, calling on Americans to tell their representatives in Washington to “kill the bill”.
[…]
Musk left the administration abruptly last week after 129 days working to cut costs with his team, known as Doge. The comments mark his first public disagreement with Trump since leaving government, after having previously called the plan “disappointing”.
Soon after Musk’s tweet on Wednesday, the White House sent out a “myth buster” statement, calling any assertion that the bill would lead to higher deficits a “hoax”.
“By every honest metric, President Donald J Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill dramatically improves the fiscal trajectory of the United States and unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth,” the statement reads.
It may well be that Musk genuinely believed that the DOGE effort was about finding waste and getting a bloated budget down to size. The Project 2025 types, though, simply wanted to break the government and punish their enemies. I’m not sure President Trump cares much one way or the other.
